Hunt Leads No. 7 Illini in Round 1 at Southern Highlands

LAS VEGAS, Nev. – The No. 7-ranked Fighting Illini men’s golf team opened play at the prestigious Southern Highlands Collegiate on Sunday, posting a team score of 285 (-3) to sit alone in fifth place heading into Monday’s second round at Southern Highlands Golf Club.

Illinois opened with a strong start to Round 1, combining to shoot 10-under on the front nine, before miscues led to a score of 7-over after the turn.

“We played the front nine well and really came out on point,” head coach Mike Small said. “We hit a snag at the start of the back nine, made some bad bogeys coming in. No. 17 got us today, but that happens. There was a lot of good golf played, and we just need to clean up some things for tomorrow and come back after it.”

Junior Piercen Hunt led the way for the Illini, carding a score of 70 (-2). Hunt notched five birdies, including  on 1 and 18, to offset three bogeys during his round. At 2-under, he is just two shots outside of the top 10 and six strokes off the pace of individual leaders Austin Greaser (North Carolina), Yuxin Lin (Florida), and Sam Choi (Pepperdine), with 36 holes remaining on Monday and Tuesday.  

“Piercen was steady most of the day and he had a good look to him,” added Small. “Everybody did too, until we had a couple of hiccups. But Piercen played well and we’re going to need to show up with a total team effort tomorrow.”

Sophomore Jackson Buchanan is one shot behind Hunt’s pace, in an eight-way tie for 21^st, followed by fifth-year seniors Tommy Kuhl and Adrien Dumont de Chassart at even par to round out Day 1 scoring for the Illini in a tie for 29^th.  The fifth member of the Illini lineup, Matthis Besard, is 3-over entering Round 2 after shooting even par through his first 17 holes of the day before a triple bogey on 17.

The field, which features 11 programs rated in the top-50 by Golfstat, was paced by No. 4 North Carolina. The Tar Heels shot 17-under as a team and are seven strokes ahead of No. 14 Pepperdine. No. 16 Texas and No. 11 Florida are just ahead of the seventh-ranked Illini at 5-under. New Mexico and No. 41 TCU are on the heels of the Orange and Blue at 2-under. No. 15 Texas A&M, No. 9 Oklahoma and…