Sept. 17, 2009

DeKALB, Ill. - The Northern Illinois men's golf team will begin its season this weekend at the Spartan Classic as the Huskies will compete against 14 teams at the Kingsley Club in Kingsley, Mich.

"I'm very excited to take a young, inexperienced team to compete in a Big Ten event," said first-year NIU head coach Tom Porten.

The event is composed of 36 holes of competition on Saturday and 18 on Sunday at the par-71, 6,723-yard course with 8 a.m. CT start times on both days. The teams competing include California, Charleston Southern, Cleveland State, Columbia, Detroit, Duquesne, Evansville, Jackson State, Michigan State (A and B teams), Oakland, San Francisco, Santa Clara and UC-Davis.

The Huskie lineup will feature senior Matt Triplett at the No. 1 spot with junior Jeff Dick, sophomore Griffin Bauman, freshmen Kurtis Luedtke and Paul Hammerschmidt filling the rest of the lineup in respective order.

"We completed six rounds of qualifying on Saturday and the focus has been on making every shot count in order to make our practices competitive within the team," said Porten. "Within our focus, we have really been working on our short game. We need to be able to chip and putt the ball consistently to be competitive in this tournament and all year long. It's my understanding that the Kingsley Club is a great golf course with fast greens, which will put a premium on the short game."