Marquette golf begins 2019-20 at Minnesota on Sunday

MILWAUKEE – The reigning BIG EAST Conference champion Marquette University men's golf team opens its six-event fall schedule on Sunday, Sept. 8 at the Gopher Invitational, hosted by the University of Minnesota at Windsong Farm Golf Club in Independence, Minnesota.

The par-71 course, designed by John Fought and Tom Lehman in 2004 plays at 7,368 yards.

THE EVENT
The 13-team field includes Arkansas, Baylor, Iowa, Kent State, Marquette, Michigan State, Minnesota, NC State, Oklahoma, Purdue, Texas A&M, Utah and West Virginia. Oklahoma finished tied for fourth at last year's NCAA Championships through stroke play before falling to Texas in match play, 3-2. Texas A&M was seventh through stroke play at the NCAAs, while seven others, including Marquette, competed in NCAA regional action.

The event features 36 holes on Sunday with the final 18 holes set for Monday, Sept. 9. Live results will be available courtesy of Golfstat.

Tee times Sunday run from 7:15-9:35 a.m. on hole No. 1, while those on the back nine are set to begin from 7:30-9:18 a.m. Play on Sunday's second round will be continuous. Monday's final round is set for the same time.

MARQUETTE'S LINEUP
Lineup: Hunter Eichhorn, Tyler Leach, Matt Murlick, Bhoom Sima-Aree, Matthew Bachmann
Individuals: Aidan Lafferty, Josh Robinson (Pioneer Creek Golf Course on Saturday and Sunday)

The Golden Eagles return 2019 All-BIG EAST First Team selection Hunter Eichhorn and conference freshman of the year Tyler Leach, but must replace key contributors in Austin Kendziorski and BIG EAST Player of the Year Oliver Farrell. All-BIG EAST Second Team selection Matt Murlick also returns, as does 2017 BIG EAST medalist Matthew Bachmann.

Last year's squad posted its best final Golfstat ranking in program history at No. 47 nationally, surpassing the previous year's 66th.

Farrell and Eichhorn posted two of the most accomplished seasons in program history last year, becoming only the second and third players at Marquette to card single season scoring averages below par and rank in the Golfstat NCAA Player Ranking top-100.

Eichhorn notched his second straight season with a sub-72 scoring average, finishing the year at 71.58 (-0.15 versus par) with 20 rounds at par or lower out of 33 total. He enters his junior year holding Marquette's second-lowest career scoring average (71.71 in 65 rounds). After posting MU's best finish in the NCAA Austin Regional (T-18, 216), Eichhorn concluded his sophomore season ranked 83rd in the final Golfstat rankings (only Farrell and Mike Van Sickle ever finished higher).

Freshman Bhoom Sima-Aree from Thailand joins the MU lineup alongside Eichman, Murlick, Bachmann and Leach, while fellow freshman Aidan Lafferty and Josh Robinson will play as individuals at Pioneer Creek Golf Course on Saturday and Sunday.

WHAT THEY ARE SAYING...
"(Oliver Farrell, Austin Kendziorski and Charlie Maleki) are going to be missed but I like what we have coming back and a lot of new energy in terms of these three freshmen and bringing in a new assistant coach as well. We've got eight guys on our team, so nearly half of our program is coming in in this freshman class. It's exciting and we're looking forward to what lies ahead." – head coach Steve Bailey

"Windsong Farms is only an hour from my hometown so a lot of my family and friends are going to come, so I'll be excited to have them all there. I've heard a lot of great things about the course, but I've never played there." – 2019 BIG EAST Freshman of the Year Tyler Leach

"Qualifying is effectively coach's way of finding out who is playing well. It's kind of a tense situation on most teams because of the fact that you are competing against your teammates to see who travels. All of us want to travel but in the case of Marquette, I feel like we all want each other to play really well and we want the best five guys to go. If you aren't playing well and another guy is playing well, everyone is there to cheer them on and hopefully they do as well as they can." – sophomore Connor Brown

UP NEXT
Marquette heads down the shore of Lake Michigan to Northwestern's Windon Memorial Classic on Sept. 16-17 at Conway Farms Golf Club in Lake Forest, Illinois. The Golden Eagles won the event last season at The Knollwood Club, led by Farrell's third-place finish at 7-under par.

Keep up with the Marquette men's golf program through social media by following on Twitter (@MarquetteMGolf) and Instagram (@MarquetteMGolf) and 'liking' on Facebook (/MarquetteMGolf).