With only one event under its belt so far this spring, the University of Wisconsin men’s golf team will compete in this weekend’s inaugural FAU Spring Break Championship at Gleneagles Country Club in Delray Beach, Fla.

The event will host 14 teams, including six Big Ten teams: Iowa, Northwestern, Illinois, Ohio State, Michigan and the Badgers.

Seniors Dan Woltman, Danny Zimmerman, Tyler Obermueller and Pat Duffy, along with junior Jordan Elsen, will represent UW.

The Badgers’ last event was the Big Ten Match Play on Feb. 13 and 14, where the team competed well but lost two close matches to conference rivals Michigan State and Purdue and placed seventh. Head coach Jim Schuman, however, saw several positives come out of the event.

“It was a great tournament to come to that early in the year,” Schuman said. “I think we had a chance against Michigan State — maybe we should’ve won — and then we played fairly well against Purdue. All in all, I felt it was a pretty good experience for everybody and a great tune-up.”

Wisconsin will have to build quickly on that positive experience, as there are only two more events after this weekend before the Big Ten Championships, and ultimately, NCAAs.

“All the tournaments are big, but obviously the closer you get to the end [of the season] and to regionals, it seems like tournaments take on a greater importance,” Schuman said. “For us, we’re just trying to continue to do the things that we’re working on and the things that are making us better … I really feel good about where the guys are, and they know what they have to do going into this weekend.”

In order to put forth a consistently good effort the rest of the spring, the Badgers are looking back to the fall as an example.

The beginning of the season started well for the team, highlighted by a second-place finish at the St. Mary’s Invitational in Pebble Beach, Calif. on Sept. 29 and 30. However, the fall season ended poorly for the Badgers a month later as they placed 10th among 12 teams at the Landfall Tradition in Wilmington, N.C.

“The last two years, when we made it to [NCAA] regionals, we had pretty good falls but we didn’t necessarily play the greatest in the spring,” Zimmerman said. “As a senior, I’ve learned from not finishing real strong in the spring and different things we can do to improve on that, so that will help.”

This weekend’s event marks the inaugural FAU Spring Break Championship, and as a result, the Badgers are facing somewhat of an unfamiliar course.

“We’ve never seen the golf course before,” Schuman said of his team. “Knowing what it is, I know the golf course is only about 6,700 yards, so it’s pretty short and there must be some tricky stuff out there, whether it’s water or whatever. You can imagine down in Florida, where it gets windy, keeping the golf ball in play off the tee is going to be pretty big — you just have to apply what you do well to whatever golf course you’re at.”

Knowing what the rest of the schedule holds, the Badgers are ready to start playing their best as the stretch run of the season approaches.

“It’s pretty big,” Zimmerman said of this weekend’s tournament. “We’re going to play some good teams that are ranked ahead of us. I think we’re ready to kick off this stretch — we have to finish up the year, especially with four seniors as well.”