Illinois men’s golf returns home to Champaign after posting the lowest 54-hole tournament score in program history at the Tiger Collegiate Invitational of 796 (-68), eclipsing the competition by a total of an impressive 28 strokes.

Records weren’t just established for the team; Jackson Buchanan had the performance of a lifetime through three rounds of golf in Columbia, Missouri taking home his first collegiate victory on Tuesday. The sophomore from Georgia boasted the lowest single-round score in school history at 62 (-10) and finished the tournament at 194 (-22), passing the previous individual record of 193 (-13) set by Brian Campbell in 2013.

One man alone can’t decide the fate of a tournament in collegiate golf, and this historic performance was complimented by the entire team. Fifth-year Adrien Dumont de Chassart tailed Buchanan by just four strokes, finishing the tournament with the program’s third-lowest score ever at 198 (-18). This also marks Dumont de Chassart’s career-best tournament score and earned him a share of second at the Club at Old Hawthorne.

Junior Piercen Hunt finished third for the Illini and fifth in the tournament overall following a stellar second round at eight-under 64, leading to his career-best tournament score of 208. This is a major confidence booster for Hunt looking to continue to bounce back from his Fall stroke average of 74 which was slightly higher than his 73.2 freshman year average.

Fifth-year Tommy Kuhl finished next for the Illini in fourth with a carding 209 (-7) finish, which was good enough for a 16th-place finish. Fifth-year transfer Matthis Besard rounded out the scoring for the team in fifth at five-under 211 to finish in the top 25.

In just his fourth tournament, freshman Ryan Voois was able to back up his play in Augusta recording his tournament-best 214 (-2) and finished 32nd as an individual for Illinois.

Following Illinois’ impressive tournament win where the entire team lineup finished in the top-25, head coach Mike Small was pleased with the way that the team was able to continue their excellence despite smashing so many records on the first day.

“I’m proud of the way that they took care of business, and understood that today was a new day even though yesterday was a record-breaking performance,” Small said. “They were all focused, in the present, and took care of business today.”

Taking care of business is a fairly modest way to look at what the team was able to accomplish at the Tiger Collegiate Invitational as they won by the largest margin (28) in over two years. With that being said, however, Small fully believes that his golfers can play to this level on a consistent basis.

“Daily, we chisel and knock off deficiencies in our games — to become better players, so that when the time comes when we have to produce at the highest level, we can just hit our standard and not have to ‘peak’ to achieve success,” Small remarked.

Up next for Illinois will be their very own Fighting Illini Spring Collegiate at the freshly renovated Atkins Golf Club in Champaign from April 22-23. Playing in their own backyard, the team looks to stay right in line with that standard in the first tournament at home for the program.

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