Men's Golf | September 23

MADISON, Wis. – Junior Craig Long (Alpharetta, Ga./Milton) of the Northern Illinois University golf team became the first Huskie in two years to earn medalist honors on Tuesday, winning the Badger Invitational hosted by Wisconsin at TPC Wisconsin.
 
Long finished with a career-low 54-hole score of 11-under par 205. This is the lowest 54-hole score by an NIU golfer since Joo-Young Lee won the Desert Shootout in 2016 with a -14 202.
 
"Craig was elite in his final 27 holes this week," said head coach John Carlson. "He was a very deserving champion. The amount of work our captain puts in, both with making himself better and our team better, every week is certainly not going unnoticed. His 65 today with no bogeys will go down as one of the best rounds in NIU history."
 
The junior opened the tournament with a one-under par 71 in Monday's opening round, putting four birdies on the card. Long was one-over par through the first nine holes of his second round when he started his climb up the leaderboard. He played the back nine of his second round at four-under par, making birdies on 10 and 11 and adding an eagle on the par-four 16^th to move to four-under par for the tournament and into a tie for sixth.
 
"We got through 28 holes yesterday and at that point I was one-under par," said Long. "I just told myself to just do my process and it really paid off. I just got in this zone and my ability and talent took over. I was just super focused and was just enjoying what I was doing."
 
Long saved his best golf for Tuesday's final round. He carded a seven-under par 65, one stroke shy of tying the NIU single-round scoring record. Long had seven birdies and no bogeys on his scorecard, with four straight birdies from hole nine to 12. The junior played his final 27 holes at -11 to take the individual title.
 
"I tried to treat every shot the same," Long said. "Whether I was putting for bogey or birdie or four birdies in a row, northern really changes for me. When you have that attitude, you can string together a lot of birdies because the putt is just one shot like the others."
 
Redshirt-Freshman Devin Swoyer (Hinsdale, Ill./Hinsdale Central) also finished in the top-10 at Wisconsin. Swoyer tied for seventh at four-under par. He had NIU's low score in round one with a two-under par 70 with five birdies. Swoyer had four birdies in the second round on his way to another round of 70. He finished the tournament Tuesday with a final round 72.
"Nothing was by chance this week for Devin in his first team event," said Carlson. "He drove the ball great the entire week and had a slew of putts today that hung on the edge that could have moved him further up the leaderboard."
 
The Huskies posted a team score of three-under par 861 to finish fifth. Toledo took fourth place at -5. Southern Mississippi won the team title at -23, 10 strokes ahead of Southern Illinois and Illinois State.
 
"Our guys persevered and played with more discipline this week," Carlson said. "They also played with a lot more confidence. I don't know if having a true competitor like Devin in the lineup or Craig doing what he did really helped the other guys understand that we're here as a team. They looked like a team for almost all 54 holes this week and I can't wait to go to Michigan and build off this performance."
 
NIU is action next week, Sept. 28-29, at the Jim DeLapa Collegiate hosted by Central Michigan at Point O' Woods Golf & Country Club in Benton Harbor, Mich.
 
--NIU--
 
NIU Results
1. Craig Long                                       71-69-65=205 (-11)
T-7. Devin Swoyer                           70-70-72=212 (-4)
T-53. Conner McCall                    72-78-73=223 (+7)
T-68. Corentin Guilloux             78-71-78=227 (+11)
T-73. Beau Petersen                     73-78-77=228 (+12)
 
Individuals
T-29. Jack Mulligan                        73-74-72=219 (+3)
T-47. Patrick Raupp                      73-77-72=222 (+6)
87. Stuart Nesbitt                           86-90-87=263 (+47)