Champaign, Ill. - The final stretch of the men's golf season is vastly approaching and Illinois and several others will have its final post-season tune-up this weekend at the Boilermaker Invitational.

The Illini have broken a regular season record with five tournament victories during the 2008-09 season and are looking to match the fall's three straight tourney victories with a team title at the Kampen Course in West Lafayette, Ind. Illinois is returning to the site of last year's NCAA Championships, where the Illini placed 17th.

"It won't be the same golf course in terms of the rough we faced last year at NCAAs," said Illinois head coach Mike Small. "It will be challenging and one where players will be tested from tee to green. It's not a course you can fake your way around. That does help in preparing us for the Big Tens."

With two weeks until the Big Ten Championships, the top two ranked Big Ten teams will square off in a stroke play event for the first time since the fall. Indiana, who features the nation's current number one player in Jorge Campillo, is sixth in the latest Golf World /Nike Coaches poll, sixth in the Golfstat computer index, and ninth in the Golfweekrankings. Illinois, meanwhile, is 15th, 16th, and 14th, in those rankings, respectively.

The Illini and the Hoosiers met four times during the fall with Illinois coming out on top in three of those four, including 1-2 finishes at both the Olympia Fields/Fighting Illini Invitational and Windon Memorial. Indiana finished the fall strong with a third place in a competitive Isleworth Invitational Field then won the Big Ten Match Play in February.

With a total of seven Big Ten teams in this weekend's field, fans will get a mini preview of the Big Ten meet, which will be held May 1-3 in State College, Pa. Michigan State, 34th in the latest Golfstat rankings, joins Iowa (63rd), Penn State (64th), Purdue (79th) and Wisconsin (84th). The rest of the field includes Bowling Green, Bryant, Cleveland State, Columbia, Eastern Michigan, Iowa State, IUPUI, Loyola of Chicago, Miami (Ohio), Northern Illinois and Toledo.

The Boilermaker Invitational opens on Saturday, April 18 with a shotgun start at 8:30 am EDT with the competitors playing 36 holes on Saturday and 18 more on Sunday. Last year Illinois was sixth in the 14-team field.

Illinois is coming off tournament victories at the FAU Spring Invitational and Marshall University Invitational where the Orange and Blue's Scott Langley and Zach Barlow, took home individual titles at those events, respectively.

"We need to see some improvement in scoring shots and take advantage of the par fives a little more," said Small in assessing his team at the moment. "But overall, we're doing well, coming off a couple wins, and we're anxious to see that momentum continue." 

Compliments of the University of Illinois Golf website