Men
ANN ARBOR, Mich. — The University of Michigan men’s golf team heads to the Upper Peninsula to open its 2024-25 season for a fourth straight year at South Dakota State’s Island Resort Intercollegiate, Sunday and Monday (Sept. 1-2) in Bark River, Mich. The 12-team field will play 54 holes (36-18) at Sage Run Golf Club.
Notes
• Michigan makes its fourth straight season-opening trip to the Island Resort Intercollegiate in Bark River, Mich. After back-to-back third-place team finishes in 2021 (880) and 2022 (860), Hunter Thomson‘s runner-up finish paced a record-breaking performance for the Maize and Blue last season as U-M won the team title with an 834 (-30) team tally and set several career bests.
• In addition to Thomson’s 202 (-14; 71-65-66) last year at the Island Resort, Ben Hoagland used a career tally of his own to finish third last season at 206 (-10; 72-64-70). In six rounds over the last two years at Sage Run, both Thomson and Hoagland have yet to post a round over par. Thomson has averaged 69.2 per round (71, 65, 66, 72, 70 and 71) with Hoagland just behind at 69.3 per round (72, 64, 70, 72, 67, 71).
• U-M’s 834 tally in 2023 marked the second lowest 54-hole team tournament total in program history. With career lows by Hoagland (64, -8) and Thomson (65, -7), U-M posted a 273 (-15) second-round team total, giving the Wolverines their fourth lowest all-time.
• The 2024 Island Resort field will be made up of 12 teams, including: Boise State, Central Florida, Georgia, Illinois State, Miami (Ohio), Michigan, North Texas, Northern Illinois, Purdue, South Dakota State (host), St. Mary’s (Calif.) and VCU.
• U-M will travel five starters and an individual to the Island Resort. Seniors Yuqi Liu and Thomson and fifth-year senior Hoagland head up the starting five, while freshmen RJ Arone and Dean Muratore will make their collegiate debuts. Sophomore Caden Pinckes will make his collegiate debut as an individual.
• With his 70.56 scoring average last season, All-Big Ten first teamer Thomson set a new Wolverine single-season record, topping former All-American Kyle Mueller’s 70.76 average in 2017-18. They are the only Wolverines to average below 71 in program history. In 2023-24, Thomson paced the Wolverines in 10 of 13 events, won his first collegiate event at the Palmas del Mar Collegiate with a career-low 201 (68-69-64) and was invited to his first NCAA postseason appearance.
• Adding to U-M’s veteran presence, Hoagland returns after a career year last season. His 72.61 scoring average was a career low by just over two shots (74.96; 2022-23) and he posted five sub-par 54-hole totals. Liu, one of four Wolverines to play in every event, finished with a career-low 73.81 per-round average.
• U-M coach Zach Barlow has not shied away from early challenges, setting up the Wolverines’ fall schedule with five consecutive weekend events in September. This will allow Barlow to challenge his program and find out what he has early before the spring and postseason seasons.
Women
ANN ARBOR, Mich. — The University of Michigan women’s golf team open its fall schedule in Big Ten country, heading to West Lafayette, Ind., on Monday and Tuesday (Sept. 2-3) for Purdue’s Boilermaker Classic. The two-day, 54-hole event will be held at the Birck Boilermaker Golf Complex’s Kampen-Cosler Course.
Notes
• Michigan makes its return to West Lafayette for the first time in 15 years. The last time U-M played an event at the Birck Boilermaker Complex was at the 2009 Big Ten Championships. The Wolverines posted a seventh-place team finish with a 1,268 tally led by former All-Big Ten golfer Ashley Bauer’s 11th-place individual finish (313).
• The 2024 Boilermaker Classic field will be made up of 15 teams, including: Abilene Christian, Alabama, Ball State, Georgia Southern, James Madison, Kent State, Michigan, Minnesota, Notre Dame, Old Dominion, Purdue (host), Rutgers, Tulsa, Western Kentucky and Xavier.
• U-M will travel five starters and an individual to the season opener. Juniors Lauren Sung and Sydney Sung and redshirt-junior Mara Janess anchor U-M’s starting five, while freshmen Suzie Tran and Mimi Guo will make their collegiate debuts in West Lafayette. Sophomore Grace Wang will travel and play as an individual.
• The 2024-25 season marks a new chapter following the departure of U-M greats Monet Chun and Hailey Borja and three experienced veterans. However, with an influx of experience, four signees and the return of assistant Mandi Unruh, Jan Dowling‘s’ Wolverines will look for that next legacy moment.
• Last season, Michigan made its fifth straight trip to an NCAA regional and celebrated Chun, who won her second Big Ten title, was named the Big Ten Golfer of the Year and earned WGCA All-America honors. Now juniors, the Sung sisters return to guide U-M. Lauren started eight of her 10 events while setting a new career-best scoring average (75.23), while her twin sister, Sydney, started seven of her nine events and lowered her prior-best scoring average by nearly a stroke and a half (76.00).
• Fresh off a summer trip to her first U.S. Women’s Amateur and advancement to match play, Janess is ready to carry the confidence gained from the USGA event into her second full season. Another key for Dowling and Michigan, will be the addition of a strong freshman class — Thomasine Bartholdson, Guo, Jenna Shilts and Tran.
• Former Wolverine All-American and current professional golfer Ashley Lau became the first Michigan golfer, man or woman, to compete in the Olympics. Playing for her native country of Malaysia at the Paris Games, she used her 306 72-hole total to tie for 55th at Le Golf National.