Illini Extend Lead as Weather Breaks at B1G Championship

GALLOWAY, N.J. – The No. 3-ranked Fighting Illini men’s golf team extended its lead at the Big Ten Championship on Saturday as scores dropped to coincide with improving weather on Day 2 at Galloway National Golf Club.

Following a 30-minute delay in the morning, the rain and wind threatened early before giving way to some nicer conditions late in the round, allowing the Orange and Blue to shoot the lowest team round of the day, a 16-under 268, and push their six stroke lead to 17 heading into Sunday’s finale.

“When you’re playing team golf, you can never be satisfied with where you are because there are so many moving parts, and so many things that add up to a team score,” head coach Mike Small said. “You’ve got to keep moving, you’ve got to keep going. Just like the way we turned on the jets on that back nine. We asked the guys to do it, and they responded.”

A day after Matthis Besard posted the only under-par score in Round 1, all five members of the Illini lineup were in the red, led by a short-lived course-record rounds from sophomore Jackson Buchanan and fifth-year senior Tommy Kuhl, who shot 66 (-5) and 64 (-6), respectively.

Buchanan finished his round just one hole ahead of Kuhl, who overtook the course record from his teammate before ultimately being surpassed, just a few minutes later, by Purdue’s Herman Sekne who carded a  62 (-9) for the lowest individual round of the day.

The rounds by Kuhl and Buchanan, however, were enough to put four Illini within striking distance of the individual title with 18 holes to play. Kuhl moved to 2-under, matching Besard in a tie for third place just one stroke off the pace of 36-hole co-leaders Mac McClear of Iowa and Daniel Svard of Northwestern.

Buchanan is now tied with teammate Adrien Dumont de Chassart at 141 (-1). Dumont de Chassart, who claimed the 2019 Big Ten individual title as a freshman, carded a 2-under 69 in Round 2 to remain in contention.

Piercen Hunt also finds himself in the mix. The Illini junior enters Round 3 in a tie for 13^th with a 36-hole score of 144 (+2), bouncing back from an opening 76 with a 3-under 68 on Saturday.

As a team, the Illini’s 268 (-16) was 10 shots ahead of…