May 5, 2005

EVANSTON, Ill. -- Wisconsin's University Ridge Golf Course is the site of this weekend's 85th Big Ten Men's Golf Championships. Following a practice round on Friday morning, the first 18 holes will be played that afternoon starting at 1 p.m.

Second and third-round play continues Saturday and Sunday, with an awards ceremony following the final round.

With the Wildcats on the bubble for NCAA postseason play, Northwestern has one goal in mind this weekend.

"We need to take care of business at the Big Tens," says head coach Pat Goss. "And the easiest way to control our postseason situation is to get the automatic bid by winning the Big Ten tournament."

The Wildcats enter this weekend's play after an encouraging fifth-place finish at Michigan State's Fossum Invitational. Northwestern finished just three strokes back of the host Spartans, who are the top-seeded team at this weekend's Championships.

Northwestern is seeded fifth and will use the same lineup as last weekend when it produced its best finish of the spring. Sophomores Chris Wilson (Dublin, Ohio/Dublin Coffman) and David Merkow (Hartland, Wis./Arrowhead Union) both finished in the top-10 of last week's tournament.

This is the sixth time Wisconsin has hosted the Big Ten Championships, and the second at University Ridge Golf Course (par 72, 6,888 yards). "The Ridge" was recently rated the eighth-best collegiate golf course in America by Golfweek magazine.

Ohio State has won the last three Big Ten championships, following Northwestern's three-year run from 1999 to 2001. Ohio State won the previous Big Ten Championship played at University Ridge in 1995.

Live scoring and results are available for the tournament by linking to Big Ten Men's Golf Championships. Other tournament information can be found at Big Ten Men's Golf and Wisconsin Men's Golf.