A Hang-On Job
Editor's Note: I've written two things about the spring game but I don't particularly care for either article. So I decided to just write about the golf tournament and then try to fix those spring game words later today. I'll just say this: getting to cover the golf tournament up close and personal – just like I used to cover spring football and fall camp with one-on-one conversations (with coaches and players) instead of media scrums – was so much fun for me. I miss it so much. I hope this article helps you understand why.
See that little Gatorade bottle there? Right at the bottom of the photo at the top. It's actually not a photo. It's a screencap I just made from a video I took yesterday. I don't know why I just told you that.
But see that little Gatorade bottle? I had so much fun today because of that little Gatorade bottle (and a dozen other little things) at the Fighting Illini Spring Collegiate yesterday. Here's the Gatorade bottle story:
It was cold, and it was windy, but I went out to Atkins Golf Club to watch the final round of our home tournament. I took that photo when I was standing behind the 13th green. I had followed Ryan Voois from the 8th hole to the 11th hole but then I booked it over to 13 so I could watch several other Illini come through.
In Ethan Wilson's group, a Northwestern golfer had a chip shot from there. When he went back to grab his golf bag after chipping (he then set it down over by his putt), the Gatorade bottle fell out. Another golfer in his group was lining up a putt at that time, so I couldn't yell "hey man, you dropped your Gatorade."
In fact, there wasn't a single moment where I could say "hey man, Gatorade" because in college golf, almost no one waits around for all three putts to drop before moving on to the next hole. If you putted out first and you got a birdie, you're probably standing on the next tee before the final putt from the third guy in your group goes in because you have the honors. Pace of play pace of play.
So after looking to see if I could yell "Gatorade", I gave up and decided I would go grab it myself. I mean, what if someone's shot rolled off the back and hit the bottle? But when I went to do that, I saw that the next group was already on the tee and ready to hit. And I'm not going to be the guy who is standing on the fringe when someone is trying to hit. I've been that guy way too many times after I forgot my wedge.
All three guys in the next group hit. The golfer who came closest to the Gatorade bottle was Jackson Buchanan. And after the third guy in his group hit, I had my chance to go grab said bottle. But as I take two steps down the hill to go retrieve the bottle, a chilling thought hits me. Is JB going to think I'm walking down the hill to pick up his ball? He can't fully see over the bunker from where he's walking, so all he's going to see is me walking towards his ball, leaning down, picking something up, and walking back up the hill.
But I'm committed. I walk down there, grab the Gatorade bottle, turn around, hold it out for all to see like I'm talking to it or something ("there you are you silly little bottle!") and walk back up the hill. As has happened my entire life, I'm working through this entire scenario in my head and I'm not sure a single person even saw me walk down the hill to pick up the bottle.
I'm generally in my head like this at all golf tournaments. At one point today I had to cough so I ducked behind a tree (because tree trunks block cough sounds - it's science) and after coughing while the Michigan dude was reading his putt I spun around to go back to the other side of the tree and THUNK hit my head on a low branch. I spent the next five minutes thinking "how is it possible for you to both cough AND thunk a tree during one guys's putting routine?" He probably didn't even notice.
Anyway, being this close to the action is so much fun for me. Take the 8th green. I took this video of Ryan Voois rolling in a birdie putt:
When Voois walked off the green, he saw me standing there and as he approached he said "what's up, Robert." I extended him my knuckles and he gave them a punch as I said "nice roll." And then I immediately wondered if my presence was helpful or hurtful for him as he tried to win his first college golf tournament.
Ryan and I walked many holes together at Grayhawk. He was the 6th man last May, there as a fill-in if Mike Small needed him (every team brings their five plus a sixth man). We talked through future rosters, he introduced me to Jake Birdwell (an Illini signee who attended the national championships as well), and we talked JB's swing and Tommy's shocking distance and Adrien's steadiness. I very much enjoy getting to know Illini athletes like that. It helps me tell their stories.
So I didn't want "oh man, Robert keeps following my group" to be any kind of a thing for him. Like, he's not aware of the other scores like I'm aware of the other scores on my phone, so I feel like my presence might add pressure, him possibly thinking "I guess it must be close if Robert is needing to see what I'm doing on every hole." Again, he probably didn't care at all, but it's in my head.
Which is why I kept following his group and then jumping a few holes ahead (I didn't want to "hover" - it's stupid I know). After watching Voois' group on the 14th hole I skipped ahead to 16 green and watched three groups come through. And when Voois' approach shot skipped over the green on 16, leaving himself an impossible chip, I was worried for him. I had seen on my phone that Michigan State's Ashton McCulloch had birdied 18 to finish even par for the tournament. Voois chipped back up to the top of the hill, missed the long par putt, and tapped in for bogey to drop to -1. What was a three shot lead when he started the back nine had become a one shot lead.
