Wolverines to Close Regular Season at Illini Spring Collegiate

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The University of Michigan men's golf team heads to Urbana, Ill., to close the regular season at the Fighting Illini Spring Collegiate, on Saturday and Sunday (April 20-21). The two-day, 54-hole event is scheduled to be played at the Atkins Golf Club and features a 12-team field, including four Big Ten squads.

Notes

• U-M will travel five starters to the Fighting Illini Spring Collegiate. Junior Hunter Thomson, redshirt-junior Ben Hoagland, senior Will Anderson, junior Yuqi Liu and senior Jude Kim will make up the Wolverine starting five. Redshirt-junior Jack O'Donnell will join them as an individual.

• There will be 12 teams in the field for the Fighting Illini Spring Collegiate, including Ball State, Butler, DePaul, host Illinois, Loyola Chicago, Marquette, Michigan, Michigan State, Northwestern, Toledo, South Dakota and UC San Diego.

• The regular-season finale will be homecoming for the coaching staff, and Illinois alums, Zach Barlow and Matt Hoffman. Barlow played four years (2007-10) before serving as an assistant for the Illini (2015-19). Hoffman was Barlow's teammate during the same span. Together they won back-to-back Big Ten titles (2009, '10), and advanced out of regionals to two NCAA Finals appearances.

• Thomson is expected to make his 34th consecutive start, having not missed a tournament for U-M in three straight seasons. Anderson is set up to make the 38th start of his 39-event career. Liu has started his last 19 events for U-M, while Hoagland has started all 11 tournaments this season.

• Michigan has two team titles this season – the Island Resort Intercollegiate and the Virtues Intercollegiate -- while collecting seven top-five finishes in 10 events. Individually, U-M has had four medalists with three runners-up. The Wolverines have posted 16 top-10 and 11 top-five individual finishes. Thomson has paced U-M closing as the top Wolverine in seven of 10 events.

• Including 11 straight to start the spring season, U-M has had 22 of its 30 team rounds below par with a season-low 273 (-15) in the second round of the Island Resort Intercollegiate. Overall, the Wolverines average 285.57 per team round. The Maize and Blue has posted six 54-hole events under par, including two sub-30 finishes -- 830 (-34) at the Virtues Intercollegiate and 834 (-30) at the Island Resort Intercollegiate.

• Thomson leads with a 70.03 scoring average -- a U-M record pace. No Wolverine has finished a season with a sub-70 scoring average. He fired 24 of his 30 rounds at-or-below par with a team-best 19 sub-par tallies. He highlighted the season with a career-low 64 (-8) in the final round of the Palmas del Mar. That 64 ties U-M's second-lowest single-round score record, and marks the second time a Wolverine has reached that mark after Hoagland fired a 64 (-8) in the second round of the Island Resort Intercollegiate (Sept. 3-4).

• With six sub-par 54-hole totals this season, Thomson is averaging 210.10 per event, nearly six shots under par. Overall, Thomson has 16 sub-par 54-hole totals in 33 career events. During his career, he has averaged near even par per event with a 216.16 average.

• Thomson set a career low with his 201 (68-69-64, -15) winning total at the Palmas del Mar Collegiate. It 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. Thomson has two of the top three best individual 54-hole totals in U-M history -- the 201 total and his 202 (71-65-66, -14) at the Island Resort Intercollegiate (Sept. 3-4).

• With 12 sub-par single-round tallies, Hoagland is averaging on a career-best pace of 71.67 per round, nearly four shots better than any prior season. His average is sitting as the third lowest in a season for a Wolverine. Hoagland has posted five sub-par 54-hole totals after recording just one in his two prior seasons. He set a career-low with his 206 (-10) total in the season opener at the Island Resort Intercollegiate.