The Illinois men’s golf team will get a rare opportunity to play host this weekend with the Fighting Illini Spring Invitational, its first regular-season home tournament in more than 20 years.

The last time the Illini hosted a regular-season tournament was in 1987, and this is the first time in seven years the team will be playing on a home course. In October 2001, Illinois hosted a dual meet with Illinois State.

“A home advantage is huge in every sport but especially in golf because it doesn’t happen that often,” head coach Mike Small said. “We know the course better. We’ll have a lot of support from families and fans. We definitely expect to do well.”

The invite includes 11 teams and will be played at Stone Creek Golf Club.

Notable tournament participants are in-state teams such as Bradley, DePaul and Southern Illinois, and out-of-state schools Detroit Mercy, Northern Iowa and IUPUI.

“As a player and coach you try not to make it different. We want to treat this like it was any other tournament,” Small said.

“We are on our course and we want to try to look at it the same as every other tournament. But this is our course,” the coach added.

Illinois has plenty of weapons going into the tournament and is hot off its tournament victory last weekend at the Marshall Invitational, where four players posted top-10 scores.

Freshman Scott Langley and redshirt senior Mark Ogren finished tied for second place, and redshirt sophomore Matt Hoffman and junior Jon Krick shared ninth place, while Zach Barlow rounded out the Illinois lineup with a 16th-place finish on the course.

“I think we have about six or seven players who have a chance to win,” Small said about his team’s chances this weekend.

Langley has already won a tournament this year, taking the Argonaut title in February, while Hoffman has led the Illini on two different occasions – at the Louisiana Classic and Barona Cup.

A good finish this weekend will increase the team’s chances of receiving a bid to NCAA Regionals.