Hoosiers to host two-day tournament

On a weekend during which the country’s golf fans are focused on the Master’s Golf Tournament, the IU men’s golf team won’t be idle. The Hoosiers will be host to the NYX Hoosier Invitational this weekend on the IU Championship Golf Course.

IU won the tournament last year and will attempt to defend its title with two rounds Saturday and a final round the next day.

IU Coach Mike Mayer’s teams have won a tournament in every season since the 2003-04 campaign. The Hoosiers have yet to take a title this year, but Mayer said this is a tournament they can expect to win.

“It’s a little better field than last year,” he said. “But this is our home turf, our home ground. If we play the way we are capable of playing, I think we will win again.”

IU junior Andrew Fogg said it’s important to the team to keep Mayer’s streak alive.

“We need to at least win our home tournament,” Fogg said. “I think this tournament sets up really well for us to win. If we go out there and play well, we should be able to come away with a trophy.”

Fogg won the individual title at this tournament while competing as an individual last year by posting a career-best 208. He cracked the top five for this year’s tournament, so his rounds will contribute to the team’s score.

“Regardless of whether I’m in there, I’m just going to go out there and do what I did last year,” Fogg said. “Last year it kind of propelled me for the rest of the year and in to the postseason.”

Each Hoosier golfer will compete this weekend. Five of them will contribute to the team score while the other three will play as individuals.

IU’s top five will be senior David Mills, sophomore Max Kollin, freshman Will Seger, junior Nicholas Grubnich and junior Andrew Fogg.

Those golfers also competed last week at the Irish Creek Collegiate in Kannapolis, N.C. As a team, the Hoosiers improved each round, moving up on teams after the second and final rounds of the tournament.

“It’s been a long spring and a tough spring weather-wise but I see this team getting a little better and a little better,” Mayer said. “And obviously we want to peak at the right time and that’s the Big Ten Championship.”

He said he positioned this tournament at this point in the schedule with purpose. It gives IU an opportunity to win a tournament near the end of the year with the postseason bearing down on them.

“It’s moving back to the Midwest too,” Mayer said. “We’ve been south, we’ve been west, but at the end of the schedule here, we move back closer to home. And I think that’s going to help us compete because I want this one as bad as I’ve wanted anything.”