Purdue grabs five-shot lead after opening round of Big Ten Championship at the Cricket Club

   Purdue, No. 61 in the latest Golfstat rankings, had two of just four players to better par on a rainy day at Philadelphia Cricket Club’s classic Wissahickon Course Friday as the Boilermakers grabbed the lead after the opening round of the Big Ten Championship.

   Jarle Volden, a senior from Norway, carded a 2-under-par 68 over the 7,119-yard, par-70 A.W. Tillinghast gem in Whitemarsh Township to lead the way for the Boilers. It left him in second place in the individual standings, three shots behind Minnesota’s Angus Flanagan, a sophomore from England who solved the Wissahickon Course to the tune of a 5-under 65.

   Volden’s teammate, Timmy Hildebrand, a senior from Westfield, Ind., carded a 1-under 69 to share third place with Rutgers’ Christopher Gotterup, a sophomore from Little Silver, N.J.

   Volden and Hildebrand helped Purdue post a solid 2-over 282 on a day that featured two separate rounds of storms, one early that was followed by a pretty decent window of weather. It appears  everybody completed their rounds before a more potent round of storms fired up in the early evening.

   Flanagan helped No. 91 Minnesota get a share of second place with four-time defending champion Illinois, at No. 27, the highest-ranked team in the field, at 7-over 287, five shots behind Purdue. The Big Ten competitors are going to get clearing weather, but are going to face some difficult wind for Saturday’s second round.

   Persistent winds made the Wissahickon Course play really tough when the top senior players tested the course in the Constellation Senior Players Championship in 2016.

   No. 56 Michigan State and No. 131 Rutgers are tied for fourth at 11-over 291 and No. 38 Iowa and No. 113 Indiana are tied for sixth at 13-over 293. It was a bit of a disappointing start for Penn State as the No. 58 Nittany Lions are alone in eighth place at 14-over 294.

   Joe Weiler, a sophomore from Bloomington, Ind., gave Purdue a third player inside the top five as he matched par with a 70 to join two other players tied for fifth at that figure.

   Purdue’s Cole Bradley, a sophomore home boy from West Lafayette, Ind., carded a 75 and is among the group tied for 36^th. Rounding out the Boilermaker lineup was Jason Hong, a sophomore from Australia who landed in the group tied for 64^th with a 79.

   Starting on the 11^th hole, Flanagan got it to 2-under when he made eagle at the par-5 12^th hole. He added a birdie at 15 before making his lone bogey of the round at the tough par-4 18^th hole. Flanagan went back-to-back with birdies at the second and third holes before finishing with a flourish, a birdie at his last hole of the day, the 10^th.

   It was the lowest round ever by a Minnesota golfer at the Big Ten Championship.

   Joining Purdue’s Weiler in the trio tied for fifth place at even-par 70 were Michigan State’s Donnie Trosper, a senior from Canton, Mich., and Iowa’s Gonzalo Leal Montero, a freshman from Spain.

Illinois and Ohio State had two players each in a group of seven that shared eighth place at 1-over 71.

   The Illini, who have won nine of the last ten Big Ten team crowns, were represented in the group by Michael Feagles, a junior from Scottsdale, Ariz., and Varon Chopra, a sophomore home boy from Champaign, Ill. The Buckeyes who came in at 71 were Caleb Ramirez, a senior form Blythe, Calif., and Will Voetsch, a senior form New Vernon, N.J.

   Rounding out the big group tied for eighth were Rutgers’ Tony Jiang, a junior from Bradenton, Fla., Michigan’s Nick Carlson, a senior from Hamilton, Mich., and Michigan State’s Troy Taylor II, a freshman from Westerville, Ohio.

   Leading the way for Penn State was Alec Bard, a junior from New Hartford, N.Y. who landed among the group tied for 15^th at 2-over 72. Fellow junior Ryan Davis, a junior from Berkeley Heights, N.J., was a shot behind Bard in the group tied for 24^th at 3-over 73.

   Senior Ryan Dornes, the 2014 PIAA Class AAA runnerup as a senior at Manheim Township, was a shot behind Davis in the group tied for 28th at 4-over 74. Charles Huntzinger, a senior from Duluth, Ga., had the final counter for the day for the Nittany Lions, a 5-over 75 that left him in the group tied for 36^th.

   It was a rough start for senior JD Hughes, who starred scholastically at Carlisle and won the 2017 Pennsylvania Amateur at White Manor Country Club. Hughes posted an 84 that left him alone in 70^th place.