After a long lay-off for winter break, the Illinois men’s golf team opened up the 2006 spring season this past weekend in Florida, taking on Illinois State in a dual match at Coral Creek Country Club. The match featured two parts, consisting of six 18-hole stroke play matches in the morning, and three nine-hole best ball matches in the afternoon. Illinois took the match by a final of 5-4, winning the Tinervin Cup for the third consecutive year.

The morning started off well for the Illini as Blair Harkins, Andy Mack, Patrick Nagle and Mark Ogren all won their individual matches and gave Illinois a 4-2 advantage heading into the afternoon. That’s when Illinois State decided to step up.

The Redbirds took two of the three afternoon matches, but Kyle Hosick and Ogren played well in their afternoon round to win the deciding point of the match.

“It was great to get out and play,” said sophomore Andy Mack. “Overall, the team is happy to get the win, but our main goal was to get outside and play in some warm weather.”

After destroying Illinois State the last two years 8-1, and 9-0 in the match, the Illini cut it closer than they would have liked this time around.

However from coach Small’s perspective the competition was good for them.

“I think it’s good that ISU stepped up,” Small said. “There was some fierce competition out there during the afternoon.”

He commented that there is no better way to prepare for the first spring tournament of the season than to get a taste of some real in-match competition.

The star of the weekend for Illinois was Mark Ogren who played two very solid rounds. Ogren was the only Illinois golfer to win both of his matches.

“I don’t think we played badly [as a team],” Hosick said. “We just didn’t play as well as we expected except for Mark, but no one was disappointed.”

Hosick enjoyed getting out on the course to play and is optimistic about the rest of his season.

He said he hit the ball better than he did probably all of the fall season; he just couldn’t get a lot of puts to fall.

“That’s something that will come,” Hosick said. “If I can continue to hit the ball this well it’s going to be a good spring.”

Now that the Illini have gotten back in the groove they are excited to take what they have learned from the Tinervin Cup and make a statement in their upcoming tournament in Puerto Rico against one of the most competitive fields they will face this year.

The Puerto Rico Classic will take place in Rio Mar, Puerto Rico next Sunday through Tuesday.

“I think it was a positive weekend,” Small said. “The idea was to have a competitive match against another team, get in some repetitions, and knock some rust off our game. I’d say we accomplished that.”