After a few weeks away from the course, the Indiana men’s golf team will compete in its lone tournament in March at the Colleton River Collegiate. The event will take place at the Colleton River Club in Bluffton, South Carolina, which is home to the Jack Nicklaus Course.
“I think the weather there will be just fine,” head coach Mike Mayer said. “It’s another challenging golf course, because the wind does blow there as well, hopefully not as hard as we had in the Bahamas.”
Indiana comes into the tournament ranked at No. 41 in the latest GolfWeek collegiate rankings, having last played in the Nexus Collegiate on February 14-16, where the team finished in seventh place.
There are four teams ranked inside the top-45 competing in the upcoming 14-team tournament. Indiana is one of those teams, along with No. 26 University of South Florida, host No. 28 Michigan State, and No. 36 Ohio State. There are six Big Ten teams competing at the Colleton River Collegiate.
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Mayer spoke about the competition and how it might play to their advantage. He pointed out Indiana beat two of the teams in this competition — Penn State and Michigan State — en route to its Big Ten Match Play Championship title.
“It’s a solid field, more of a Big Ten-flavored field, which is good,” Mayer said.
Despite this, Mayer said he is worried winning that event may have had a negative impact on the Hoosiers. Mayer also said he wants to see the hunger they had in the fall return to their play in the spring.
“Maybe winning the Big Ten Championship takes the humbleness away from you and the hunger,” Mayer said. “You are pretty well satiated when you win a tournament like that.”
Indiana will play 54 holes in the span of two days. 36 holes will be played Monday, and the final 18 will be staged Tuesday. Indiana will be paired with Ohio State and University of Memphis on Monday. The first round tees off at 8:15 a.m., and the final round will begin at 7:45 a.m. Tuesday.
