Despite shooting a better second round than first round, the Iowa men’s golf team fell from third to sixth place among 15 teams in the Golfweek Conference Challenge at Spirit Hollow Golf Course in Burlington on Monday.

The Hawkeyes finished the round at 3 over to bring their two-day total to 7 over. Wake Forest, Tulsa, and Central Arkansas leapfrogged the Hawks to push the squad back in the standings.

“We got off to a good start again but kind of caught a bad break on the last three or four holes,” head coach Mark Hankins said. “A thunderstorm started rolling through, and that was really the difference.”

Iowa dropped 6 shots in the last four holes as a team.

While his team had a tough day, Joseph Winslow was the bright spot for the Black and Gold. The sophomore had the best improvement from round one — he went from 4 over Sunday to 1 under Monday.

Junior Steven Ihm sits in third place individually after a second round 1 under. He trails Jace Long of Missouri by 2 strokes and Chris Worrell of Tulsa by 1.

Junior Ryan Marks recovered after hitting double bogeys on the first two holes to finish 1 over.

Sophomores Brian Bullington and Ian Vandersee both shot identical rounds of 4 over.

Hankins said most teams will face a challenge from the weather today.

“We’ll be facing totally different conditions [in the final round],” he said. “If we fight out a good score, we’ll have a good chance. If we stick to the game plan and focus on each shot, you never know.”

The Hawkeyes have a task ahead of them if they hope to win the event. Missouri is in first place 11 strokes ahead of the Black and Gold. Hankins said he hopes to see the team continue to focus on the plan he set out earlier in the week.

“We have to play the game one shot at a time,” he said. “No matter what happens, we can’t get too high or too low on ourselves. It’s all about managing confidence.”

The Iowa golfers will tee off at 8:30 a.m. today. They will be paired with swingers from Central Arkansas and Ball State.

— by Tommy Reinking