Chambana Sun

The Fighting Illini men's golf team has advanced to the match play stage at the 2024 NCAA Golf Championship, with strong performances from Tyler Goecke and Max Herendeen. The team scored a total of 1146 (-6) over four rounds, securing first place by a significant 16-stroke margin.

Illinois has earned the No. 1 seed in the eight-team bracket for the championship title. They will face No. 8-seeded Georgia Tech in the quarterfinals on Tuesday. Georgia Tech's Hiroshi Tai narrowly won the individual championship by one stroke over Goecke, Herendeen, and four others.

This advancement marks Illinois' ninth appearance in match play at NCAA Championships since adopting this format in 2009, tying them with Oklahoma State for most appearances by any program. It is also their second time as a No. 1 seed, having previously achieved this in 2015.

"We just continued our solid play all week," said head coach Mike Small about his team's performance during stroke play. "We hit a little lull in the morning due to some frustrations and agitations from a couple things. We settled back down, [the team] did a good job of that, and then they played solid through the back nine again."

Goecke finished tied for second place after posting a final round score of 1-under 71, bringing his total to 286 (-2). Herendeen matched Goecke's performance with an even-par final round of 72. Both players finished their back nines at 1-under par.

Sophomore Ryan Voois delivered the team's lowest score in Round Four with a score of 3-under 69, finishing tied for eleventh place overall at even-par (288). His performance secured him a spot on the All-Championship Team alongside teammates Herendeen and Goecke for consecutive seasons.

Junior Jackson Buchanan completed stroke play tied for thirty-first with consistent scores leading to an overall total of (+6), while senior Piercen Hunt ended tied for fifty-third with (+11).

The Illini's quarterfinal match against Georgia Tech will begin at 8:20 a.m. CT/6:20 a.m. PT off hole number one. The winner will advance to face either North Carolina or Florida State in the semifinals later that day.

Other quarterfinal pairings include Vanderbilt vs Ohio State and Virginia vs Auburn; semifinals are set to commence Tuesday afternoon.

Live scoring can be followed via Golfstat.com while GOLF Channel coverage starts at noon CT/10 a.m PT for quarterfinals and extends into semifinals starting from five p.m CT/three p.m PT.