The Illinois men’s golf team will attempt to make history at this weekend’s Big Ten Championships. The three-time defending champions will have to fight through tough competition if they want to become the first team to win four consecutive Big Ten Championships since the conference began modern scoring in 1986.
“Last year was last year, and this year is a whole new year,” Illinois senior Luke Guthrie said. “I’m just looking forward to the challenge, the whole team is.”
The No. 34 Illini will try to four-peat with a new lineup after losing 2010 NCAA Champion Scott Langley and All-Big Ten Chris Deforest to graduation. Illinois head coach Mike Small returns Guthrie, sophomore Thomas Pieters and junior Mason Jacobs from last year’s squad. Langley and Deforest will be replaced by freshmen Brian Campbell and Alex Burge.
“Mike lost some guys, but they haven’t skipped too many beats,” Wisconsin head coach Michael Burcin said. “Illinois is Illinois, and I would expect them to be there at the end. I wouldn’t expect anything less of them.”
Guthrie won last year’s championship and has never finished lower than ninth in the tournament. He heads into the weekend as the conference’s top-ranked player with a Golfweek/Segarin ranking of No. 13 in the nation. The four-year starter and 2011 First Team All-American has been a part of a Big Ten Championship-winning squad during his entire time at Illinois.
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“He still has to hit the shots and he still has to go play,” Small said. “But I think his experience of being there will be a big advantage.”
Pieters may threaten Guthrie’s reign as the Big Ten Medalist. The Nijlen, Belgium native was named to Team Europe in the Palmer Cup on Tuesday. Ranked No. 50 in the nation, Pieters has scored lower than Guthrie in five of the Illini’s nine tournaments this season.
Pieters and Guthrie will face some of the toughest competition they’ve seen this season. Barrett Kelpin of Iowa is ranked No. 29, while Northwestern’s Eric Chun is ranked No. 44. Indiana’s Chase Wright is ranked No. 84.
Illinois must go through No. 25 Iowa if it wants to win the tournament. The Hawkeyes come in as the top-ranked team in the Big Ten. Indiana and Purdue are both ranked in the top 50, and Northwestern won the Big Ten Match Play Championships in February.
“I think anyone could win out of those five,” Small said. “But I’m pulling for us. I’m hedging our bets on us.”
The Pete Dye Course at French Lick in French Lick, Ind., will host the championships. The three-day, 72-hole tournament starts Friday with 36 holes, while Saturday and Sunday feature 18 holes each.
Purdue’s home course, the Kampen Course in West Lafayette, Ind., is also a Pete Dye original. Illinois played in the Boilermaker Invitational at the Kampen Course last weekend, and last year’s Big Ten Championships were played at Purdue.
“Pete Dye is a unique course designer,” said Guthrie, who won the Boilermaker Invitational. “He throws a lot of illusions at you, where the eye tells you one thing, but reality is a different thing. It will definitely help that we’ve seen a course similar.”
The Big Ten Championships will be played at a neutral course for the first time this year. None of the conference’s teams have played the course, although Small won a PGA Professional National Championship at the Pete Dye Course in 2010.
“I think it helps, but I’m not hitting any of the shots for them, so it doesn’t really help that much,” Small said. “I think I’ll be able to have some experience and be able to impart some ideas on what the ball may do.”
Along with the new location, the composition of this year’s event will look significantly different than the 2011 Big Ten Championships.
Conference newcomer Nebraska will compete in the event for first time. Nebraska, the lowest-ranked team in the Big Ten, did not win any of its matches in the Big Ten Match Play Championships in February.
“Top-to-bottom, the Big Ten is stronger than the Big 12 where we came from,” Nebraska head coach Bill Spangler said.
Including Spangler, the Big Ten Championships will feature five new head coaches. Michigan’s Chris Whitten, Wisconsin’s Burcin, John Carlson of Minnesota and Michigan State’s Casey Lubahn are the other additions. Out of the 12 head coaches in the conference, only Small and Northwestern’s Pat Goss have won a Big Ten Championship.
Pieters said the expectations for this weekend are no different than for any other tournament.
“We’re going there to win,” Pieters said. “If all of us just play steady golf, I think we’ll be all right.”
