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Illini Take No. 1 Seed Into Big Ten Match Play
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Luke Guthrie led the Dixie Amateur at Heron Bay after two rounds in December.
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Big Ten Match Play Bracket and Schedule 
Feb. 9, 2010
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Illinois takes the number one seed into this weekend's Big Ten Match Play event at Heron Bay Golf Club in Coral Springs, Fla. The Illini, the defending Big Ten champions, received a bye in the tournament and will face the winner of the Penn State (eighth seed)-Purdue (ninth seed) match at 11:38 am Friday.
Illinois begins the spring ranked No. 7 nationally in the Golfweek computer rankings, No. 9 in the Golf World /NIKE Coaches poll and No. 11 in the Golfstat computer rankings.
The rest of the Friday quarterfinal match-ups features fourth-seeded Minnesota facing fifth-seeded Indiana, third-seeded Michigan facing the winner of the Northwestern (sixth seed)-Wisconsin (11th seed) match, and second-seeded Iowa meeting the winner of the Ohio State (seventh seed)-Michigan State (10th seed) match. Semifinal and title matches for both championship and consolation brackets are Saturday. The Big Ten Network will provide tape delayed coverage on March 14 at 11 a.m.
This is the second year that all 11 Big Ten schools have gathered for this unique event to kick off the spring. Illinois head coach Mike Small said the benefits are two-fold.
"It gives us a chance to play early and evaluate ourselves while at the same time learning how to compete in the match play format," Small said.
Last year the NCAA adopted a format where the 30 schools at the NCAA Finals compete 54 holes, narrowing the field to eight before match play determines the winner. Michigan benefitted from the Big Ten Match Play experience by upsetting USC in the quarterfinals of the 2009 NCAA match play.
"Match play does expose some mental weaknesses and puts pressure on you more times throughout the day," Small added.
Each paring consists of six individual matches between the schools. Last year Illinois, which came in as the No. 1 seed, defeated Northwestern 4-2 before falling to Michigan 3.5-2.5 in the semifinal. Indiana defeated Michigan in the final.
"We probably have a target just because of the success we have been having," said senior Zach Barlow, who, along with junior teammate Scott Langley, competed in the Jones Cup Invitational last weekend in Sea Island, Ga.
Barlow placed 16th while Langley took 24th in the field of 84 at the Jones Cup, which included members of the U.S. and International Walker Cup teams and the Scottish and Wales National Team
"We feel pretty good about our games even though we didn't play the way we wanted," Langley said of the experience. "The main purpose was to get back into the swing of things and get rounds under our belt before our first tournament. We both showed some good signs that our games are getting better."
Barlow and sophomore Luke Guthrie also played in the Dixie Amateur Championship Dec. 19-22 at Heron Bay, the site of this weekend's Big Ten Match Play. Guthrie led the event through two rounds after firing rounds of 67-66.
Of the six men Illinois is sending this weekend, three are ranked in the top 75 in the nation individually - Langley (24), Guthrie (36) and Barlow (74).
Illinois won two tournaments during the fall and hope to gain the same kind of momentum that it did in 2008-09 when the Illini won seven tournaments, including the Big Ten title in May.
"We have to get into a little bit of a groove," Barlow said. "This will be the first real time to gauge our games. Match play provides us a focus on tightening it up around the greens and making sure that you have the shots needed for every situation you can think of out there."
"We need to use (the Big Ten Match Play) as momentum building all the way through April and May," Small said. "Our goal is to become better players every time out and challenge ourselves in areas we're not the best at. If they compete and play golf as the veterans they are, we'll be okay."
