Illinois Golf: Mike Small’s Illini bunch laced with talent and experience

While normalcy is starting to creep back into society, the Illinois golf team is starting to gear up for their spring season.

Anyone who follows Illinois golf has been rooting for former players throughout the past few months. Last week, Nick Hardy advance past the Monday qualifier and got a chance to play in the Waste Management Phoenix Open.

A 68 in the first round and a 67 on day two moved Hardy into the weekend. He would eventually finish the tournament with a solid score of -8, which was good enough for a tie for 42nd place. But while it is fun to root on former Illinois golfers, we are starting to see the current squad hitting the course once again.

After a fall season that was canceled due to COVID-19, the Illini find themselves entering their spring season with a little national notoriety. Illinois starts the spring ranked No. 25 in the nation, which is the highest-ranked Big Ten program.

Illinois has already starting to tee the ball up as well. This past weekend, in a warm-up type of Ryder Cup-style event, the Illini took on Illinois State. The Fighting Illini came away with the win 9-7, as Michael Feagles, Brendan O’Reilly and Jerry Ji all finished the event 2-0.

But now the real season starts for the Orange and Blue.

This weekend, the Illini tee it up at the Mobile Bay Intercollegiate down in Mobile, Alabama. This is their first real tournament of the season, but Mobile is a familiar spot for Illinois.

In February of 2020, Illinois played in the Mobile Sports Authority Intercollegiate – different sponsor but same tournament – and did pretty well. The then-No. 45 ranked Illini shot a three-round total of -27 to finish one shot out of first place. Taking home second in an early spring tournament is not a terrible result.

Illinois also managed to finish ahead of No. 14 Louisville and No. 43 UAB in that tournament. All five Illini starters in the Mobile last season finished under par, and guess what, they are all running it back this year.

The experience Illinois brings to the table is invaluable. I feel like Feagles and Giovanni Tadiotto have been around forever, and are both graduate students. O’Reilly (SR), Adrien Dumont de Chassart (JR), Tommy Kuhl (JR) and Noah Gillard (JR) have all been mainstays on this Illinois roster throughout the last three years as well.

With the experience and talent Mike Small has on the roster this season, there is no telling how far the Illini can go come the postseason. Don’t be shocked if we are a top 10 team entering the Big Ten Tournament.