After two days and 72 holes of play at the Hawkeye-Great River Entertainment Invitational at Finkbine, the Hawkeyes finished with a team score of 853, putting them at 11-under. 

The first day consisted of 36 holes in which the Hawkeyes finished at 564, 12-under on April 18.  The second day of competition, in which they played 18 holes, they scored 289.

Sophomore Carson Schaake made some huge contributions to the team score on April 18, when he shot 66 (6-under) on the second 18 of the day after shooting 73 (1-over) in the first. 

“I just was solid overall,” Schaake said.  “I was hitting my driver good all week, and I took out one side of the golf course. I didn’t hit it left very much all week, so I really knew where the ball was going.  I made a couple putts here and there, and I turned in a pretty good score.”

Consistent driving helped Carson hit the fairways at Finkbine, which enabled him to have better positioning on his second shots and gave him a better chance at scoring a birdie rather taking difficult shots from the rough.

Even with Schaake’s solid performance, the team still struggled toward the end en route to its third-place finish. 

“We were playing from behind a little bit, and we needed to hit some greens and give ourselves some opportunities there late to hopefully have some putts fall and pick up a few,” head coach Tyler Stith said.  “But unfortunately, it just didn’t go that way for us.”

Stith also emphasized some missed opportunities to capitalize on par 5s, on which several bogeys added strokes to the team score that ultimately affected Iowa’s position.

Despite some struggles the team had, Stith still thought the Hawks played well.

“Overall, they performed really well,” he said.  “We shot 11-under par, and I think if you look back, that’s usually good enough to win this tournament.  We got some great weather this week, and we just got outplayed.  Iowa State and Idaho both played really well.”

The Hawkeyes were disappointed in their performance, especially considering it hosted the invitational.  However, with the Big Ten Championships next weekend, it will have to put this tournament in the rearview mirror in preparation for the postseason. 

“We came in third, which is not bad, but obviously, we want to do better on our home course,” sophomore Raymond Knoll said.  “But overall, we’re happy with how we played, we’re happy with where we are at, and we’re looking forward to going down to Big Tens next weekend.”