LAREDO, Texas – The Illinois State men's golf team kicked off the spring season in a big way, dominating the strong field en route to the team title at the 2024 Border Olympics, while setting school record for lowest tournament score and tying the individual tournament scoring record in the process.
The Redbirds put together rounds of 280, 273, and 279 for an 832, breaking the previous program record for lowest tournament score by four strokes. The previous record was set less than a year ago at the 2023 MVC Championship. Valentin Peugnet shot his way to a second medalist honor of the 2023-24 season with a 199, becoming the second golfer in program history to shoot a three-round score under 200, joining current teammate Alex McCulla who opened the fall season with his sub-200 score.
In all, four of the top-eight tournament scores in program history have come from this season through six events, as both Peugnet and McCulla have scoring averages under 70 through 18 rounds on the year.
ISU's team score of 832 (-32) was 16 strokes better than the three-team team runner-up grouping of Lipscomb, North Texas, and Rice with an 846. Tournament host Houston (852), Michigan (852), and Sam Houston (852) tied for fifth, while ULM (853), Troy (853), New Mexico State (862), Miami (863), Wright State (869), Western Carolina (874), Lamar (875), Bowling Green (886), Houston Christian (888), and Abilene Christian rounded out the 17 schools in the tournament field.
For the Redbirds individually, Peugnet and McCulla finished first and second in the field with a 199 and 204, respectively. TJ Barger, behind a season-low final round of 68, tied for 12th with a season-low 211. Felix van Dijk and Parker Wisdom each shot a three-round 221 to tie for 52nd in the tournament field.
Peugnet alternated between par and birdie for the first six holes of the round, and with a birdie on his ninth hole he made the turn at four strokes under par. Two birdies, six pars and a bogey over his final half of the course gave him his final-round 67.
Barger's season-low round saw him open with a birdie on the first hole, as he finished strong with three birdies over his final eight holes to close at -4 on the round and -5 for the tournament.
McCulla had a steady round with 14 pars, three birdies and a bogey, finishing with the two-under 70 for the round.
Wisdom closed his steady tournament with a 74, as he shot either a 73 or 74 over all three rounds of the tournament. His final round saw him card two birdies, 13 pars and three over-par scores. van Dijk had three birdies in his final round of 77, while also adding nine pars and six over-par scores.
The squad returns to play on Sunday February 25 at the Dorado Beach Collegiate hosted by UNCG in Dorado, Puerto Rico.
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