Patience. Confidence. Resilience. All three of these words describe what each member of the men’s golf team needs to have in order to be successful, especially at a golf course such as Olympia Fields Country Club outside of Chicago, IL.
As a co-captain of the men’s golf team, not only must I have these three traits while on the golf course, but I also must help inspire and instill the traits into the others on the team. The Fighting Illini Invitational was a true test of golf and competition. With arguably one of the best fields in all of college golf on hand; we knew we would have to utilize the three traits I mentioned to the fullest to be successful.
After finishing the first 36 holes, we were in 8th place heading into the third and final round. Unfortunately, during rainy conditions, we slipped from 8th to 12th place over the last nine holes.
“We knew it was going to be tough, we knew we would have to play well to be competitive, and I think we were until the last half of the final round where the conditions and the situation may have gotten to us,” Coach Mike Mayer said after our team returned from the trip.
Golf is a game where so much can go wrong if one does not have the right frame of mind, but also so much can go right if one puts oneself in a position mentally to succeed. Mentally we were not strong enough the last nine holes to do any better than 12th place, myself included.
The team must move forward, and although Coach Mayer was not thrilled with the finish we had he still drew upon some positives for the weekend. “Twelfth is better than we finished last year. We beat Duke, a preseason top 10 team in the country. We beat Arizona State and Northwestern as well.”
Corey Ziedonis also echoed some positives from the Olympia Fields trip, “I played well the first 36 holes of the tournament. I had a little stumble today, but I will move forward and so will the team onto Firestone.”
We have two weekends of qualifying before heading to Firestone on October 8th as defending champions of the Firestone Invitational. The tournament is held on the North Course at Firestone. The South Course plays host to the annual WGC event held on the PGA Tour every August.
As defending champions, we obviously feel comfortable around the golf course, and it is always nice to go back to a place where you have had previous success. I personally finished in sixth place alone last year, and am looking forward to building on that solid performance this year. My teammate and co-captain, David Erdy, was the co-medalist at this event last year.
“We like Firestone. It is a great facility, it is a great situation being housed right there on the golf course. I think we are going to be very comfortable with that,” Coach Mayer discussed as the team prepares to defend our title at the Firestone Invitational. I completely agree with Coach Mayer, in that, it is always great to be housed on the golf course and be at a place you have been before.
After the Firestone Invitational, we will head to Evanston, IL to play in Northwestern’s tournament The Windon Memorial. Then the following weekend we head to our fifth and final event of the fall in Orlando, FL at Isleworth.
