NORMAL – Seven tournaments and an exhibition line the spring 2021 schedule for the Illinois State men’s golf team. The squad looks to continue the strong run that it had last season. That run was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I am very excited about this season’s schedule. [I] believe it will have us well prepared for the MVC Championship and a post-season run,” said Illinois State head coach Ray Kralis. “We’ll compete on a wide variety of championship layouts against strong fields each time we tee it up. I believe those challenges are opportunities that will only make us better.”
The season opens on February 6 with the Tinervin Cup. This is a two-team exhibition between the Redbirds and the Fighting Illini of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. It will be played at the Coral Creek Club in Placida, Fla.
The traditional season begins a week later at the Mobile Bay Intercollegiate, hosted by South Alabama on February 14-16. Matchplay will occur at the Magnolia Grove Golf Course in Mobile, Ala.
The following weekend, on February 22 and 23, the team competes in the Border Olympics. The University of Houston hosts this event at the Laredo Country Club in Laredo, Tex.
Illinois State returns to action after two free off-weeks
After a pair of free weekends from competition, the team takes again to the road on March 15-16 at the La Classics Invitational. The University of Louisiana serves as the host for this event at the Oakbourne Country Club in Lafayette, La.
Two weekends later, the squad travels back to Alabama to compete in the Craft Farms Intercollegiate. Eastern Michigan and South Alabama serve as event co-hosts. It will take place at Craft Farms – Cotton Creek Golf Club in Gulf Shores, Ala.
After four consecutive tournaments in the south, the squad returns to the Midwest in back-to-back weekends at the Tiger Invitational played at The Club at Old Hawthorne in Columbia, Mo., hosted by the University of Missouri.
The next weekend, the Redbirds travel to West Lafayette, Ind., to defend its title at the Boilermaker Invitational, hosted by Purdue at the Kampen Course.
Back in action 15 days after competition at the Boilermaker Invitational, the team travels to Flossmoor, for the 2021 MVC Championships, hosted by Loyola University at Flossmoor Country Club.
Jake Leonard, a broadcast media and journalism veteran, is the editor-in-chief of Heartland Newsfeed. Leonard is also GM and program director of Heartland Newsfeed Radio Network, wrestling editor and contributing writer for Ambush Sports, a contributing writer for My Sports Vote and Midwest Sports Network, and a former contributor to Bleacher Report and Overtime Heroics. He resides at home in Nokomis, Ill. with his dog Buster.
