Illinois Golf: Feagles and Baumgarten Pick-Up Where Illini Left Off
The Illinois golf team had a great fall session and is gearing up to make another run at the National Championship.
This season started out with a nice win at the Wolf Run Intercollegiate where the Illini made it known to the world they didn’t take a step back after losing some key members.
Both Thomas Detry and Charlie Danielson departed after a run to the Final Four last season and this left the Illini looking for answers to fill those to spots.
Well, I don’t think you have to look too far. Illinois took down the first tournament of the season by 13 strokes and had five of the top six scores in the contest.
Illinois would then go on to win the Fighting Illini Invitational at Olympia Fields by 13 strokes and the Northern Intercollegiate by 53 strokes.
The Illini then finished up the tournament play part of the fall session with an eighth place finish at the Tavistock Collegiate Invitational. Tournaments like this happen and no one really played well.
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But, a few weeks later, Illinois went into the East Lake Cup and beat the Oregon Ducks 3-and-2 in match play to win the tournament.
Besides for one minor blip on the radar, the Illini played extremely well in the fall. This was in part due to the replacements for Detry and Danielson.
True freshmen Michael Feagles and Bryan Baumgarten have both been great for the Illini. They are both going to end up being legends for this program.
Feagles finished the fall session with a stroke average of 72.91. He also had an 18-hole low score of 66 as well.
Baumgarten played well too. He had a stroke average of 73.5 for the fall session and his lowest score on 18 holes was a 65.
The big question is can this team compete for another National Championship run after losing Detry and Danielson?
My answer is yes. This team could potentially be even better than that Illinois team last season.
While the Illini lost two guys in Detry and Danielson who each had a stroke average of 73.08 and 71.44 in the fall last year, respectively, they are making it up with improvements this season.
On the backend, the two freshmen are holding their own and that is all they are asked to do. But, this Illini team has four out of their five players averaging a 72.91 or better each round.
That is something last year’s team couldn’t match.
This Illinois team also has a better fall stroke average than last year’s team as well.
The 2016-17 squad had a 284.75 stroke average per tournament in the fall. That is nearly three strokes better than last season’s squad who had a 287.16 stroke average.
Even with losing two big-time golfers, this Illinois team is poised to do some great things and could even be better than last season.
The Illini open up the spring session with the Louisiana Classic. A good start here would set the foundation for a deep postseason run.
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