Sept. 11, 2006

EVANSTON, Ill. -- After a one-year hiatus, the Windon Memorial Classic returns to the Chicagoland college golf schedule this fall.

Northwestern, the defending Big Ten champion, is seeking back-to-back Windon titles.This year's edition, which takes place Sunday and Monday, Oct. 8 and 9, is the 10th Windon tournament. The two-day tournament is being held at Skokie Country Club.

In nine previous Windon tournaments, the Classic has featured many of golf's top young stars, including Northwestern's Luke Donald, Kent State's Ben Curtis, Stanford's Tiger Woods and Casey Martin and USC/Oklahoma State's Hunter Mahan.

Two Wildcats headline this year's field, 2006 Big Ten Player of the Year David Merkow and Chris Wilson, the 2006 Big Ten individual champion. The Wildcats finished second at the NCAA Central Regional Championships and earned one of the 30 berths in the NCAA Championships.

Colt Knost of SMU finished the 2006 spring season as the 67th-ranked golfer in the country. Knost will lead the Mustangs, who are coming off their third-straight conference championship and have advanced to the NCAA Championships in three of the last four years.

Other teams competing in this year's Windon Memorial Classic include Colorado, Illinois, Kansas, Kent State, Michigan State, New Mexico, North Florida, Northern Colorado, Toledo and Western Illinois. New Mexico finished 32nd in the 2006 national ranking, while Kent State and Illinois were 38th and 48th, respectively. Kent State has two Windon titles to their name, taking top honors in 1993 and 1999.

Wally Goodwin, former Northwestern (1982-88) and Stanford (1988-2000) head coach, will make his way back to Chicagoland as the head coach of Northern Colorado. Goodwin is most famous for his days as Tiger Woods' coach at Stanford. Goodwin also led Stanford to a national championship in 1994.

The Windon Memorial Classic is a 54-hole tournament, with 36 holes played on Sunday (Oct. 8) and 18 holes on Monday (Oct. 9). A practice round will be played Saturday.

Skokie Country Club is known as one of the top ranked courses in America, rated No. 72 in the country by Golfweek. The Donald Ross-design was built in 1897 and hosted the 1922 U.S. Open won by Gene Sarazen.

The Windon Classic was not held in 2005 due to Northwestern's hosting of the Big Ten/Pac-10 Challenge.