Kurtis Luedtke
The Northern Illinois men’s golf team plays its second tournament of the week as it competes in the three-day Florida Atlantic Spring Break Championship.
The event, played at The Fountains Country Club in Lake Worth, Fla., begins today and continues through Sunday, March 25.
The Huskies are one of 15 schools set to compete at the FAU Spring Break Championship on the par-71, 6,876-yard North Course, including fellow MAC program Miami (Ohio). Defending tournament champion Ohio State is also in the field along with DePaul, Florida State, Michigan State, Minnesota and South Florida among others.
“We had a good day of practice today and we look forward to carrying our momentum from Central Florida into this weekend,” said NIU head coach Tom Porten. “There are a number of very good schools in this weekend’s field so we know it will be a challenging tournament but we are excited about the challenge.
“It’s a golf course where you are going to have to make birdies to be in the hunt, par will be an okay score but to be competitive with the field you are going to have to make birdies and I’m looking forward to seeing what we can do tomorrow.”
Northern Illinois will be paired with Connecticut and Xavier in Friday’s opening round with junior Kurtis Luedtke (Aurora, Ill./West) teeing off first for the Huskies at 10 a.m. ET from No. 1 tee. Luedtke’s pairing will be followed by sophomore Shawn Foley (Pewaukee, Wis./Waukesha North), junior Griffin Bauman (Crystal Lake, Ill./Central), freshman Thomas Dunne (Dublin, Ohio/Dublin Coffman) and junior Bryce Emory (Aurora, Ill./Marmion Academy), respectively for NIU. Junior Matt Gorman (Waunakee, Wis./Waunakee) will also play as an individual for the Huskies.
NIU is making a return appearance at the FAU Spring Break Championship. Last season the event was played at Gleneagles Country Club in Delray Beach, Fla., where the Huskies finished 13th, led by Andrew Frame who tied for 36th individually.
The Huskies are looking to continue their strong start to the spring season where they have recorded back-to-back top-five finished. NIU opened the spring with a third place at the Mid-American Conference Match Play before posting a fourth place effort earlier this week at the UCF Rio Pinar Invitational. Emory carded a final round 67, the best round of his collegiate career, at the 54-hole event to finish in a tie for sixth while Dunne had the best finish of his college career, tying for 17th at the Rio Pinar Invitational.
Following this weekend’s tournament, NIU will return to action at the Irish Creek Collegiate next weekend in Kannapolis, N.C.
For more information on NIU men’s golf and Huskie athletics, visit www.niuhuskies.com.
