CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – University of Illinois men's golf head coach
Mike Small announced the program's fall schedule on Thursday.
The Illini are slated to begin the 2024-25 season, Small's 25th at the helm of the Orange and Blue, with five events in September and October.
"We are excited to open up another season of Fighting Illini golf," Small said. "Our fall schedule features a great mixture of familiar tournaments – including our own premier event at Olympia Fields – with several new challenges. That combination will provide a foundation that will help our team build towards our championship goals."
SEPTEMBER
The season opens Sept. 9-11 when the Fighting Illini tee off at the Folds of Honor Collegiate, co-hosted by Folds of Honor, Michigan State, Florida State, the Golf Coaches Association of America (GCAA), and HNS Sports Group, at American Dunes Golf Club in Grand Haven, Mich. It marks the second time in the field at Folds of Honor for the Illini who won the inaugural event in 2022 behind a stellar performance (T3) from then-sophomore
Jackson Buchanan.
The 2024 Folds of Honor Collegiate will feature live television coverage on Golf Channel and Peacock.
Following play in Michigan, Illinois hosts another of the season's most prestigious collegiate events at famed Olympia Fields Country Club in Olympia Fields, Ill. The Fighting Illini will once again welcome 14 peers for the 18th annual OFCC/Fighting Illini Invitational, contested on the Par-70, 7,310-yard North Course. The event is recognized annually for offering a demanding but fair early-season test that attracts one of the best fields in collegiate golf.
The Orange and Blue remain in Illinois to close out the first month of the season at the Windon Memorial Classic, hosted by Northwestern at Conway Farms Golf Club in Lake Forest, Ill., Sept. 29-30.
OCTOBER
As the calendar turns to October, Illinois closes out the fall slate with a pair of new challenges over an eight-day span along the Gulf Coast.
First, the Orange and Blue tee off at the Fallen Oak Collegiate Invitational, co-hosted by Southern Miss and Ole Miss at Fallen Oak at Beau Rivage Resort & Casino's Fallen Oak Course, Oct. 19-21.
The Illini's final event of the fall begins just five days later at South Alabama's Steelwood Collegiate Invitational, which will be contested at Steelwood Country Club in Loxley, Ala., Oct. 26-27.
Details of the Fighting Illini's spring schedule will be released at a later date.
Illinois enters the 2024-25 season in search of the program's 14th Big Ten Championship under head coach
Mike Small's guidance. The Illini captured the NCAA Stanford Regional title last spring, then finished first through 72 holes of stroke play at the NCAA Championship before posting the team's ninth top-five national finish since 2011 as one of the final eight program's vying for the national title in the match play portion of the championship at Omni La Costa Resort & Spa.
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