| NORTHWESTERN MEN'S GOLF: GAME DAY INFORMATION | |||||
| DATE | TOURNAMENT | TIME | LOCATION | COURSE | LIVE STATS |
| Friday, Sept. 15 - Sunday, Sept. 17 | OFCC/Fighting Illini Invite | All Day | Olympia Fields CC | 7,353 yds. / Par 70 | Golfstat |
| Social: Twitter (@NUGolf_LIVE and @NU_SportsLive) | Instagram (@NUMensGolf) | Facebook | |||||
EVANSTON, Ill. — The Northwestern men's golf team will tee off their 2017-2018 campaign at the OFCC/Fighting Illini Invitational tournament, hosted by Illinois, beginning Friday.
Senior Dylan Wu will lead the 'Cats once again in his final season in Evanston. The PING Second-Team All American looks to build on his already-impressive career — in addition to winning the Les Bolstad Award for the lowest scoring average in the Big Ten, Wu was a unanimous All-Big Ten First Team selection one season ago.
Wu has led the Wildcats in scoring average each of the past 3 years and owns the second-lowest career scoring average (71.64) in program history, trailing only Luke Donald (70.95). Wu, a Medford, Oregon, native, is the 78th-best amateur golfer in the nation, according to the World Amateur Golf Ranking.
Joining Wu is junior Ryan Lumsden, who earned First Team All-Big Ten and Division I PING Midwest All-Region honors a year ago after a season in which he finished second individually at the Big Ten Championships at Baltimore Country Club.
STARTING V
The #B1GCats will send out Dylan Wu, Ryan Lumsden, Everton Hawkins, Sam Triplett, and Eric McIntosh. The five Wildcats will tee off at 8 a.m. CT on Friday.
ÉLITE COMPANY
Out of the 15 participating schools, 10 teams are ranked in the preseason GCAA Coaches Poll (No. 1 Oklahoma State, No. 4 Baylor, No. 5 Illinois, No. 6 Texas, No. 8 USC, No. 12 UNLV, No. 16 Texas A&M, No. 19 Alabama, No. 20 Florida State, and No. 21 Arizona State). Three schools — Northwestern, North Carolina, and Purdue, are receiving votes, while Army and Indiana are the lone teams outside the GCAA poll.
DYNAMIC DUO
Lumsden and Wu are the first pair of Northwestern teammates to receive All-Big Ten First Team honors in the same season since Nick Losole and Jack Perry did so in 2013. It marked the fifth time since 2000 that multiple Wildcats earned All-Big Ten Selections in the same year.
LET ME COUNT THE WAYS
Wu was a team leader in a multitude of categories in 2016-17, including scoring average (70.53), rounds of par or better (23), rounds in the 60s (12), top-five finishes (5), top-10 finishes (9), top-25 finishes (11), birdies (115), and low round (66). He was named a Jack Nicklaus National Player of the Year Award semifinalist after the conclusion of the season.
ABOUT THE COURSE
Olympia Fields's North Course is consistently rated among the 50 best courses in the nation and hosted the 2003 U.S. Open and the 2015 U.S. Amateur. It was also the host of the 2017 Women's PGA Championship
SUNNY SKIES AHEAD
Friday calls for a sunny forecast with a high of 83, with a wind to the south at 9 mph. Saturday will be sunny with a high of 84, and Sunday will have PM thunderstorms with a high of 85 and 66 percent chance of precipitation.