Several Top 25 teams will be participating in Illinois this weekend, including Arizona State (5), Florida (3), North Carolina (2), Oklahoma State (7), Pepperdine (10), Stanford (15), Texas (9), Illinois (11) and Arizona (25).
“We are very fortunate to play in this tournament every year,” FSU Head Coach Trey Jones said. “Playing a major championship golf course against one of the best fields in college golf is one of the reasons you play golf at Florida State. Competing in events like this will only help us late in the year.”
Florida State travels five starters for the tournament, including juniors Cole Anderson, Frederik Kjettrup and Brett Roberts. Freshmen Jack Bigham and Luke Clanton take aim at the difficult course for the first time as members of the Seminoles.
“The golf course will expose any mental or physical deficiency, and will give us a clear idea of what each player needs to work on when we return,” Jones added. “This is our 15th year playing in this tournament.”
Anderson enjoyed a career-best performance at last week’s Maui Jim Intercollegiate, finishing second and shooting 15-under (65-64-66) in an impressive display.
Roberts tied for 13th after shooting 8-under (67-65-70), while Kjettrup tied for 31st at 3-under (71-66-70).
Bigham and Clanton will play in their second tournaments as Seminoles after participating in Scottsdale last weekend.
Olympia Fields routinely has one of the best fields in collegiate golf. 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 Grayhawk.
Teams in the 2022 OFCC/Fighting Illini Invitational field have combined to account for 14 of 20 spots in the last 10 NCAA Championship match play finals, including each of the last four national title winners.
Clanton tees off for the Seminoles beginning at 9:15 a.m. ET/8:15 a.m. CT on Friday.
Follow the Florida State Seminoles Golf Twitter Account (@fsugolf) for updates throughout the weekend, and keep track of scoring on golfstat.com.
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