On Saturday, the Illini will travel to Placida, Florida, for the Tinervin Cup hosted by Jeff Tinervin and sponsored by his foundation, the Tinervin Family Foundation.

With multiple match play competitions, the Tinervin Cup begins with three two-on-two matches in the morning session. Each match is worth one point for a total of three possible points. Later in the afternoon, there are six individual head-to-head matches. Each of those matches is worth one point for a total of six possible points.

The Illini have participated in this match against the Illinois State Redbirds 14 times, and they’re undefeated.

Every year they’re a part of it, it’s their last preseason match before the regular season.

“It’s a great opportunity for us to get down early in the semester (and) play a match against an outside opponent in a format that’s fun-spirited,” said head coach Mike Small. “It lends itself to us finding out where our games are so we can come back, practice it on campus, address those issues and prepare for our first full-field tournament in a week and a half in Alabama”.

Senior Giovanni Tadiotto said the Illini are treating the contest like a regular-season tournament as they’re competitive, and it will help their mindset heading into the season.

For junior Brendan O’Reilly, this tournament is important because of the cause it supports and since current Illini can reunite with former Illinois golfers.

“It’s definitely very special because … you look at who runs it, Jeff Tinervin and what his company does, you see it’s for a good cause,” O’Reilly said. “Alumni come back, and it means a lot to be able to see them, see how they’re doing … Tons of people (who) support Illinois men’s golf and Illinois State golf … (It’s) great to see how much support we have.”

O’Reilly said seeing alumni of the program will give the team a confidence boost.

To maintain form during the long winter break and to avoid NCAA violations, Small leaves it up to his players to participate in tournaments in states like California or Florida, which are able to host winter tournaments states such as Illinois cannot.

“To practice over break … we all spent a ton of time … on all aspects of our game, going over the fall season and trying to make improvements,” O’Reilly said. “I personally went down to Florida to play a tournament, and I know everyone on our team went somewhere warm to play, to try and stay sharp mentally and competitively.”

Tadiotto spent a little time in his home country of Belgium and played in a tournament in Spain to practice over the winter break.

Small also was happy with the morale and mood of the Illini when they came back from break.

“It was great, the attitude has been great, work ethic has been outstanding,” Small said. “It came off great academics success last fall and that was positive for them over break, when they got the news of their grades. Now they’re excited to come back into work and continue this legacy, this trend of Illinois golf.”

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