Illinois cruises to Big Ten ttile as Hardy rallies past Penn State's Miller for individual crown

   In the end, it took a tremendous round in difficult conditions on a tough golf course by the No. 13 player in the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR) to deny Penn State senior Cole Miller, a Northwestern Lehigh product, a Big Ten individual title.

   Miller, winner of the individual title in the NCAA Washington Regional a year ago, led the Big Ten field by four shots going into Sunday’s final round after adding a 5-under 65 Saturday to his opening-round 68 at Baltimore Country Club’s challenging Five Farms East Course.

   But Illinois’ Nick Hardy, a senior from Northbrook, Ill. who has been nothing but excellent for four years for head coach Mike Small in Champaign, fired a brilliant 3-under 67 over the 7,181-yard, par-70 Five Farms East Course layout in weather that turned cold and windy Sunday to make it eight straight medalists for the premier program in the Big Ten.

   Hardy had respective rounds of 69 and 68 Friday and Saturday and his remarkable final round, three shots better than anyone else in the field could register, gave him a 6-under 204 total.

   Miller, winner of the 2016 Pennsylvania Amateur at Moselem Springs Golf Club, could do no better than a 3-over 73 in the difficult conditions, but was the only other player to end up under par at 4-under 206 for a solid runnerup finish.

   Hardy paved the way for the Fighting Illini, No. 12 in the latest Golfstat rankings, to claim its fourth straight Big Ten title and ninth in 10 years with a 4-under 836 total that was 15 shots clear of the field.

   Illinois’ final round of 7-over 287 was easily the best round of the day, but the Illini took control of the tournament with a remarkable 12-under 268 in Saturday’s second round when the Five Farms East Course was obviously at its most scoreable. Illinois opened with a 1-over 281 and trailed Ohio State by two shots.

   No. 73 Ohio State, making a play for an NCAA regional berth, had a solid runnerup finish at 11-over 851. The Buckeyes struggled in the final round with a 301, but had that 1-under 279 in the opening round that gave them the team lead and followed it up with a strong 9-under 271 in Saturday’s second round that nearly matched Illinois’ 268.

   No. 74 Iowa was another eight shots behind Ohio State in third at 19-over 859 after a final-round 296.

   Miller’s runnerup finish led No. 42 Penn State to a fourth-place finish at 20-over 860. The Nittany Lions opened with a 4-over 284, added a 1-under 279 and struggled along with the rest of the field Sunday with a 297.

   No. 36 Northwestern was another three shots behind Penn State in fifth at 23-over 863 after a final round of 295.

   Hardy led four Illinois players who finished in the top eight in the individual standings. Bryan Baumgarten, a sophomore from Granite Bay, Calif., and Michael Feagles, a sophomore from Scottsdale, Ariz., finished among a group of three players tied for fifth at 2-over 212.

   Baumgarten opened with a 1-under 69, added a 2-over 72 and finished up with a 1-over 71 in Sunday’s tough conditions. Feagles opened and closed with 74s, but erupted for the low round of the tournament, a 6-under 64, in Saturday’s second round.

   Dylan Meyer, a senior from Evansville, Ind. and the No. 5 player in the WAGR, finished in a tie for eighth at 3-over 213. After a pair of 69s, Meyer finished up with a 5-over 75. Meyer won the Big Ten title a year ago at the Five Farms East Course with a 5-under 205 total.

   Giovanni Tadiotto, a sophomore from Belgium, rounded out the Illinois lineup as he finished in the group tied for 22^nd at 217. But Tadiotto contributed a sparkling 3-under 67 to the Illini’s spectacular 12-under second-round team showing.

   Northwestern’s Dylan Wu finished alone in third at even-par 216. Wu opened with a 1-under 79 and added a 2-under 68 before finishing up with a 73. Ohio State’s Will Grimmer, a junior from Cincinnati, Ohio, was another shot behind Wu in fourth at 1-over 211. Grimmer opened with an even-par 70 and added a 1-under 69 before posting a solid 2-over 72 in Sunday’s final round. Grimmer earned a share of second a year ago at the Five Farms East Course.

   Sharing fifth with the Illinois duo of Baumgarten and Feagles at 2-over 212 was Maryland’s David Kocher, a senior from Charlotte, N.C. who struggled in Sunday’s final round with a 75 after opening with a 69 and adding a 68 in Saturday’s more benign conditions.

   Iowa’s Benton Weinberg, a sophomore from Potomac, Md., shared eighth place with Illinois’ Meyer at 3-over 213. Weinberg sandwiched a 1-under 69 in Saturday’s second round with a pair of 2-over 72s.

   Ryan Davis, such a key player in Penn State’s run to the NCAA Championship as a freshman a year ago, backed up Miller by finishing in the group tied for 18^th at 6-over 216. The sophomore from Berkeley Heights, N.J. came up big for the Nittany Lions with a 3-under 67 in Saturday’s second round. He opened with a 75 and closed with a 74.

   Alec Bard, a sophomore from New Hartford, N.Y., finished in the group tied for 28^th at 9-over 219 after a solid final-round 73. Charles Huntzinger, a junior from Duluth, Ga., was another shot behind Bard in the group tied for 31^st at 220. Huntzinger opened with a solid 1-over 71, but fell back a little with a 73 in Saturday’s second round and finished up with a 76 Sunday.

   Junior JD Hughes, the Carlisle product, was scheduled to tee it up for Penn State in the Big Ten Championship, but was a last-minute scratch with an injury Friday. Ironically, junior Ryan Dornes, who missed Penn State’s postseason run a year ago with an injury, was called on to replace Hughes, although Dornes, who was on Manheim Township’s 2012 PIAA Class AAA championship team as a sophomore,  didn’t make it to Baltimore until after Friday's first round was under way.

   Dornes’ final-round 75 was a counter for Penn State, but the Nittany Lions had no margin for error with just four players in the opening-round lineup.

   Penn State was coming off a third-place finish in the Robert Kepler Intercollegiate at The Ohio State University’s Scarlet Course, which will host one of the six NCAA regionals, last weekend. Purdue, which finished eighth this weekend, but will get a ticket to an NCAA regional, finished ahead of Illinois in the Kepler, but the Illini reasserted their dominance this weekend.

   The NCAA regional bids will be announced Wednesday on The Golf Channel and I expect Greg Nye’s Penn State team to get one. I was a little surprised the Nittany Lions made it last year when they were ranked 50^th going into the Big Ten Championship, but they certainly validated the selection by advancing to the NCAA Championship as a ninth seed in the Washington Regional.

   It was a pretty good week overall for Penn State golf. Junior Cara Basso, who captured the PIAA Class AA title as a sophomore at Villa Maria Academy, received an invitation to compete as an individual in the NCAA Madison Regional. It was a pretty nice consolation prize for Denise St. Pierre’s program, which battled hard, but didn’t quite make the cut for a team berth.

   I’ll have a little more on Basso when I get a chance to evaluate the women’s field sometime before the regionals tee off May 7. But there are a few more men’s conference championships still on the to-do list.