Feb. 7, 2011
Big Ten Match Play Bracket and Fact Sheet (PDF Format) 
Big Ten Match Play Live Scoring
Follow Men's Golf Tourney Action Live on Twitter: @NUGolf_Live
EVANSTON, Ill. -- Defending champion Northwestern opens its official spring season this weekend, Friday and Saturday, Feb. 11-12, at the third-annual Big Ten Match Play Championship at PGA National Resort in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.
The Big Ten Match Play Championship -- founded in 2009 to provide match play opportunity for Big Ten teams in response to the NCAA Championship format moving to match play -- quickly has become one of the premier collegiate golf tournaments on the yearly calendar. The event is rated by Golf Digest as the No. 12 strongest field of the spring college golf season and it is filmed and broadcast by the Big Ten Network, making it the only televised college golf tournament in the nation.
After being held at Heron Bay in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., since its inception, the Big Ten Match Play moves this year to the Champions Course at PGA National Resort -- home of the PGA TOUR's Honda Classic. Also for the first time this season, the American Junior Golf Association (AJGA) is partnering with the tournament to administrate the event.
Northwestern is the most successful team in the young history of the tournament. After going 3-1 in 2009, the Wildcats captured the team title with a perfect 4-0 record as the No. 6 seed in 2010, sweeping Purdue in the championship match for the first 6-0 blanking in Big Ten Match Play history.
Northwestern enters this weekend as the No. 4 overall seed and will face No. 5 seed Michigan in a quarterfinal match Friday morning. For those familiar with the Big Ten basketball tournaments, seeding for the Big Ten Match Play is exactly the same: Seeds 6-11 face off in an opening round with the three winners advancing to play the top three seeds in the quarterfinal round. The semifinal round will be held Saturday morning followed by the championship Saturday afternoon.
Seeding was determined by the final Golfstat rankings after the 2010 fall season. Seven of the Big Ten's 11 schools are ranked in the top-33 in the nation entering the spring season. Northwestern currently is No. 28, coming in behind Illinois (No. 8), Iowa (No. 11) and Ohio State (No. 23).
Each contest consists of team versus team match play -- each team fields six individuals competing against the other school's six individuals. Matches are worth one point toward the team total, highest score wins. In the event of a tie, the winner is determined by total margin of victory over the six matches.
Individually, Northwestern's Eric Chun (Ansung City, South Korea/International Christian School) is undefeated at the Big Ten Match Play Championship, compiling a record of 7-0-1 over the last two years. Senior David Lipsky (La Canada, Calif./La Canada) went 4-0 during NU's title run last season, earning Big Ten Golfer of the Week honors. He currently is the 54th ranked golfer in the nation according to Golfstat.
For the complete bracket along with tournament information and history, click here or on the .pdf link at the top of this page. Live scoring for each round is available at www.ajga.org. The Big Ten Network's coverage will be broadcast as a highlight show beginning in March with repeat airings throughout the spring.
Also new this year, follow all NU golf tournaments live with coaching updates via twitter! Be sure to follow @NUGolf_Live.
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