"This season has been challenging at times, but very rewarding," said head coach John Carlson. "With the help of our sports medicine team, we were able to get through it and play every event we had scheduled. Now we're heading to a conference championship which will be the first for most of our guys on the team."
"We've prepared these guys for difficult golf courses and we know exactly what we can expect from each of our players. It's really going to be about continuing to stay disciplined into the greens to a difficult hole location. I'm supremely confident in their skills and abilities, and it's going to be about momentum, energy and the effort we can give for all 54 holes."
The Huskies finished ninth at the 2019 MAC Championships but return just one player that was in the lineup that year at Club Walden. Tommy Dunsire (Naperville, Ill./Naperville Central) tied for 31st at the rain-shortened event as a freshman. Dunsire has been named MAC Golfer of the Week twice this spring, earning the honor on March 4 after leading NIU to a dual match victory over Missouri State to open the year with a five-under par score of 138. He also won the award on March 24 after tying for 20th at the Twin Oaks Intercollegiate with a 54-hole score of five-over par 218.
Senior Jordan Less (Elmhurst, Ill./York) is NIU's leader in scoring average at 73.59 this season heading into the MAC Championship. Less has been NIU's top finisher in each of the last three events with four top-30 finishes in six tournament this spring. On April 11, Less carded a season-low round of three-under par 69 to finish fourth at the Aggie Invitational at one-under. He followed that up with a 12th place showing at the Hawkeye Invitational. In 2018, Less tied for 29th at the MAC Championship which was held at Sycamore Hills that year.
The Huskies have been tested this spring against some of the best college golf teams in the nation. Five teams ranked in the top-50 of the Golfstat rankings were at last weekend's Robert Kepler Intercollegiate at Ohio State. At the Aggie Invitational earlier this month, NIU faced off with seven of the top-40 teams in the country including top-ranked Oklahoma. Carlson believes that has set up NIU for what is ahead of them at Sycamore Hills this weekend.
"Sycamore Hills will offer a unique challenge just because it's a difficult golf course and you're playing for a conference title," Carlson said. "We definitely have prepared our players for this moment by playing at Texas A&M, San Diego, and Ohio State that offered NCAA regional, and even championship, types of setups. The difficulty in the course lies tee to green. We definitely have really solid iron players and those games will transfer well to Sycamore Hills. We'll have to play from the fairway though, and the five guys that go out there hopefully will have their best tee game throughout the entire 54 holes of the event."
Play begins Friday morning at 7:30 a.m. CT with the first of two rounds that day. Saturday's final round will also begin at 7:30 a.m.
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Huskies Ready To Take On The Field At MAC Championships - Northern Illinois University Athletics
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