Hoosiers to compete in Irish Creek Collegiate for the first time

The IU men’s golf team enters the final stretch of its season this Friday and Saturday in Kannapolis, N.C. when the team competes in the Irish Creek Collegiate.

With less than a month and only three more events until the Big Ten Championship, IU Coach Mike Mayer said the Hoosiers are coming down the home stretch of their season and focusing on the tournament ahead of them.

“It’s one week at a time for them,” Mayer said. “I’ve thought about it though and I think we’re ready for this stretch. There was some intent when I scheduled it this way. We’ll see a tough field this weekend, but I think we’re ready for it.”

Mayer said this will be the first time his team has played in this tournament at Irish Creek, so he went with a more experienced lineup than IU’s last match.

In the Talis Park Challenge on March 16-17, IU’s top five was made up of three freshmen, a sophomore and a senior.

This weekend, senior David Mills, sophomore Max Kollin, freshman Will Seger and juniors Nicholas Grubnich and Andrew Fogg will combine for IU’s team score.

Mills said he feels he bounced back from some early-Spring struggles at Talis Park and feels capable of winning the tournament.

“Always, the goal is to win,” Mills said. “I just have to do my best and hopefully that’s good enough for a victory.”

Mayer said Mills’ performance will be a key to how well the Hoosiers do for this weekend and the rest of the season. The senior leads the team in average, rounds of 75 and below and most other statistical categories, but struggled at times earlier this spring.

“We need David Mills,” Mayer said. “I think he has been distracted by this being his senior year. He knows he has to carry the team and he is capable of it, but to do that, he’s gonna have to really narrow his focus.”

Seger is another key for the Hoosiers who said he feels confident in his swing at this point in the year.

“I just need to hit some greens and I know some putts will go in,” Seger said. “I’m hoping to get a couple good rounds going for the team and try to compete for a title. We haven’t had one this year and for us to play well would give us some good momentum heading down this last part of the year.”

While most of IU’s golfers have had great individual tournaments at some point this spring, they haven’t happened at the same time. Mayer said the work the team has put in since its last time out has been a “huge success” and the team is much better now than they were at Talis Park.

“This group has a better chance to be on the same page than others,” Mayer said. “What we have to do is take care of our business and not worry about anyone else. If we get all these guys on the same page, we’ll be hard to beat.”