The collegiate golf season has just begun, and Indiana’s teams have stayed busy, already finishing three tournaments so far. However, the overall team success has yet to come for both the men’s and women’s team, as the men haven’t finished higher than third in any tournament and the women haven’t finished higher than seventh. Even though some individuals have shown they are ready to compete, both teams are far from perfection.
For the women’s team, sophomore Chloe Johnson has stepped up to the challenge.
Johnson transferred into Indiana alongside her sister, Faith, from Furman. As a highly utilized freshman, Chloe earned All-Southern Conference Team and All-Freshman Team honors in her lone season as a Paladin. She played in all 35 rounds in the 12 events that Furman competed in, and finished with an overall average of 75 strokes.
An Evansville native, Johnson moved back to Indiana to have a shot to play as a Hoosier. So far, she has embraced that transition perfectly.
In just her second tournament at Indiana, Chloe finished third overall in the Badger Invitational at the University Ridge Golf Course. In that competition, she posted the second-lowest round score marked by a Hoosier in history (-6), as well as setting a personal best collegiate score (73-66-72; -5). That performance was enough to earn her first Big Ten Co-Golfer of the Week, alongside MSU golfer Katie Lu. It was also the first time a Hoosier earned such an honor since Áine Donegan two seasons prior.
The team has not had the same success as Johnson, for the Hoosiers have struggled to find their footing. In all three tournaments so far, the Hoosiers have finished in seventh place. Their best score came from their opener at the Boilermaker Classic, where the Hoosiers shot +20 on the weekend. The most recent was one to forget, where Indiana finished at +43 in Toledo at the Glass City Invitational.
The biggest issue to address for Indiana is finding consistency, but that’s a hard issue to resolve when you’re playing a sport like golf. Dominika Burdová and Maddie May both found success competing as individuals in the first two tournaments, but have yet to see that translate in team play, as they both finished outside the top 30 at the Glass City Invitational. Indiana has also tried its luck with Chloe’s sister Faith, but she has averaged a tournament score of +18 over the past couple tournaments. Caroline Smith and Caroline Craig have shown flashes of play good enough to keep their spots, but in this case, it could be anything goes.
Ultimately, it will be head coach Brian May’s job to find the group who provides the most consistent success over the next few tournaments to solidify a go-to lineup for the rest of the season. The Hoosiers will travel to Virginia Beach on Oct. 6 to compete at the Evie Odom Invitational.
On the men’s side, it’s less of a surprise to hear success come from Indiana senior Drew Salyers, but it’s how well he has come out that has heads turning.
In the most recent tournament, Salyers finished with his second-lowest collegiate score at 12-under par (65-67-69; -12) at the Windon Memorial Classic. That effort was enough to land him second place behind Purdue golfer Herman Sekne, who broke the tournament record at 16-under par. Prior to this week’s tournament, Salyers also finished in the top 20 in both the Chicago Highlands Invitational and Folds of Honor Collegiate. Even so, Salyers’ effort this early on in the season will be one to keep an eye on.
Unlike Johnson, Salyers is no stranger to competing as a Hoosier in the Big Ten. Last season, Salyers was named to the All-Big Ten First Team, and was a PING All-Midwest Region Honoree. With an opening campaign as strong as this, Salyers may have some more accolades calling his name by the end of the year.
However, similar to the women’s team, the men have yet to find a go-to lineup that they can have confidence in week in and week out.
Along with Salyers, graduate student Noah Gillard and freshman Cole Starnes are largely considered as locks for the first five. Gillard has provided consistency over the first few tournaments, as his highest score has only reached 4-over par. In the recent Windon Memorial Classic, he earned a top-20 finish going 6-under on the weekend.
Starnes, on the other hand, had been a bit of a wildcard coming into this week’s tournament. However, after firing a 202 after three rounds and ending at third overall, he should sit comfortably at the team’s two or three spot.
Outside of those three, head coach Mike Mayer has some decisions to make. As a reminder, only four golfers score at a given time during a tournament, so finding two who could compete for a better score will be crucial in order for Indiana to rise up leaderboards.
Thomas Hursey had himself a good tourney, going even on this week’s Windon Memorial Classic, and has steadily improved since a tough outing at the Folds of Memorial Classic. He ended this week even throughout the entire tourney, so his spot is most likely safe. However, the image becomes less clear at the final spot. Indiana has given shots to both freshman Nick Piesen and fifth-year senior Eric Berggren, but both have struggled in those opportunities.
An interesting move this week at the Windon Memorial Classic was having redshirt junior Robert Bender compete as an individual. He took the duty well, as he worked out going 2-under on the tournament and finished just inside the top 35. With Bender’s more-than-acceptable performance, this could give him a shot to earn his way into the top five moving forward.
The men are back in action in the Fighting Irish Classic this coming Sunday, Oct. 1.
Either way, both the men’s and women’s teams have a full year’s worth of golf to figure out, so changes and lineup shifts will be apparent. However, the individual success from Chloe Johnson and Drew Salyers is a good sign of personal development inside the program.
