Another tournament is in the books and another impressive showing by the Illinois golf team.
Illinois was fresh off a first-place finish at the Mobile Bay Intercollegiate where they tore through the field and won by 17 shots. This was a great warmup event for the now-ranked No. 6 Illini bunch.
After taking home the title at the Mobile Bay, Illinois entered the LSU Invitational this past weekend, an event that fielded 15 programs and 10 of which were ranked nationally.
Illinois, the highest-ranked team at No. 6, showed why they are one of the best teams in the country. A 293, 289 and 294 for a three-day total of 876 gave the Orange and Blue a two-shot victory over the second-place finisher, Vanderbilt.
The Illini finished +12 for the tournament, which is a pretty good score considering how tough The University Club was playing for the golfers. Despite Illinois taking home the team title, the individual title went to Mississippi’s Jackson Suber, who shot a three-day total of -5.
Michael Feagles, Illinois’ No. 1 golf and the No. 1 ranked golfer in the nation, finished a solid tie for fourth place at +2. How did Illinois end up winning the event with their best golfer finishing in fourth?
Depth.
I have mentioned how deep Illinois is this season. All five starters for the Illini finished in the top 33. Following Feagles’ top-five finish, Adrien Dumont de Chassart came in a tie for seventh place with a score of +3. Jerry Ji shot +5 for the tournament and finished in a tie for 15th. Tommy Kuhl and Giovanni Tadiotto rounded out the five Illini golfers with each player shooting +8, which was a tie for 33rd.
Illinois has so much talent on the team this season. They just went into a tournament that sported 10 ranked teams and took home the title. This has been an impressive start to the spring season.
Next up is the Louisiana Classics on March 15-16. This was the first tournament canceled this past season due to COVID-19. Look for Illinois to continue their strong march toward the Big Ten Tournament and into the NCAA Regional.