The Illini Men’s Golf Team will compete in the Inaugural Callaway Golf Next-Gen 2020 Challenge, where they’ll be put up against defending NCAA Champion Stanford on Saturday, March 21 at Rolling Hills Estates in California.
The Challenge will see the Illini go head-to-head against the Cardinals in five matches, with two additional players from each team able to come off the bench in certain situations to fill in for a teammate. The match will also feature a new Coach’s Challenge, where Illinois’ Mike Small and Stanford’s Conrad Ray can toss out a challenge flag at any point in the match. Should the coaches do so, the opposing coach himself would have to step in and hit the shot for his player.
Callaway Golf is an industry leader in distance-enhancing technologies in golf clubs and balls. Callaway developed the concept and is planning to produce a live-stream broadcast on callawaygolf.com and amateurgolf.com, while just the opening match can be found golfweek.com. Each match will be followed by a single walking camera, and all players and coaches will be mic’ed up for their entire stream.
Yesterday the Cardinals finished sixth-place at the Cabo Collegiate, where they were led by freshman Barclay Brown’s second place finish. Brown had five birdies and five bogeys yesterday afternoon. The finish is the best that the freshman has registered so far this season, shooting even-par 71s in his first and final rounds.
Meanwhile the Illini last competed on Feb. 22nd where they finished fourth at the John A. Burns Intercollegiate. The Illini were sparked by Senior Giovanni Tadiotto on Day 3, closing out the tournament with five birdies on Saturday and a season best round score of 67, launching the Illini into a final round that saw them jump from 12th into a three-way tie at six, finishing fourth as a team.
The last time these two teams saw each other in action was back at the 2019 Cypress Point Classic to close out the fall season. Hosted by Stanford, the Illini defeated both Alabama and California, but lost to UCLA in its opening match. The Cardinals would later face the Bruins for the third place trophy, but lost that match 4-2.