After two days, the arduous task of winning the national championship is becoming clearer and clearer for the men’s Illinois golf team.
Coming into the national championship, the Illini had been playing some of the best golf of the season. Finishing second at the NCAA Regional and preceding that with three straight tournament wins, including a Big Ten Championship, is an impressive run.
Now Mike Small and his Illinois crew are looking to do something that hasn’t been done before by this program; win a national championship.
The men’s Illinois golf team has started on the right track to take home the national championship
Day one of the national championship wasn’t the best for the Orange and Blue. We went out and shot a team score of +5, 285, which had us sitting in a tie for ninth place. With the top 15 getting through to the fourth round, Illinois needed to do some solid work in the days following.
On Saturday, in the second round, the Illini took care of business. We went out there and shot an insane, and I mean insane, -7, 273, to take a three-shot lead in the stroke play portion of the national title.
Illinois is now heading into the third round which, once concluded, the NCAA will cut the field down to 15 teams for round four of the stroke play portion tomorrow. After Monday’s final stroke play round, then the field will be cut down to eight teams, which will then compete in the match play portion on Tuesday and Wednesday for the coveted national championship.
Opinion
As of right now, Illinois is sitting in a great position. We are pretty much set to make it to the fourth round of stroke play. The Illini are 18 shots clear of the top 15.
Honestly, with a decent round today, I think Illinois is pretty clear to make the match play portion. We are currently 13 shots clear to make the top eight. As long as we don’t blow up on Sunday or Monday, we should be good to go for Tuesday’s match play.
Also, keep an eye out for Adrien Dumont de Chassart for the individual national championship. He currently sits in third and is just three strokes back. It would be cool to see a team and individual take home the crown this year.