This weekend the Illini are participating in the Tavistock Collegiate Invitational in Windermere, Florida, a suburb of Orlando, hosted by the University of Central Florida and West Virginia.

From Oct. 20-22 at the Isleworth Golf and Country Club, the team will be competing against five other top-25 ranked teams, according to the Golf Coaches Association of America’s most recent Bushnell Golfweek Coaches Poll: Arizona State No. 1, Texas Tech No. 6, Texas No. 10, Illinois No. 22, Auburn No. 23, West Virginia No. 25.

The other top projected schools are Louisianna State, Vanderbilt, South Carolina, Florida and UCF who are unranked but still received votes in the poll. The other four participants are unranked and received no votes: the University of Nevada Las Vegas, Minnesota, California and Augusta.

Illinois is even with a three-spot drop in the GCAA Coaches Poll and is still the top-ranked Big Ten team; the next closest is No. 30 Penn State.

The Illini have participated in this tournament ten other times during head coach Mike Small’s 19-year tenure. Their best finishes were during the 2015-2016 season and two during the 2017-2018 season. However, their worst finishes were 11 during the 2008-2009 season and 10 during both the 2007-2008 season and last season. The other five finishes were four once, five twice, eight once and nine once.

During the team’s last competition at the Crooked Stick Invitational in Carmel, Indiana, Illinois placed seven out of 14, Indiana hosted and placed eighth. Illinois finished 24 strokes above par on a 72 par course with a team score of 888.

The Illini look to bounce back after a disappointing third round where they started the second day at four and ended it at seven.

@jonahap2

jonahperez@dailyillini.com