Youth Movement

Remember the Penn State basketball game in 2006? The one where we had one a bazillion home wins in a row - at that point we had only lost three times at home in the 2000's - and then we inexplicably lost to Penn State at home? The game where Richard McBride hit a three pointer at the buzzer to win but the replay revealed he released it 0.2 seconds too late and we lost 66-65?

Jake Birdwell was born two days after that game. And Trey Marrion was born a month after that (four days before Jamar Smith hit five threes and we beat Air Force in the first round of the NCAA Tournament before losing to Washington two days later in Dee and Augie's final game). February of 2006 and March of 2006 - that's actually when Birdwell and Marrion were born.

And here they are, holding us in the lead at the Big Ten Championships in Baltimore. Like, they're the only two who held this whole thing together today. I can give you the story of today just with these five scores:

SR Jackson Buchanan 74
JR Ryan Voois 73
SO Max Herendeen 74
FR Jake Birdwell 68
FR Trey Marrion 67

The senior, the junior, and the sophomore: +11
The two freshmen: -5

As a result, the Illini still have a six stroke lead here in Baltimore with one round remaining. Two kids born in 2006 were the buttress for the entire team today. I should be writing "Illini lead evaporates, it's a whole new ballgame tomorrow" right now but I'm not. Because of the two kids.

(Yes, that was a little nod to their classmate Joseph Buttress who isn't playing in this tournament. Three of you picked up on it.)

Look, golf is golf. Max Herendeen, on this same course, shot a 63 yesterday and a 74 today. Trey Marrion shot a 76 yesterday and a 67 today. The beauty of college golf is the dropped score because every golfer – every single college golfer – is going to have a round like Max had today where not a single four foot putt would drop. It happens. It might happen to Birdwell and Marrion tomorrow.

But when all three of your experienced golfers have bad days at the same time, well, you're screwed. I mean, you'd need one of your freshmen to play his best round of the season and then you'd need the other freshman – the one who was only in the lineup for three rounds before this weekend – to also play the round of his life.

Done and done.

Their performance was especially sweet today given the little prediction I made about the 2024 golf recruiting class. In this article two years ago I said this:

Lean in a second and let me whisper something. Ready?

The 2024 class is THE CLASS, man. It's 1986 basketball. It's 2008 football. I'm not sure if this word works this way, but the 2024 golf class is HIM.

So to see Birdwell and Marrion already playing so well as true freshmen at the Big Ten Championships, man, that makes me excited. And we don't even know what we're going to get from Joseph Buttress yet.

Back to today. It was a tale of two courses, I think. And it was absolutely a huge boost to be the first teams out today (which happened to be the teams in 13th through 18th place). The reason: a storm rolled through around 2:30 pm and caused a 90-minute delay. And when the teams went back out, the wind steadily increased. As the wind increased, the final four holes became significantly more difficult.

Illinois had five bogeys on the 15th hole (a 220-yard par three that was suddenly straight into the wind). Indiana was +8 as a team just on the 17th and 18th holes alone. If you sent Oregon or Ohio State back out there to play those final four holes an hour after they finished, I can nearly guarantee they'd add 3-4-5 more bogeys. Golf can be all about timing.

I took this little video to show how Birdwell and Marrion were right next to each other at this point – Marrion talking to Mike Small about his shot with the wind at his back on 18 and Birdwell trying to judge his shot into the same wind on 17 – and it turns out you could "hear" the wind really well:

So yes, Illinois and UCLA and Indiana got a little unlucky being the last three out on the course battling the worst of the winds. But that's just how it works sometimes. And there's no question that Illinois handled the moment the best.

While the wind did certainly add to the five bogeys on 15, the worst of the wind, at least from what I could see, was right there on 17 and 18. And as I was standing in that spot, about 10 minutes before I filmed that video, the Illini lead had shrunk to one shot. By the time the last threesome walked off the 18th green, the lead was back to 6. Mostly because of incredible pars. A list:

• Just after I filmed that video, Trey Marrion caught a flyer from the rough, rode the wind, and sailed over the green by a good 2o yards. He somehow got up and down with an incredible long par putt to get into the clubhouse with a 67 instead of a 68 or 69.
• Jake Birdwell then rode the wind on his drive on 18 a good 370 yards (yes really) but he was stuck behind a tree with no shot of reaching the surface. He drove it up onto the hillside short of the green, hit a great chip, and drained the six foot putt for par instead of bogey.
• Ryan Voois clubbed down because of the wind but didn't get the push he thought he'd get and his approach shot on 18 came up short on the hillside. His chip stopped about eight feet short... and then he drained the putt for a par instead of a bogey.

Jackson Buchanan parred, Max Herendeen bogeyed, and the Illini finished the round at +2 for the day. Illinois played 17 and 18 one-under as a team; Indiana played 17 and 18 eight-over. And there you have it. The story of today. Two freshmen saving the day.

I sat down with both of them for a chat afterwards. And yes, if you saw my tweet about getting scolded for the hat on my head, you can hear that in this interview. The story:

Baltimore Country Club opened in 1898. Like most prestigious country clubs, they have a "gentlemen, please remove your hats when inside the clubhouse" policy. As an old, I fully support this policy. The more standards, the better, I say. Yesterday, when entering the media room in the clubhouse while wearing a visor, I was approached by a gentlemen in a suit who asked me to remove my hat while indoors. I happily obliged.

Today? I remembered every time I walked through the doors. I was on it, man. Removed my hat at the doorway every single time. I just didn't know that the veranda counted as well. It's outside, so I figured that one could wear their cap outside. Once cannot wear their cap while outside on the veranda apparently.

Just over two minutes into the recording below, I see a woman approaching the table. Danny, the Illini golf SID, informs her that we're recording an interview. She says something to Danny and leaves. Danny waits for the right moment and informs the three of us (Jake, Trey, and myself) that we need to remove our hats.

Here's the interview:

Trey Marrion and Jake Birdwell

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If you're wondering what I mean by the veranda, it's this area. I made this video of all of the golf clubs being placed on the veranda outside of the rain. And, upon watching it again just now, I realized that you can hear the woman instructing the players "hats off when you enter the clubhouse" as they came off the course during the rain delay:

ANYWAY, now it's on to the final round. And I feel for these two guys. Jake, as you hear there, has now played five rounds in the lineup in his entire college golf career. He played a lot as an individual this season (where you're not part of the team score) but the tournament in Hawaii was the only other time he was in the lineup. For his sixth-ever competitive round of college golf tomorrow, he'll be in the final group with Big Ten Network cameras following his every move for the last two hours. He's in third place and has a legitimate shot at an individual Big Ten title. In his second-ever Illini lineup appearance.

If things go south for the two freshmen tomorrow, I won't even bat an eye. There is one task for tomorrow: the sophomore, the junior, and the senior all turn it around after poor rounds today. If we're going to win our 14th Big Ten title in 16 seasons, it's up to them, not the kids. The freshmen have already done way more heaving lifting than they should be asked to do.

OK, fine, if the two kids want to go 67-68 again, I won't complain. Jake Birdwell seems to be the longest player in the entire field off the tee (and he turned 19 two months ago), so if he wants to drop some bombs on Oregon and Indiana, I won't complain. If The Libraian wants to ENFORCE SOME LATE FEES ON UCLA, I'm down (I'll work on it).

Tomorrow is for the guys who have been here before. Because today was all about the freshmen.