Tuesday afternoon was a good time to be a member of the Illini men’s golf team, especially if your name was Danny Zimmerman.

The good spirits came as a result of Illinois wrapping up its first top five finish of the year. They took fourth out of 18 teams at the The Prestige, which was played at the Greg Norman Course in La Quinta, Calif., on Monday and Tuesday.

Illinois was led by Zimmerman, a sophomore, who tied for medalist honors with UC-Irvine’s Tim Cha.

“Danny was a huge bright spot this week,” head coach Mike Small said. “He made a lot of birdies and really handled adversity well. He had some bad holes, but he didn’t let them get to him emotionally. He showed great poise out there.”

Zimmerman broke back into the starting five with a bang this week, competing in a tournament for the first time this season. He came out on Monday and fired a two-under-par 70 in his first round of the day and followed it up with a one-over 73 in his second, which was finished on Tuesday morning due to darkness.

“I was three shots off the lead after the first day; we didn’t know that though because I had three holes to finish on Tuesday morning,” Zimmerman said. “It didn’t matter to me at all. I knew I just needed to go out and play golf.”

In the final round on Tuesday, Zimmerman really showed what he was made of. He continued to hit the ball well and ended up shooting another two-under-par 70 to wrap up his first-place finish.

The win was Zimmerman’s first of his Illinois career and the first by an Illini golfer since last fall. With a final score of 213, the sophomore tied his career best 54-hole score.

“It feels good,” Zimmerman said. “I had seven voice mails from friends and family congratulating me on my finish; it was really cool.”

Even though Zimmerman’s play took the spotlight, what Illinois did as a team was impressive as well. The Illini posted three top-25 scores, with junior Kyle Hosick taking 13th place and redshirt sophomore Mark Ogren placing 23rd.

“The team had some great chemistry this weekend,” Hosick said. “The young guys really made a difference. Danny is a good player, and he stepped up and shot well. ‘Oggie’ has some game, too.”

Although the finish was the team’s best of the year and things seemed to go well, Small reiterated that finishing fourth is not the team’s goal.

“We are definitely moving in the right direction,” Small said. “We beat some top schools and we played well, but our goal is still to win every time we go out there.”

Illinois is looking to continue its forward progress with a win at the Landfall Tradition on Oct. 28-30 in Wilmington, N.C., which will be its final tournament of the fall season.

They will be practicing this week once they arrive home from California to prepare for the tournament. Hosick said that he expects the young guys to have a chance to contribute again next week, but they will not know the starters until at least Thursday.

“I’m looking forward to going out there and doing it again next week,” Zimmerman said. “Any chance you get to compete during the season is a big deal; there are not that many events, so you need to make the most of them.”