And then he airmails the green on 17 as well (a par three), ending up in this impossible spot:
On a severe downslope, in the rough, with a green running away, and the pin just onto the green. No way to flop it from that downhill lie in the rough so the only shot is to ram it into the hill and hope it dies near the top and trickles on. And how do you choose a club there? When you're on that severe a downslope, all of the normal lofts you use to execute shots like that are off by 15 degrees.
Put me there with a bucket of 50 balls and I wouldn't get one this close:
Voois made that putt after the miracle chip, saved par, hit one to seven feet on 18, and two-putted for the win. And I talked to him about all of it afterwards:
The wind in the background reminded you of something, right? For you long-time readers, I'm certain that the wind making the interview hard to hear reminded you of your 2014 "Robert, please just by a microphone with a windscreen" feelings from all of my player interviews at Camp Rantoul. (I did buy a mic with a windscreen. I simply forgot to bring it with me today.)
I also talked to Mike Small after the win. The discussion here is a great one. He always gives such great answers. Doesn't hold back, especially when I asked him about all of the players playing well as individuals and then not well once they go into the lineup this season.
And I should explain our discussion at the start of this audio. This interview happened before the Voois interview. Voois was being interviewed by the TV crew and the News Gazette reporter who were there. Small was waiting off to the side and I asked Danny (the golf SID) if I could do a quick one-on-one with Mike. He said yes (and Coach Small said yes) immediately so I got my phone ready to record. As I was doing that, I made small talk with coach saying that I "avoid media scrums at all costs because there's only questions, not conversations." And that's why you'll hear Mike Small saying "you'd win that scrum, dude" (and I respond "like rugby?") at the start of this audio:
I hope you didn't skip over that. His last answer is so good. And no, this is not the TikTok/Instagram Reel trick of "the last clip is crazyyyy" just to get you to watch/listen to the whole clip. His last answer is legitimately great.
As I drove back home, I thought about what I tried to write Saturday night and Sunday morning about the spring football game. As I've said a dozen times before, I hate interviews and love conversations so I was incredibly happy to do the latter at this golf tournament. I'd probably pay a significant amount of money for the University to go back to the 2017 methods and means of covering spring football and fall camp. I can connect fans to the coaches and players (at no cost to them) and they don't want it.
But that's for another article. This article is about Ryan Voois pulling off his "hang-on job" (as he said in the interview there). In great weather conditions for golf on Saturday morning (meaning, soft course, no wind), he went out and shot the course record at Atkins (64 on a golf course that now tips out at 7,503 yards). And then, as the wind picked up Saturday afternoon and Sunday, a hang-on job. Hang on he did, being the only player to finish under par (at -1).
(By the way, the 18th hole is 449 yards and Voois said there that he was thrilled to be able to hit an iron off the tee and then a 50-degree into the green. I played that hole, from two tees forward, and went driver-6 iron. I did not stick it to seven feet.)
So now, Big Tens. And I'll be honest, the streak is in trouble. That side-eye guy from the Masters meme last week?
That's Neal Shipley, a senior at Ohio State. They also have Max Moldovan, a senior who will certainly challenge for the individual Big Ten title. Ohio State got Big Tens at Scioto Country Club in Columbus for 2024 and built this team (with Shipley coming back for his Covid year while Moldovan is a senior) specifically to break the Illinois Big Tens streak. They've probably played at Scioto 25 times preparing for this.
If you look at the World Amateur Golf Rankings, Jackson Buchanan is #33, Moldovan is #35, and Shipley is #36. The next Illini on the list is Max Herendeen at #226 (it takes a long time for freshmen to climb the WAGR list). On the Clipp'd team rankings, Illinois is #18 and Ohio State is #30. With their two seniors leading the way for tOSU on a course they know, keeping the streak alive is going to be difficult. Especially if the guys chosen for the 4-5 spots keep playing like the guys chosen for the 4-5 spots all season.
One last thing before I get out of here. Did you notice Mike Small say that next year, with the Kepler Invite (Ohio State's home tournament on this same weekend) moving back to a two-day event, they'll be joining the Kepler again (because it will fit in their competition days again)? I'm not sure if that means the Fighting Illini Spring Collegiate would be eliminated after only two years, but it might.
Anyway, this tournament was about Ryan Voois. Coach Small probably already knew this but he now fully knows that he has three players written in ink for Big Tens and NCAA Regionals: Jackson Buchanan (JR), Max Herendeen (FR), and Ryan Voois (SO). Next week (and all of next year) will be about finding two guys to fill those last two spots and push us into the "national title contenders" category again.
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