Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Southern Illinois University
Boilermaker Invitational
Men's Golf finishes 14th at Boilermaker Invitational
04/19/2015 | 12:00:00 | Men's Golf
By Tom Weber
SIUSalukis.com
The Southern Illinois University men's golf team finished in 14th place out of 15 teams at Purdue's Boilermaker Invitational on Sunday.
No. 3-ranked Illinois ran away with the tournament title at the Kampen Course in West Lafayette, Ind., by shooting 35-under par as a team. Louisville, at 3-under, was the only other team to shoot below par. After playing at Ohio State last week, it was Southern's second-straight tournament against a field made up mostly of top 100 programs.
"We want to transition this program and let people know you can come here and play top competition," said SIU head coach Justin Fetcho. "Our whole plan was to see two really hard golf courses and see a very talented field from top to bottom. I believe the conference championship course will be set up difficult and it won't be a culture shock when we see a demanding golf course."
The Salukis were 40-over par and bested Ball State by 17 strokes, and Fetcho said his team could have finished higher had it not faltered toward the end of today's round.
"We were plus-3 after 10-12 holes and putting together another very solid round," he said. "The last 5-6 holes, the rain was coming down a bit more steady and the course was playing a little bit tougher. For whatever reason, we weren't mentally tough enough to handle that. We played the last six holes 18-19 over as a group."
Playing one of the nation's toughest courses for a second-straight week, SIU's top finishers were Wade Thompson and Drew Novara, who both tied for 36th place out of 81 golfers at 7-over par. Andrew Mitchell tied for 47th place, but matched Thompson by shooting a 72 in the second round for the team's lowest 18-hole score.
"There's a little bit of a shell-shock, and you come out a little bit on edge about the golf course, and then we put together some good quality rounds," Fetcho said. "We're starting to hit a groove and they see they can play this style of golf course."
The tournament was Southern's final tuneup before the annual MVC Championship, which will be played at Sunrise Beach, Mo. on April 27-28.
"We're putting some of our best golf here at the end of the season," Fetcho said. "If you look at the big picture from where we were in August, we're a much more complete team and better team. i couldn't be more confident in this group of guys, seeing that we can piece good rounds together against teams in the top 50."
SIU Scoring
T 36 Wade Thompson 72 74 77 223 +7
T 36 Drew Novara 74 73 76 223 +7
T 47 Andrew Mitchell 79 72 75 226 +10
T 68 Steven Souchek 76 75 81 232 +16
81 Brady Brown 79 81 87 247 +31
Team Scoring
1 Illinois 276 268 285 829 -35
2 Louisville 280 281 300 861 -3
3 Northwestern 292 284 293 869 +5
4 Ohio State 281 294 296 871 +7
5 Indiana 288 293 295 876 +12
6 NIU 293 286 301 880 +16
7 Toledo 292 293 298 883 +19
GRU Augusta 284 290 309 883 +19
Miami (OH) 293 298 292 883 +19
10 Wisconsin 296 291 300 887 +23
11 Cincinnati 292 293 304 889 +25
12 Kent State 298 291 301 890 +26
Purdue 291 292 307 890 +26
14 Southern Illinois 301 294 309 904 +40
15 Ball State 296 313 312 921 +57
Players Mentioned
