MADISON, Wis. — The Wisconsin men's golf team heads to Hammock Beach for its first team event of the spring 2019 season, Feb. 9-10, at the Big Ten Match Play in Palm Coast, Florida.
Here are five things to know before the Badgers tee off:
1.
Last Time Out: UW had a historic fall season, breaking the 54-hole school record with an 11-under par total of 841 at the Fighting Irish Classic and taking first place at the Pinetree Intercollegiate on Oct. 23. That was their first team tournament victory since the NYX Hoosier Invitational in April of 2015. At Pinetree, senior
Jordan Hahn tied for first individually and guided the Badgers to a convincing five-stroke victory over an 11-team field.
2. The Course: The event will be held at the Hammock Beach Resort in Palm Coast, Florida. Set to host the upcoming 2019 Florida Open, the resort boasts two championship caliber courses, the Ocean Course and the Conservatory Course. The Ocean Course was designed by Jack Nicklaus while the Conservatory was designed by Tom Watson. Nestled in 690 acres of pristine coastland and undeveloped forest, Hammock Beach has traditionally been the site of US Open and US Amateur Regional Qualifying events.
3. The Lineup: Hahn, junior
Pete Kuhl, sophomores
Griffin Barela,
Sam Anderson,
Tom Calbi and freshman
Cameron Frazier will represent UW in Florida.
4. Match Play: Wisconsin will take on their conference rivals Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Michigan, Michigan State, Maryland, Nebraska, Northwestern, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue and Rutgers. The Badgers will face Penn State in their first match on Friday at the Conservatory Course. Each match will consist of six singles matches. After the three matches, the teams will play their final matches against the team that has the same ranking from the other division.
5. Thoughts from Coach Burcin:
"We are very excited to get started at the Big Ten Match Play coming off the win at the end of last fall and continuing our momentum. Being 23-under par through the last seven rounds of the fall, covering three different courses, is a testament to what they are capable of. It is a lineup with a good mix of veterans and guys who really filled important roles late in the fall, like
Tom Calbi. We will need those contributions to continue up and down the lineup.
"The match play is a fun event at a great venue to start the spring. The guys played great last year, going 4-0, and it will be important again to make great decisions and not give away holes as we build confidence coming out of the break."
Live Stats
Live stats will be available on BirdieFire.com (
http://bfire.co/-30fc8/)
