Maize & Blue Readies for Houston's Border Olympics

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The University of Michigan men's golf team will continue its early spring season heading to Laredo, Texas, Monday and Tuesday (Feb. 19-20) for Houston's Border Olympics. The two-day, 54-hole event is scheduled to be played on the Laredo Country Club. The course is set to be played at a par of 72 and 7,375 yards.

Notes

• U-M will travel the five starters and an individual to the Border Olympics. Junior Hunter Thomson, redshirt-junior Ben Hoagland, junior Yuqi Liu, senior Will Anderson will earn a second straight spring start, while senior Jude Kim and redshirt-junior Jack O'Donnell will use the practice round as a qualifier for the final fifth spot. The other will play as an individual.

• There will be 17 teams in the field for the Border Olympics, including: Abilene Christian, Bowling Green, Houston, Houston Christian, Illinois State, Lamar, Lipscomb, Miami (Ohio), Michigan, New Mexico State, North Texas, Rice, Sam Houston, Troy, ULM, Western Carolina and Wright State

• Thomson is expected to make his 30th consecutive start for the Wolverines. He has not missed a tournament for U-M in three straight seasons. Anderson is set up to make his 20th straight start and 34th of his 35-event career. Additionally, Liu has started his last 15 events for U-M, while Hoagland has started all seven this season.

• Michigan has won two team titles -- the Island Resort Intercollegiate and the Virtues Intercollegiate -- while capturing four medalist honors this season. Additionally, U-M has five top-five finishes in the six total events as well as three runner-up individual finishes. In fact, U-M has posted 12 top-10 individual finishes.

• Thomson earned his fourth Big Ten Golfer of the Week after his final-day 64 (-8) led the individual title at the Palmas del Mar Collegiate (Feb. 11-13). He won by two shots with a career-best 201 (-15) 54-hole total. After four career runner-up finishes, Thomson earned his first title and became the fourth Wolverine to post a win this season.

• Thomson's 201 (68-69-64, -15) winning total at the Palmas del Mar tied U-M's second-lowest single-round total in program history, trailing only Kyle Mueller's record 198 (69-65-65, -15) at the 2015 Alister MacKenzie Invitational (Oct. 12-13). This season, Thomson has posted two of the top 3 best individual 54-hole totals in U-M history -- the 201 and his 202 (71-65-66, -14) at the Island Resort Intercollegiate (Sept. 3-4)

• Thomson is averaging 69.11 scoring average -- a U-M record pace. He fired 16 of his 18 rounds at or below par with a team-best 12 sub-par tallies. Recently, he fired a career-low 64 (-8) in the final round of the Palmas del Mar, pacing his way to his first career medalist honor. The 64 ties U-M's second-lowest single-round score record, which was also recorded by Hoagland in the second round (64, -8) of the Island Resort.

• With five of six sub-par 54-hole totals in the fall, Thomson is averaging 207.33 per event, nearly nine shots under par. Overall, Thomson has 14 sub-par 54-hole totals in 29 career events.

• As a team, the Maize and Blue is combining for a 282.78 team scoring average. U-M has 15 of its 18 team rounds below par with a season-low 275 (-15) in the second round of the Island Resort Intercollegiate. With that team average, U-M posted four 54-hole events under par, including two sub-30 finishes -- 830 (-34) at the Virtues Intercollegiate and 834 (-30).

• Anderson has averaged a career-best 71.94 per round, with seven sub-par tallies. Liu is following with seven tallies of par-or-better, with five sub-par to average a career-low-pace 72.22 per round, which is nearly four shots better than any of his prior two seasons. O'Donnell is also nearly four shots better than any of his prior seasons with his 73.93 scoring average.