MADISON, Wisc. – Anthony De Schutter became the second golfer in Southern Illinois history to win back-to-back tournaments after shooting 205 (-11) at the Badger Invitational Tuesday in Madison. As a team, Southern Illinois tied with Missouri Valley Conference foe Illinois State for second place, ten strokes behind tournament champion Southern Mississippi.
De Schutter’s score of 205 is the ninth-lowest round in program history. Additionally, his third-round score of 65 is tied for the fifth-lowest round of any Saluki golfer, matching his own SIU record of 65, a score he carded on Feb. 10, 2025, at the Hal Williams Collegiate.
Head Coach Justin Fetcho lauded De Schutter’s historic performance through his mindset and consistent play.
“He is so competitive and just has the ability to find a different gear when it comes to tournament play,” Fetcho said. “He’s showing that if he can get himself around the lead of a golf tournament that he is pretty good at closing it out.”
While his performance at the first two tournaments is impressive to an extremely high degree, Fetcho believes this stretch is merely a preview of what is to come.
“I believe Anthony has some big goals for not only himself for this season but also this team,” he said. “I think we are only just seeing the beginning of what Anthony is capable of doing this year.”
Here’s how the Salukis fared:
- Team: T-2nd, 851 (-13)
- Anthony De Schutter: T-1st, 205 (-11)
- Michael Mikus: T-12th, 214 (-2)
- Ben Keil: T-19th, 217 (+1)
- Jaeseung Na: T-24th, 218 (+2)
- Blake Saffell (Ind.): T-29th, 219 (+3)
- Cy Norman: T-62nd, 225 (+9)
Fetcho did not hold back his praise for the performance of the entire team thus far, as the Salukis have tallied two top-three finishes to begin the season.
“We’ve talked about how depth is one of the most important things a team can bring to the table each and every day,” Fetcho said. “That goes to show the true potential of this team. We have a talented roster, and we’ve already seen improvements from day one with them. If they can keep working hard and focusing on the correct things, I truly believe we will see a lot of our team having quality individual finishes in events.”
With the season’s schedule being one of the most rigorous in recent history, Fetcho knows in order to reach the goals set for the season, the team needs to be disciplined and continue to make necessary changes to eliminate mistakes.
“We’ve had two solid team finishes to kick off the year, but each week is a new week, and we have to be prepared each time out to perform at a high level. We put a big emphasis on a few things in our practices and qualifying after getting home from our first event and I saw some big improvements from our first event to our second event in those areas. If we keep making strides like that as an overall group, I believe we will see some really good results as we continue throughout the season. I’m proud of our efforts this week in working hard on cleaning up some things in a few areas, and now we have a short week and have to work on some more stuff before we leave for Colorado.”
