University of Minnesota Athletics
Gophers Travel to Maryland for the Big Ten Championship
4/26/2018 12:00:00 AM | Men's Golf
MINNEAPOLIS -- The University of Minnesota men's golf team turns its attention to the postseason as it heads to the Big Ten Championships April 27-29 at the Baltimore Country Club in Baltimore, Md.
The tournament will be played in three rounds over three days, with the championship round on Sunday. Scoring will be stroke play, unlike the Big Ten Match Play event that opened the spring season. Rounds ones and two will begin at 8 a.m. CT on both Friday and Saturday, while round three is scheduled for a 7 a.m. CT start on Sunday.
The Gophers are coming off their best performance of the spring at the Hawkeye Invitational, April 13-14, where the team tied for sixth out of 13 despite a rainy second day and third round cancellation. Senior Riley Johnson had a career best finish at the event, tying for eighth place.
Johnson enters the tournament as the Gophers' top golfer this spring with a scoring average of 73.25, while sophomore Thomas Longbella (73.75) and senior Runar Arnorsson (73.83) both have scoring averages under 74.
Big Ten Network will air coverage of the tournament on Monday, May 7 at 6 p.m. CT.
The field: Minnesota will face off against the other 13 programs in the Big Ten. Of those programs, Illinois (14) is the only team in the league to be ranked in Golfweek's top 20.
This weekend marks the second of two conference events held over of the course of the season. At the first event, Big Ten Match Play, Minnesota finished eighth, losing in the seventh place match to Ohio State. Outside of match play, the Gophers have met eight of the other Big Ten teams during the season and has a collective 6-7 record against those teams.
The course: Baltimore Country Club Five Farms East Course plays at par 70 and is 6,844 yards. This is the second consecutive year that the Big Ten Championship has been held at the golf course.
Last year, Illinois won the championship with an 11-under par score of 829, while the Illini's Dylan Meyer won the individual title with a 205. Minnesota finished in 10th place with Justin Doeden's 22nd-place finish marking the top individual rank on the squad.
The travel squad: Seniors Johnson and Arnorsson, Longbella, and freshmen Angus Flanagan and Evan Long will represent the Gophers in Maryland.
B1G Tournament history: Minnesota has won the Big Ten Tournament title eight times in its history: 2014, 2007, 2003, 2002, 1972, 1963, 1938 and 1929. The Golden Gophers have taken home the individual crown nine times, most recently done by Jose Mendez in 2014.
Players Mentioned
