CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – University of Illinois men’s golf head coach Mike Small announced the program’s 2022-23 schedule on Friday (Aug. 19), setting the stage for another highly anticipated and competitive season for the Fighting Illini.
New to the slate in 2022-23, the Illini bookend their regular-season schedule by hosting two premier collegiate events, one at historic Olympia Fields Country Club in Olympia Fields, Ill., to open the season, and another at the program’s newly renovated Atkins Golf Club at the University of Illinois in Urbana, in the team’s final test leading into postseason play.
“We strive, every season, to build a schedule that tests our team both mentally and physically, and one that will prepare the team to hit our program’s standard necessary to reach our postseason goals,” Small said. “This year, we are excited to once again be playing in some of the best college events in the nation, including hosting our own premier event at Olympia Fields Country Club. In addition, I’m thrilled to welcome competitive golf back to Urbana-Champaign and look forward to the test that our new home at the Atkins Golf Club can provide as we make final preparations for the postseason. I can’t wait to get back on the course with this team and work towards another great year of Illini golf.”
SEPTEMBER
The fall schedule opens Sept. 16-18 at Olympia Fields, as the Fighting Illini welcome 14 peers for the 16th annual OFCC/Fighting Illini Invitational. Contested on the Par-70, 7,310-yard North Course, the event annually offers a demanding but fair early-season test that attracts one of the best fields in collegiate golf.
Teams in the 2022 tournament field have combined to account for 14 of 20 spots in the last 10 NCAA Championship match play finals. In addition to each of the last four national title winners – Texas (2022), Pepperdine (2021), Stanford (2019), and Oklahoma State (2018) – the Illini also welcome Alabama, Arizona, Arizona State, Army West Point, Baylor, Florida, Florida State, Indiana, North Carolina and Northwestern. The field combined to tally 11 berths into the 2022 NCAA Regionals last May, with nine programs that advanced to stroke play at the NCAA Championship and five of the eight programs that closed the season in match play vying for the championship trophy at…
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