ANN ARBOR, Mich. — The University of Michigan men’s golf team heads to the Chicagoland area to continue its fall season as the Wolverines will play in Wake Forest’s Highlands Invitational, Monday and Tuesday (Sept. 18-19) in Westchester, Ill. The 14-team field will play 54-holes (36-18) at the Chicago Highlands Club.
Notes
• There will be 14 teams among the field for the Highlands Invitational, including: College of Charleston, Duke, Furman, Houston, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Penn State, Rutgers, Virginia, Wake Forest and Yale.
• U-M will travel five starters to Chicago for the Highlands Invitational. Senior Will Anderson and junior Hunter Thomson head up the starters with redshirt-juniors Ben Hoagland and Jack O’Donnell and junior Yuqi Liu rounding out the five. It is the second straight event for U-M’s starting five.
• Thomson will make his 25th consecutive start for the Wolverines. He has not missed a tournament for U-M in three seasons. Anderson will start his 15th straight event for U-M and 29th of his 30-event career.
• After his career-best performance helped U-M win the Island Resort Intercollegiate (Sept. 3-4), Thomson earned his third career Big Ten Golfer of the Week accolade. He set his career-best 54-hole total with a 202 (-14) tally after rounds of 71 (-1), a career-low 65 (-7) and 66 (-6), to earn a runner-up finish — the third of his career. The 202 tally tied the U-M mark for second-lowest 54-hole tally in program history (Bill Rankin, 2008 The Maxwell).
• Thomson’s 202 (-14) tally was the 11th sub-par 54-hole total of his 24-event career.
• In addition to Thomson’s start, Hoagland used a career-low 64 (-8) in the second round of the Island Resort Intercollegiate to record a new career-low 54-hole total of 206 (-10) — topping his prior best by four shots (210, -6) set the year prior at the Island Resort. In six rounds over the last two years at Sage Run, he has yet to post a round above par and has twice fired his career best single-round total.
• A total of four career bests fell at the season opener. After Thomson and Hoagland, O’Donnell posted a career-low 215 (-1; 71-72-72), while Liu followed with his career-best 216 (E, 75-72-69).
• U-M’s 834 (-30) season-opening tally at the Island Resort Intercollegiate marked the second-lowest 54-hole team tournament total in program history. With career-lows by Hoagland (64, -8) and Thomson (65, -7), U-M posted a 273 (-15) second-round team total, giving the Wolverines their fourth lowest all-time.
• Anderson and Thomson were the only Wolverines to start all 12 events a year ago. The duo combined to finish as the top Wolverine in 10 of those events (Thomson eight times, Anderson twice). Thomson paced the Wolverines with his 72.81 scoring average, while Anderson was just behind at 73.59.
• In fact, the Wolverine duo of Anderson and Thomson have dominated U-M’s statistics the last two seasons. They have combined for 37 of U-M’s 75 sub-par tallies. Additionally, the duo has recorded 13 of the last 24 sub-70 rounds — Thomson (eight) and Anderson (five). For his career, Thomson has averaged 72.95 per round, while Anderson is holding at 73.85.
