Arnorsson Leads Gopher Men to Third at Big Ten Match Play

  PALM COAST, Fla. – Behind a stellar performance by Runar Arnorsson for the second consecutive year, the University of Minnesota men’s golf team charged to a third-place finish Saturday at the Big Ten Match Play at the Hammock Beach Resort.

The seventh-seeded Gophers downed the University of Nebraska to open the championship before upsetting the No. 2 seed from the University of Michigan during the quarterfinals Friday.

The eventual champions from Northwestern University made handed the Gophers a 4-1-1 defeat during the semifinals Saturday, but a resilient Gopher squad battled back to down the University of Iowa for third place, 3-2-1.

Following his win over Cornhusker Jace Guthmiller, Arnorsson’s loss to Michigan’s Tom Swanson during the quarterfinals Friday was just the first over the past two seasons as the junior from Iceland defeated Northwestern’s Ryan Lumsden as well as Hawkeye Carson Schaake to finish the championship 3-1.

Gophers head coach John Carlson said Arnorsson had a great weekend thanks in part to new equipment, improving his ball flight which led to Arnorsson beating quality opponents. Riley Johnson and Justin Doeden played their best golf of the season this week, according to Carlson.

“This is the hardest working group I have coached and is a similar team that won the 2014 Big Ten title,” Carlson said Sunday. “All athletes need to know they are making progress through effort. This event proved to our players we belong. We will be contending for a Big Ten title this year.”

The Gophers were challenged in all four matches this week as Carlson claimed the Big Ten Conference is as strong as he’s seen in a number of years. Under Carlson this season, four players are averaging 72.4 or better—helped by scores of 63 and 64 from Thomas Longbella and Arnorsson last fall.

The Gopher men will travel to Alabama March 5-7 to compete in the Tiger Invitational at Grand National in Opelika.



2017 BIG TEN MATCH PLAY CHAMPIONSHIP
HAMMOCK BEACH RESORT
PALM COAST, FLA.
CONSERVATORY COURSE
7,183 YARDS, PAR 72


SATURDAY’S FINAL MATCH
Northwestern def. Penn State, 3-2-1


SATURDAY’S THIRD PLACE MATCH
MINNESOTA def. Iowa, 3-2-1


SATURDAY’S SEMIFINAL RESULTS
Penn State def. Iowa, 3-3 (won tiebreaker)
Northwestern, def. MINNESOTA, 4-1-1


FRIDAY’S QUARTERFINAL RESULTS
Iowa def. Michigan State, 2-2-2 (won tiebreaker)
MINNESOTA def. Michigan, 2-2-2 (won tiebreaker)
Northwestern def. Rutgers, 3-1-2


FRIDAY’S FIRST ROUND RESULTS
Penn State def. Purdue, 3-2-1
Rutgers def. Ohio State, 4-2
MINNESOTA def. Nebraska, 4-2
Iowa def. Indiana, 3-1-2
Michigan, bye
Michigan State, bye



For complete tournament results go to: golfstatresults.com/public/leaderboards/gsnav.cfm?pg=match&tid=12759