MVC Championships Up Next for Men's Golf

Monday, April 26

Flossmoor, Ill.

Southern Illinois University

Missouri Valley Conference Championships

04/25/2021 | 7:15:00 | Men's Golf

Live Scoring Championship Central

By: Brandon Lindholm, SIUSalukis.com

CARBONDALE, Ill. – The Southern Illinois University men's golf program is set to play in the Missouri Valley Conference Championships, hosted at the Flossmoor Golf Club in Flossmoor, Ill. The two-day tournament is scheduled for April 26-27.

The par-72, 7,070-yard course will see teams play 36 holes on Monday before concluding with the final 18 holes on Tuesday. Monday's shotgun start will begin at 9 a.m. CT (weather permitting), while Tuesday's final round is set to tee off at 8:30 a.m. with staggered tee times. The MVC's 54-hole tournament champion will advance to the NCAA regionals. The NCAA Championships, played at the Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz., will begin on May 28 with play concluding on June 2.

On Friday, the league office released the MVC pre-championship poll, to which the Salukis were picked to finish second. Illinois State was the unanimous favorite to win the conference tournament, with Valparaiso picked to finish third.

The Salukis will send a five-man lineup consisting of Matthis Besard, Justin Wingerter, Tom Cleaton, Birgir Magnusson and Markus Wilhelmsen. Besard and Wingerter both lead the team with a stroke average of 73.28, while Cleaton is second at 74.17.

Live scoring of the tournament can be found on GolfStat.com. To view the MVC championship central, click here.

Competing Teams (GolfStat Ranking)

Illinois State (114)
Southern Illinois (169)
Valparaiso (178)
Missouri State (204)
Loyola Chicago (220)
Drake (225)
Evansville (236)
Northern Iowa (251)
Bradley (259)

2019 Review (2020 MVC Championship was canceled due to the pandemic)
For the second time in school history, Southern Illinois earned the Missouri Valley Conference men's golf crown. The Salukis' four counting scores on Tuesday fired a 12-under on the back nine to capture a 10-stroke victory over second-place Illinois State. The MVC Men's Golf Championship was played at the par-72, 7,060-yard layout at the The Club at Porto Cima in Sunrise Beach, Mo.

Southern Illinois represented the MVC in the NCAA Regionals after firing a 291-287-281=859 to outdistance pre-championship favorite Illinois State (285-292-292=869). Missouri State was 15 strokes behind Illinois State at 884, followed by Bradley (894), Valparaiso (902), UNI (918), Drake (921), Loyola (922) and Evansville (937). Illinois State, with its second-place finish, earned a top four finish at the league championship for the fourth-straight year. Southern Illinois, meanwhile, won its only other league title in 2016.

The championship featured a playoff for medalist honors as David Rauer of Illinois State scored a four on the first playoff hole (hole 18) to earn the win. Missouri State's Kory Franks carded a five on the hole. Both individuals shot identical scores of 212 (four under par) to tie after 54 holes. Following the completion of the round, however, there was a one-hour, 35-minute delay after a lightning strike in the area. After the delay, the two battled out the sudden-death tiebreaker in a downpour.

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