Live Scoring / Purdue Statistics
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- The Purdue men's golf team looks to finish its fall season on a high note as it heads to the Tar Heel State to defend its title at the Bridgestone Golf Collegiate.
Action will start Sunday with 36 holes, beginning at 8:30 a.m. ET with a shotgun start at the Grandover Resort's West Course in Greensboro, North Carolina. Purdue will be paired with UNC Greenboro and Virginia Tech for the first two rounds.
One player looking forward to the weekend is sophomore Timmy Hildebrand. The Westfield, Indiana, native has been one of Purdue's top players this fall, placing a career-best 17th in last weekend's star-studded Tavistock Invitational.
Entering the season, he had played in three competitive tournaments as a freshman at Purdue with one top-30 finish at the Hoosier Collegiate. However, already this year, he has recorded two top-20 finishes (also T-18th at the Wolf Run Intercollegiate) and owns a 74.18 stroke average.
Hildebrand has also used his experiences in amateur golf to gain more confidence this year. He won the 2015 Indiana Open, holding off Purdue alum and Web.com Tour star Adam Schenk in the final round, while placing second in the 2016 event.
For the sophomore from Westfield, it was all about getting accustomed to collegiate golf.
"The biggest difference for me this year is having that year of experience under my belt and being more comfortable on the course. I'm able to step out there with more confidence and know that I can hit good shots and stay patient when I hit bad shots," Hildebrand said. "A big part of it for me was understanding, especially in golf, you aren't always going to succeed. You are going to hit bad shots. The sooner you can recognize that every tournament and every shot isn't going to go perfect, it takes off some pressure and you can just go out and play."
Head coach Rob Bradley sees a new confidence in Hildebrand as well.
"He had a hard time adjusting to college golf at first and the college lifestyle with his classwork and his engineering schedule," Bradley said. "This year, he's working harder, working on technique issues with his short game and has just continued to improve. He's embraced team college golf and is showing more confidence in his game."
Purdue won last year team title with a school-record score of 834 (275-272-289; -30) to defeat North Carolina by two shots. Austin Eoff won his first career individual title with a tally of 13-under par 203 (64-67-72), which remains the third-best individual score by a Purdue player in school history.
Teams competing this weekend include top-50 programs Duke (No. 16), Purdue (No. 27), Liberty (No. 32) and Northwestern (No. 33). Other top-100 teams are Virginia Tech (No. 59), North Carolina State (No. 64), Iowa State (No. 72) and Georgia State (No. 94). Rounding out the field is Davidson (No. 231), Kansas State (No. 113), UNC Greensboro (No. 133), Utah (No. 120) and VCU (No. 181).
#BoilerNotes
1) This will be the second event of the season where Purdue is the defending champ. However, it hopes for different results. Purdue won the 2015 Windon Memorial Classic in record-setting fashion, but slipped to a disappointing seventh in this year's event. The Boilermakers were playing that event without their No. 3 golfer Fernando Barco, who was representing Peru in the World Amateur Team Championships in Mexico.
2) Austin Eoff will appear in his 43rd career event this weekend and his 127th career round. Just six players have played more golf at Purdue than Eoff (Dustin Cone, Pariya Junhasavasdikul, Chris Mayson, Peter Richardson, Adam Schenk and Lee Williamson), but few, if any, have done it better. Eoff is the career leader at Purdue in stroke average (72.80) and has three of the top 14 (not including this year, which currently ranks seventh) single-season stroke average totals. He has placed in the top 20 in 23 of his previous 42 events and has 14 top-10 finishes, the fourth most in school history.
3) To say Purdue's fortunes have changed under head coach Rob Bradley would be an understatement. In 42 events during the Bradley era (fourth year), Purdue has placed in the top five in 24 of them. In the six full previous years (2007-08 to 2012-13) prior to his arrival, Purdue had 25 top-five finishes in 72 events played.
4) Lastly, Purdue enters the weekend having played one of the toughest schedules in America, according to Golfweek. The Boilermakers are well ahead of the mandatory .500 record (33-19-2) for postseason play and thanks to their tough schedule, are in position for a high seed if they keep up the strong play. Purdue was 1-of-4 teams (Purdue, Illinois, North Carolina, Arizona State) to appear in the two-best tournaments of the fall, the OFCC / Fighting Illini Invitational and the Tavistock Invitational. Purdue's current strength of schedule is 31st, which ranks second in the Big Ten behind Ohio State (9th). The Boilermakers will also compete in the elite Puerto Rico Classic and the Hootie at Bull's Bay Intercollegiate this spring, which will almost ensure Purdue's schedule strength will remain the same.
