Indiana men’s golf finished ninth at the Windon Memorial Classic on Monday and Tuesday in Lake Forest, Illinois.
The Hoosiers entered the event ranked 72nd in the country. All 16 teams that competed were ranked in the top 200, with nine in the top 50. Additionally, seven Big Ten teams competed. In the field alongside Indiana was Illinois, Northwestern, Michigan State, Purdue, Minnesota and Ohio State.
Redshirt senior Clay Merchent, juniors Alec Cesare, Nick Piesen, and Cole Starnes, and sophomore Bradley Chill Jr. represented the Hoosiers in Lake Forest. While teams were able to bring five representatives, the top four finishers from each would be the only scores counted. Indiana sophomore Taneesh Sirivolu participated independently.
The first two rounds took place Monday morning, and the Hoosiers jumped out to a hot start. Indiana ended the first round in a tie for first place with Illinois, with a 13-under-par score of 275. Merchent led the way, shooting 5 under par in his first 18 holes, which included six birdies and a lone bogey. Four out of five Hoosiers ended their first rounds with scores sub-par.
Indiana dropped five spots on the leaderboard after the second round. The Hoosiers ended round two in sixth place, with a score 15 under par. Illinois, Michigan State, the University of Notre Dame, Marquette University and the University of Kansas all shot double digits under par. Chill Jr. was Indiana’s top performer in round two, salvaging the Hoosiers’ score with a 3-under-par round, that included six birdies and three bogeys.
The third round was Indiana’s worst, resulting in the Hoosiers falling to ninth place at the conclusion of the second day. Indiana’s last round contained a single sub-par score, courtesy of Chill Jr., who shot 3 under par to total 8 under overall. The performance was good enough for a sixth-place individual finish. Starnes also finished subpar, with a 3-under-par score, placing 21st.
Illinois won the classic, finishing its three rounds with scores of 13 under, 11 under and 12 under. Its final score of 36 under was six strokes better than second place University of New Mexico. All five Illinois golfers finished subpar.
Indiana will continue its season from Oct. 6-7 at the Fighting Irish Classic in Notre Dame, Indiana.
