Men's Golf | May 1

DeKALB, IL – The Northern Illinois University men's golf team looks to close its run in the Mid-American Conference with its second championship in four years as the 2026 MAC Championship begins on Sunday, May 3 at The Club at Holliday Farms in Zionsville, Ind. The tournament runs through Tuesday, May 5.
 
"When I came here, I certainly wanted to win MAC Championships but I also wanted us be recognized as a program nationally," said head coach John Carlson. "This spring we went from Vanderbilt with five of the top 12 teams in the country in the field, followed by Ohio State and Indiana with four top-50 programs."
 
The Huskies have finished in the top four in each of the last five conference tournaments, highlighted by winning the 2023 championship at Canebrake Club. NIU has a second-place finish from 2021 and two third place showings in 2022 at White Eagle Golf Club in Naperville and again in 2024.
 
NIU was fourth at the 2025 MAC Championship at Pinnacle Golf Club. Craig Long  (Alpharetta, Ga./Milton) was the Huskies' top finisher last season, tying for fourth with a 54-hole score of two-under par 214. It was the fourth time in the last five MAC Championships that NIU had a golfer place in the top five.
 
Long is one of three Huskies this season to earn MAC Golfer of the Week honors. He earned the honor on Sept. 26 after winning the Badger Invitational with a career-low 11-under par 205 that included a final round career-best 65. It was Long's first career individual win and the fourth individual win by a Huskie in the last five years. He is second on the team in scoring average this season at 72.933.
 
Sophomore Conner McCall (Vandalia, Ill./Vandalia) leads NIU in scoring average at 72.767, an improvement of over two strokes per round from his freshman season. McCall has a pair of top-10 finishes this season. He tied for eighth at the Quail Valley Collegiate in October with a 54-hole score of nine-under par 207. McCall earned MAC Golfer of the Week honors on Feb. 27 after tying for sixth at the Lake Las Vegas Invitational with a seven-under par 209.
 
NIU's lineup for the MAC Championship is rounded out by redshirt-freshman Devin Swoyer (Hinsdale, Ill./Hinsdale Central) and sophomores Beau Petersen (Gretna, Neb./Gretna) and Patrick Raupp (Arlington Heights, Ill./Prospect). Swoyer led NIU to a sixth-place finish at the Purdue Fall Invitational in October. He tied for fifth with a three-under par 213 and was named MAC Golfer of the Week. Petersen was NIU's top finisher in two tournaments this season. He tied for 27^th at Georgia Southern's Schenkel Invitational in March with an even par 54-hole score of 216. Raupp is third on the team in scoring average at 73.625.
 
"These guys try to outwork each other every day," Carlson said. "They do well in the classroom and still find time to hone their games. Rich Harvest Farms is an amazing practice facility to do that on. That's a strength of our core and it's certainly gotten more difficult to get in the lineup each tournament."
 
NIU enters the MAC with two top-five finishes this season, a fifth-place showing at the Badger Invitational and tying for third at the Lake Las Vegas Invitational.
 
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