Junior Kyle Hosick fired three rounds of 75 or less at the Inverness Intercollegiate Invitational on Monday and Tuesday and finished in the top-10 for individual scores, as the Illini men’s golf team opened its season.

Unfortunately, Hosick was the only player among the top 20 for the Illini – who struggled in their first tournament of the year.

Illinois opened its season in Toledo, Ohio on Monday, playing the first two rounds of the Inverness.

The Illini opened up with a disappointing first round score of 306, the third worst team score for the round.

“The first round was not what we expected,” Hosick said. “We got off to a rough start. A lot of it had to do with some nerves; we had a freshman in our starting five and we are still a very young team. A lot of us have only played five or six college events before this one.”

The Illini returned to form for the second round as they came out and shot a 293 as a team, including Hosick’s even par 71, and sophomore Frank Alafoginis’ 72.

“It felt good to shoot so well because it was the first tournament. That round jump started our season, we got to show everyone that we can play with the best,” Alafoginis said.

The Illini took to the course for the final round Sunday, ready to make a run at Inverness, but they just couldn’t pull it together, as the team shot a mediocre 300 on the final day.

Illinois finished with a team score of 899 for the tournament, one better than they posted at Inverness last season. Their score was good enough for seventh place.

“We would have liked to have finished in the top three,” Hosick said. “If we would have played well in the opening or the final round we would have done that, unfortunately we struggled a little bit.”

Seventh place sounded a lot better on Sunday to Hosick than it did to the rest of the team, as he placed seventh overall in individual score.

Hosick shot an opening round 75 followed by an even par 71, and a 73 for the final two rounds giving him an individual score of 219 (six-over-par for the tournament).

“I played really well for about eight to ten holes each round,” Hosick said. “I stayed focused well and kept my game in perspective.”

On the first day, Hosick was one under par about halfway though the round and then dropped five shots to finish with his 75. Hosick was also two under with two holes to play on the second round, but bogeyed the final two holes to finish with even par.

“If I would have finished my rounds strong I could have won this tournament,” Hosick said.

Redshirt junior Patrick Nagle was the next best finisher for Illinois as he took 26th with a score of 226 (13-over-par).

Inverness was Nagle’s first competitive NCAA tournament since he redshirted the beginning of last season to match up his academic and athletic schedules.

The Illini will now begin preparing for their next tournament which is the Big Ten/Pac-10 Challenge Oct. 3-4 in Evanston, Ill. where they hope to improve on this week’s performance.