Michigan
Palmas del Mar Collegiate
Wolverines to Begin Spring Season Heading to Puerto Rico
2/9/2024 2:07:00 PM | Men's Golf
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The University of Michigan men's golf team opens its spring season heading to Humacao, Puerto Rico, for UNC Greensboro's Palmas del Mar Collegiate, Sunday through Tuesday (Feb. 11-13). The three-day, 54-hole opener is scheduled to be played on the Flamboyan Course at the Palmas del Mar Resort. The course is set to be played at a par of 72 and 7,122 yards.
Notes
• U-M will travel five starters and an individual to the opening spring event. Junior Hunter Thomson, redshirt-junior Ben Hoagland, junior Yuqi Liu, senior Will Anderson and senior Jude Kim make up the Wolverine starters, while redshirt-junior Jack O'Donnell will play as an invited individual.
• There will be 16 teams among the field for the Palmas del Mar Collegiate, including: Arkansas, Boston College, Bucknell, Connecticut, Drexel, Elon, High Point, Kennesaw State, Mercer, Michigan, Rutgers, Samford, Temple, host UNC Greensboro, Virginia Tech and Wofford.
• Thomson is expected to make his 29th consecutive start for the Wolverines and he has not missed a tournament for U-M in three straight seasons. Anderson is set up to make his 19th straight start and 33rd of his 343-event career. Additionally, Liu has started his last 14 events for U-M, while Hoagland has started all six this season.
• In five fall events and one additional individual tournament, Michigan won two team titles -- the Island Resort Intercollegiate and the Virtues Intercollegiate, while capturing three medalist honors. Additionally, U-M closed the fall with four top-five finishes and three runner-up individual finishes. Individually, U-M posted 11 total top-10 Wolverines.
• Thomson closed the fall season with a 69.53 scoring average -- a U-M record pace. He fired 13 of his 15 rounds at-or-below par with a team-best nine sub-par tallies. Hoagland had a career-best fall, averaging 71.00 per round -- nearly four shots better than any other season. With seven sub-par tallies, he fired a career-low 64 (-8) in the second round of the Island Resort Intercollegiate, which tied the second-lowest round in U-M history.
• Anderson has averaged a career-best 72.20 per round as seven of his 15 rounds have been at or below par, with five sub-par tallies. Liu is following with seven tallies of par-or-better, with five sub-par to average a career-low-pace 72.07 per round, which is nearly four shots better than any of his prior two seasons.
• Kim's medalist finish at the Indy at Forest Hills (Sept. 29) helped him earn his first start of the season at the Everett Buick GMC Classic. Posting an even-par 216 total, he etched the third lowest 54-hole total of his career. Four of his eight rounds have been at par or below, including a career-low 67 (-5) in the first round at Forest Hills.
• As a team, the Maize and Blue is combining for a 282.80 team scoring average. In the fall, U-M had 12 of its 15 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 three 54-hole events under par, including two sub-30 finishes -- 830 (-34) at the Virtues Intercollegiate and 834 (-30) at the Island Resort Intercollegiate.
• With four of five sub-par 54-hole totals in the fall, Thomson is averaging 208.60 per event, nearly eight shots under par. In the fall, he set his career best with a 202 (-14) at the Island Resort Intercollegiate. That 202 tally tied the second lowest 54-hole tally in program history (Bill Rankin, 2008 The Maxwell). Overall, Thomson has 13 sub-par 54-hole totals in 28 career events.
Players Mentioned
