Feb. 11, 2011
PALM BEAACH GARDENS, Fla. - The No. 30 Purdue men's golf team split a pair of matches on Friday on the opening day of the Big Ten Match Play Championship, defeating Michigan State in the first round and dropping a quarterfinal match to Ohio State.
The Boilermakers defeated MSU by a 5-1-0 count on Friday morning, and dropped a 4-2-0 decision to the Buckeyes in the afternoon session.
Freshman Edward Peters got the ball rolling for Purdue in the first match with a 2&1 wire-to-wire win, and junior William Sjaichudin added a 2&1 win after trailing at the turn. Junior Tyler Duncan captured the last six holes of his match to win 5&3, and senior Erich Johnston provided the clincher over the Spartans with a 3&2 win in which he never trailed. Senior Nakarintra Ratanakul added a 1 up win against MSU after the match was already clinched.
Duncan and Sjaichudin were the only Boilermakers able to pull off wins against OSU, taking 2&1 and 5&4 decisions, respectively.
Purdue will square off with Iowa on Saturday morning, with the first groups going off at 7:54 a.m. ET. A win over the Hawkeyes would put Purdue in the fifth-place match against either Michigan or Minnesota, while a loss would send the Boilers to the seventh-place match on Saturday afternoon.