Men's Golf | April 27
WESTFIELD, Ind. – The Northern Illinois University men's golf team dropped one place on the leaderboard Saturday at the 2024 Mid-American Conference Men's Golf Championship at The Club at Chatham Hills, moving to fourth place after a one-under par round of 287.
"It was very close to a great day scoring wise," said head coach
John Carlson. "We gave away a few shots coming in on the last four holes. We were in a position to really gain some ground on the leaders but we'll be playing from behind tomorrow."
NIU was nine-under a team through 14 holes on Saturday, led by sophomore
Ian Bruchhauser (Temecula, Calif./Great Oak). Bruchhauser started his round with back-to-back birdies before adding an eagle at the par-five seventh to go to four-under on the day. He made birdies on the 12
th and 14
th holes to go to six-under before recording his first bogey at 15. Bruchhauser made bogeys on three of the last four holes to finish with NIU's low round of the day, a four-under par 68 that moved him into a tie for 11
th at one-under for the tournament. His 68 tied his career-low round as a Huskie set in the first round of last season's NCAA Regional.
"Ian was at his best today, both from a scoring standpoint and his mentality on the course," Carlson said. "He handled the size and pressure of the moment and has always done a great job of that."
Ben Sluzas (Lockport, Ill./Lockport) in the highest-ranking Huskie on the leaderboard, entering Sunday's final round in a tie for ninth at two-under par. Sluzas carded an even par round of 72 on Saturday that featured five birdies. After starting two-over through four holes, the junior birdied four of his next 10 holes to go to two-under. He double-bogeyed the 15
th and bogeyed the 17
th before making a birdie at 18 to finish even par.
Craig Long (Alpharetta, Ga./Milton) was also even par on Saturday, a four-stroke improvement from Friday's opening round. He is tied for 21
st in the tournament at +4.
Felix Krammer (Waakirchen, Germany/Arkansas State) rounded out the NIU scoring group in the second round with a three-over par 75. He is tied for 13
th at even par through 36 holes going into the final round.
"We were doing so many great things as a team and making a lot of birdies," said Carlson. "We're playing the par-fives great as well as the par-threes. We've just had difficulty scoring on holes four and 16 and it took a toll on us today."
NIU was one of four teams to go under par Saturday. At one-under par through 36 holes, the Huskies are four strokes back of third-place Toledo going into the final round. Ball State leads the tournament at -13, three strokes ahead of Miami. Toledo's Barend Botha leads the individual race at 11-under par with Mami's Michael Weber and Danny Fisher tied for second at -7.
"Our team truly feels like we're ready to be a championship program and we'll have another opportunity at it tomorrow," Carlson said. "There's been many teams that have come back from bigger deficits than we'll face tomorrow. We have to eliminate the double and triple bogeys and if we keep making the birdies we're making, we'll climb up the leaderboard."
Sunday's final round begins at 8 a.m. CT.
--NIU--
