May 28, 2008

West Lafayette, Ind. -
NCAA DAY 1 PHOTO GALLERY
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West Lafayette, Ind. - Illinois' young golf team rose early for its 6:20 a.m. CDT tee time Thursday morning and their game got hotter as did the temperatures Wednesday morning in West Lafayette, Ind. Illinois took care of business with a +14 on a challenging Kampen Course and sit sixth after the first round. Individually, the Illini were paced by a 74 from freshman Scott Langley, which is good for a tie for tenth. The Illini tee from 11:20 a.m.-12:08 a.m. CDT in round two Thursday.

"I was glad I was able to drive it well today," Langley said. "This golf course is really tough if you are not hitting your woods because this rough is very difficult. For the way I putted, I'll take two over. I'm going to work on my putting and my short game. That's where I lost some shots today."

Strong winds, a long rough on the links style Kampen Course, and a tricky back nine sent Illinois, who started on the tenth tee, to +12 through eight holes. The Illini heated up on its second nine holes, however.

Langley said the rough was the major difference between this week and when the Illini played the course in the Boilermaker Invitational five weeks ago. The course is also playing longer - at 7,450 with three 600-plus yard par fives.

"When we played it in April, it played a lot shorter and the rough was not up at all," he said. "You have to drive it well to score. You're going to make putts because the greens are in really good condition."

Illinois made particularly strong gains on holes 3-7, where the fivesome combined to shoot -5 with seven birdies to just two bogeys. Chris DeForest's nearly 350-foot drive on the 600-yard par-five, gave him an eagle opportunity. Junior Larry Blatt also reached the green in two and tapped in for birdie after nearly holing a long eagle-chance.

Sophomore Zach Barlow, meanwhile, joined DeForest in cashing in on birdie chances the 165-yard par 3 second while Langley and Blatt one-putted the 230-yard par 3 fifth for birdie.

Four of the five Illinois players shot better scores on the Illini's second nine holes - the front nine. None made bigger strides than DeForest who shot -2 34 on his second nine to finish with a 75. Scott Langley shot even par with a pair of birdies to finish with a team best 74. Barlow's birdies on two and seven gave him 37 for a round of four-over par 76. Blatt finished with a 77 while the Illini's biggest hitter, sophomore Matt Hoffman settled for 80.

Illinois was second of the 15 teams that played in the morning. The 15-seeded teams played in the sunshine of the afternoon. USC and UCLA are tied for the top spot at +9, just five strokes ahead of Illinois. Oklahoma State is third at +10 with Clemson and Kent State, the leader after the morning, tied for fourth at +13.

Individually, Kevin Chappel's three-under par 69 leads the tournament with Kent State's David Markle and USC's Tim Sluiter sitting at -2 (70). Those were the only three competitors to play the course under par Wednesday.

"It was a successful inaugural day at the NCAA Championship," said Illinois head coach Mike Small. "We got off to a rough start with the conditions. After that if you would have told me we would have finished like we did, I would have taken it then and there. We showed some resiliency and actually brought it back to 11 over. All in all it was a successful day for a younger team. Our ball striking was above average."

As far as his outlook for the rest of the week, Small said, "We take it one day at a time, one hole at a time, one shot at a time. No matter what happens, it's a huge experience for us. We're here to win the thing, but no matter what happens, I'm not going to be put in a bad mood this week."