DEKALB, Ill. – The Northern Illinois University men's golf team plays its final tournament before the Mid-American Conference Championship this weekend when it takes part in the Robert Kepler Intercollegiate, hosted by Ohio State.
 
Tournament: Robert Kepler Intercollegiate
Location: Columbus, Ohio
Course: The Ohio State University Golf Club, Scarlet Course
Format: 54 holes
Start Times: 7:40 a.m. ET Saturday; 8:00 a.m. ET Sunday
Par: 71
Yardage: 7,455
 
Field (16)
NIU, Ohio State, Ball State, Bowling Green, Colgate, Francis Marion, Illinois, Iowa, Kent State, Miami, Michigan State, Penn State, Purdue, Rutgers, Wisconsin, Xavier
 
Lineup
1. Thomas DeMarco; 2. Joo-Young Lee; 3. Matt Cholod; 4. Jordan Less; 5. Paul Schlimm; Ind. Salvador Rocha
 
The Huskies are coming off their best finish of the spring, tying for sixth place at last weekend's Boilermaker Invitational. NIU tied for sixth in the rain-shortened event with Cincinnati, finishing ahead of Big Ten members Michigan, Wisconsin, and Ohio State on a day of extreme changing conditions.
 
"Usually when you start a tournament, you're teeing off early and it gets a little warmer and sometimes a little windier and you adjust," said director of golf Tom Porten. "To see the temperature go up and then back down quickly and the wind to come from all directions was just bizarre. I thought they handled it very well. The stuff we worked on in between Missouri and Purdue, reading shots and taking the extra few seconds, were a necessity."
 
Sophomore Jordan Less (Elmhurst, Ill./York) led NIU with a one-over par 145 last weekend, tying for 12^th place. He posted a one-under par 71 in his second round that led to his best finish of the season. Junior Paul Schlimm (Shorewood, Ill./Crystal Lake Central/Saint Francis) had NIU's lowest score of the tournament at Purdue with an opening round two-under par 70. He finished tied for 20^th, his best finish of the season as well.
 
"When you can get really good play across your lineup, that's always the goal," Porten said. "We want all five players in the game and relevant in the middle of the round towards the end of the round. For the first time all year, we pretty much had that. To get the low scores we got last Saturday, those are the things that keep you close to the lead and not just stay afloat and stay out of the bottom."  
 
NIU will get a bit of a preview of what is ahead of them for the Mid-American Conference Championship next weekend at Sycamore Hills in Fort Wayne, Ind. Both Sycamore Hills and the Scarlet Course at Ohio State are Jack Nicklaus designs, and Porten said this could be a benefit for the Huskies.
 
"The visual of it is the same as Scarlet, especially the green complexes with shelves and big sections of slope and contour," said Porten on Sycamore Hills. "Having that kind of familiarity to the eye is important for our guys, because they're going to be looking at lines and are going to have to shape shots around bunkers and if they can do that this week, it has a chance to translate at the conference."
 
Play begins Saturday morning with two rounds of competition, with the tournament wrapping up Sunday.
 
--NIU--