Illinois has raced out to an 11-shot lead at American Dunes Golf Club in Grand Haven, Michigan, in the inaugural Folds of Honor Collegiate.
Adrien Dumont de Chassart, Tommy Kuhl, and Piercen Hunt all shot 3-under 69s for the Fightin’ Illini while Jackson Buchanan shot a 2-under 70. Illinois is 7 under and 36 holes and the only team under par.
“That’s what we look for. That’s Illini golf. We closed effectively. … it was good to see,” said Mike Small, head coach of Illinois.
Senior Tommy Kuhl made just one bogey on his card Tuesday and has just three bogeys this week.
“I hit it really solid today,” said Kuhl. “I put myself in the right spots and played solid golf. I knew the conditions going into today were going to be pretty difficult and I know at this golf course, you’ve got to put it in the right spots to score well, and that’s what I did.”
Fold of Honor Collegiate: Team scores | Individual
Florida State is in second heading into Wednesday’s final round at 4 over. Liberty and Arizona are tied for third at 7 over. Kansas is solo fifth at 9 over.
“We came out, we got on it pretty early. We got off to a good start which helps. We hadn’t done that in the last event (Olympia Fields). It definitely helps to come out strong and we carried the momentum into the back-nine and finished well,” said Kuhl.
Despite the big lead heading into the final round, Coach Small says their mentality stays the same.
“Tomorrow is zero-zero. Let’s go play golf. Have that same look we had today and play Illini’ golf,” said Smalls.
Last week, Illinois hosted the Fightin’ Illini Invitational and finished in second place, behind Stanford.
“At Olympia Fields we didn’t close like we wanted to, but today we did, and that’s progress,” said Smalls.
Florida State’s Brian Roberts and Liberty’s Jonathan Yaun are tied atop the individual leaderboard at 6 under. Yaun, who led after Day 1, has posted back-to-back rounds of 69.
Roberts, after he shot 70 in the first round, kept his rhythm, and shot a 4-under 68 on Tuesday. Through two rounds of golf, the Seminole junior is 7 under on the par 5’s. He eagled the 6th on Tuesday after hitting the green in two shots.
“That was the only one I went for. The rest has been just a lot of wedges and hitting some good shots, close in there,” said Roberts.
Playing a tournament at the Folds of Honor course is significant to Small.
“I think it’s a great educational experience,“ he said. ”I think it’s great for the kids to see this and learn more about the Folds of Honor organization so that they can rally behind it at an early age. You need young people to do that, to foster that. We’d like to win, play well tomorrow, and finish it off, but that’s not the ultimate thing. The ultimate thing is to carry yourself with respect and pride and play in the spirit of this event.”
Wednesday is the final round of the Folds of Honor Collegiate. The leaders will tee off at 8 a.m. ET.
Alex Gelman is the current Ron Balicki Scholarship Award winner.
