Michigan
OFCC/Fighting Illini Invitational
Wolverines to Head Olympia Fields for Fighting Illini Invitational
9/18/2024 2:53:00 PM | Men's Golf
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The University of Michigan men's golf team faces its toughest challenge of the fall season -- the OFCC/Fighting Illini Invitational -- Friday through Sunday (Sept. 20-22) at the prestigious Olympia Fields Country Club, North Course. The three-day, 54-hole event features a 15-team field that includes 12 of the nation's top 25-ranked programs (Golfweek Preseason Coaches Poll). The North Course is scheduled to be set up for a par 70 and 7,333 yards.
Notes
• The OFCC/Fighting Illini Invitational will be made up of 15 teams, including: No. 16 Alabama, No. 2 Arizona State, Baylor, No. 10 Florida, No. 3 Florida State, No. 11 Georgia Tech, No. 9 Illinois, Michigan, No. 5 North Carolina, Northwestern, No. 20 Oklahoma State, No. 23 Stanford, No. 19 Texas A&M, No. 15 Texas Tech and No. 8 Texas.
• The OFCC/Fighting Illini Invitational marks the second event with a loaded national field. Two weeks ago, U-M played in the Inverness Intercollegiate which featured nine of the 15 teams ranked among the top 40 in the country, with five among the top 25 including defending national champion and preseason No. 1 Auburn.
• The 2024 OFCC/Fighting Illini Invitational field includes four of the final eight teams that made up match play at the 2024 NCAA Finals: quarterfinalists Illinois and North Carolina, semifinalist Georgia Tech and finalist Florida State. Overall, 11 of the 15 teams advanced to the 2024 NCAA Championship stroke play, with 14 of 15 teams competing in a NCAA regional.
• U-M will travel five Wolverines to Olympia Fields as seniors Hunter Thomson and Yuqi Liu will head up the group. Redshirt-freshman Caden Pinckes and freshmen RJ Arone and Dean Muratore will round of the Maize and Blue lineup.
• It has been just over a decade since Michigan has competed in the OFCC/Fighting Illini Invitational. In 2014, the Wolverines posted a 12th-place finish in the prestigious event, tallying a 903 54-hole team total on the North Course. Wolverines Chris O'Neill (73-73-77) and Kyle Mueller (77-69-77) led U-M each tying for 25th with 223 tallies.
• The OFCC/Fighting Illini Invitational will be a mini-homecoming for U-M coaches Zach Barlow and Matt Hoffman -- both Illinois graduates. In 2009 and 2010, Barlow and Hoffman were part of two Big Ten championship teams, two NCAA regional teams and advanced to the NCAA Finals (2010) during their four-year collegiate career in Champaign (2007-10).
• Olympia Fields Country Club located in Olympia Fields, Ill., a suburb of Chicago, about 25 miles south of the Loop. It contains two 18-hole courses, North and South. The North Course is considered one of the top-three courses in the Chicago area is generally ranked in the top 50 courses in the United States. The South Course is regularly ranked in the top 10 in Illinois. OFCC has hosted the U.S Open (1928, 2003), the PGA Championship (1925, 1961), the U.S. Senior Open (1997), the U.S. Amateur (2015), the Women's PGA (2017) and the BMW Championship (2020, 2023).
Players Mentioned
