Indiana men’s golf finished 15th among 16 teams at the Quail Valley Collegiate Invitational, played Oct. 19-20, in Vero Beach, Florida.
Redshirt senior Clay Merchent, juniors Alec Cesare and Nick Piesen and sophomores Bradley Chill Jr. and Taneesh Sirvolu represented the Hoosiers in Vero Beach. Indiana sent a new lineup for the first time this season, with Sirvolu replacing Junior Cole Starnes, who represented the Hoosiers at every event this season.
The first two rounds took place Sunday. Indiana finished its first round tied for 12th place, with a 2-under-par score. Chill Jr. was Indiana’s top performer in round one, finishing 3 strokes under par, by way of the Hoosiers’ lone eagle of the event.
Top-ranked Northwestern finished round one at the top of the scoreboard, shooting 15 under par, followed closely by University of Memphis, who finished the round 14 under.
The Hoosiers played their best golf in round two; an 8-under-par score allowed Indiana to catapult into ninth place at the conclusion of the first day. Merchent’s second round score of 5-under-par was tied for fifth best of the round.
Minnesota finished day one 25 under par, good enough to slide into first place. Northwestern and the University of Kansas ended round two tied for second place, both trailing by a single stroke.
Round three of the invitational took place Monday morning. The Hoosiers were unable to ride the momentum of round two, and shot 6 over par in round three, dropping to 15th place by the end of the event. Chill Jr. was the only Hoosier who played sub-par golf in round three, shooting 1 under par for the round.
Chill Jr. concluded the third round as Indiana’s top finisher for the event, finishing 24th individually, with a 4-under-par accumulative score of 212.
Minnesota was unable to maintain its lead, and shot an uncharacteristic 5-over-par in its final round, leaving Florida as fifth-place finishers. Memphis left the event in first place, climbing four spots in the third round, and finishing with a final score of 28 under par.
Memphis junior Yixiang Wang, the Tigers’ top performer, earned a 13-under-par score of 203, and a second-place finish.
So far this season, Indiana has a single top-five finish, a third-place finish in the Rod Myers Invitational, the Hoosiers’ first event of the season. Ever since that point, Indiana has finished ninth or worse in every event.
The Hoosiers will conclude their fall season at the Ka’annapali Classic Collegiate in Maui, Hawaii from Oct. 27-29, before resuming play in February.
