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NORMAL, Ill. – Coming off the program’s second MVC Championship over the last three seasons, the Illinois State men’s golf team has announced its 2025-26 schedule, highlighted by traveling to three tournaments hosted by schools in power conferences.
The season opens on August 31 at the two-day Island Resort Intercollegiate, a tournament that ISU has competed – and succeeded – in over the previous three seasons, including winning the event to open the 2022-23 season.
The second week of the season sends ISU to a tournament it hadn’t competed in since the 2021-22 season, as the Redbirds travel to Fort Collins, Colorado to compete in the Ram Masters Invitational. Hosted at Fort Collins Country Club, ISU has played in this tournament six previous times, with the best finish coming when the Birds were runner-up during the 2018-19 season.
Another long-standing tournament for the Redbirds comes in late September (22-23) at the Badger Invitational. This season will be the tenth season that ISU has competed at the tournament, played for the first time this season at TPC Wisconsin. Illinois State won the event in its first appearance at the event during 2021-22 while finishing as the runner-up in 2023-24 and in third place in 2022-23.
Also competing in a tournament for the fifth time, ISU will travel to West Lafayette, Indiana, to compete at the Purdue Fall Invitational. Played on October 13-14 at the Kampen-Cosler Course, the Redbirds were the runner-up during the 2023-24 season.
The fall season ends on October 20-21 when the Birds hit the road to Kettering, Ohio, to compete in the Dayton Invitational, hosted at NCR Country Club. This is the fifth time ISU has competed at the tournament, and the first time since 2023-24.
The spring season opens with four tournaments that are repeats from the year before for the Redbirds, opening with the Border Olympics hosted at Laredo Country Club in Laredo, Texas on February 16-17. During the 2023-24 season the Redbirds won the event with a school-record tournament score of 832 (-32), four strokes lower than the previous school record.
A week later the squad travels to Dorado, Puerto Rico, to compete in the Dorado Beach Collegiate, a tournament that the Redbirds have competed in each of the two previous seasons, finishing 22 stokes under par through 36 holes in 2023-24 and 20 strokes under par through 54 holes last season.
Another long-standing tournament follows two weeks later at the Louisiana Classics Invitational, hosted at Oakbourne County Club on March 9-10. This season marks the ninth time that the Redbirds have competed in the yearly tournament.
At the end of March – the 30th and 31st – ISU will travel to the Home of the Blues for the second straight year to compete in the Memphis Intercollegiate, hosted by the University of Memphis at Colonial Country Club.
For the first time since the 2020-21 season ISU will compete in the Missouri Tiger Invitational, hosted at The Club at Old Hawthorne on April 6-7. Of the four previous appearances at the tournament, ISU’s best finish came during the 2020-21 season when the team finished third overall.
A one-day tournament hosted by Miami (Ohio) is the final pre-MVC Championship tournament on April 20. The tournament – the Muirfield Shootout – is hosted at the Country Club of Muirfield in Dublin, Ohio.
The following week the Redbirds will get their chance to defend their 2025 MVC Championship title, as the team travels to Waterloo, Illinois, to compete in the championship hosted at Annbriar Golf Club.
