Northwestern Moves Up to Fourth at Big Ten Championships

4/28/2012 12:00:00 AM | Men's Golf

April 28, 2012

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Big Ten Championships Day 2 Results

FRENCH LICK, Ind. -- After firing the second-best team score of the second round Friday afternoon, Northwestern repeated that feat in Saturday's third round with an even-par 288 to move up two spots to fourth after 54 holes of competition at the 2012 Big Ten Championships on The Pete Dye Course at French Lick Resort.

NU's even-par day was topped only by No. 26 Iowa's 1-under par 287, which gave the fourth-place Wildcats a cumulative 31-over 895 (311-296-288) and six-stroke cushion over the fifth-place Hawkeyes, who are at 37-over 901. Northwestern trails a second-place tie between No. 31 Indiana and Michigan State by four shots while Illinois leads the field at 20-over 884.

Individually, senior Sam Chien (San Diego, Calif./Mt. Carmel), who entered the day in second place two shots off the lead, fired a 1-over 73 and will tee off Sunday in third position, one stroke behind second-place Matt Thompson of Michigan and eight shots behind Illinois' Luke Guthrie, who went off with a 5-under 67 Saturday. Showing how strong NU's team effort in the third round was, Chien's 73 actually was the highest score NU counted in the round.

Chien was 3-over par through four holes Saturday morning after bogeys at Nos. 1, 3 and 4. He then made up-and-down pars on four-straight holes, eliciting a "he's in good spirits and doing a good job," tweet from head coach Goss, who followed Chien all day long. On the ninth, Chien got a stroke back with a downwind 9-iron approach from 166 to 15 feet before holing the putt to turn at 2-over 38.

"A solid front nine," Goss tweeted. "Back nine is your chance."

On the back side, Chien made a poor miss on the 11th, short-siding himself before recovering with an incredible up-and-down for par on the tight pin. A spinny bunker shot on the 12th resulted in another scrambling par before a driver, 3-wood combo on the par-5 14th resulted in birdie. Though he gave one shot back at the 17th, Chien birdied the 18th to finish at 1-over 73 for the day and 2-over 218 (72-73-73) for the tournament.

Nick Losole (Scottsdale, Ariz./Scottsdale Notre Dame) made two quick bogeys early in his day at holes No. 3 and 4 but did not have a single slip up the rest of the way. After his bogey at the ridiculously tough par-3 fourth (it played more than one stroke over par Saturday), Losole reeled off seven-straight pars before a birdie at the 430-yard par-4 12th. He then made four more pars before getting back to even on the day with a birdie at the 465-yard par-4 17th hole. Losole's even-par 72 puts him in 21st individually entering the final round at 12-over 228 (82-74-72).

Sophomore Jack Perry's (Santa Barbara, Calif./Santa Barbara) round closely mirrored Losole's. Perry began with bogeys on the same two holes Losole found trouble on, then birdied the ninth and 12th to claw back to even par on the day. Six-straight pars later and Perry was in the clubhouse with an even-par 72 to enter the final round in 11th at 7-over 223 (79-72-72).

Senior Eric Chun (Ansung City, South Korea/International Christian School) carded three birdies and two bogeys on the front side Saturday, turning at 1-under 35 after a birdie at the 469-yard par-4 ninth hole. He then sandwiched a birdie at the 15th with bogeys at Nos. 14 and 16 to find himself at even par before one final birdie at the 17th enabled Chun to post a 1-under 71, a huge bounce back from his Friday scores. Chun moved up 10 spots in the individual standings to 17th at 10-over 226 (78-77-71).

Early in his round, freshman Bennett Lavin (Deerfield, Ill./Deerfield) slam dunked a pitching wedge approach from 131 yards on the second hole for an eagle. The ball landed directly in the hole, necessitating repair before his playing partner could putt. Unfortunately, two double bogeys and a triple later in the round led to a 7-over 79 for Lavin and a 54-hole total of 23-over 239 (82-78-79), good for 50th.

The final round of the 72-hole 2012 Big Ten Championships takes place tomorrow, Sunday, April 29. Live scoring is available at Golfstat.com while head coach Pat Goss will provide live updates and commentary from the course via twitter @NUGolf_Live.

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