Hawkeye men’s golf heads to greens in Texas

After a two-week break, Iowa is back in action in a tournament packed with ranked teams.

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Joseph Cress

Iowa’s Alex Schaake putts during a tournament at the Donald Ross Course at the Cedar Rapids Country Club in Cedar Rapids on Tuesday, Sept. 19, 2017.

Jess Westendorf, Sports Reporter

The Iowa men’s golf team will head to Carrollton, Texas, to participate in the Royal Oaks Intercollegiate on Oct. 22-23.

The tournament was originally supposed to take place at the Royal Oaks Country Club in Dallas, but because of heavy rain and flooding in the area, host Baylor had to move the tournament to the Maridoe Golf Club in Carrollton.

The Hawkeyes have enjoyed a two-week break since the team’s last tournament, the Notre Dame Classic on Oct. 7-8, where the team placed fourth while putting its name in the record books.

The Texas field has three of the teams ranked in the top 10, including No. 1 Oklahoma State.

Heading into the tournament, Iowa will be joined by 12 other teams: No. 15 Arkansas, No. 43 Baylor, Charlotte, Houston, Kent State, Michigan, Minnesota, No. 33 NC State, No. 32 North Carolina, No. 1 Oklahoma State, No. 3 Pepperdine, and No. 7 SMU.

The Hawkeyes will rely on their experienced players to take the course in Texas. The lineup will include five players — senior Matthew Walker, juniors Alex Moorman, Alex Schaake, and Benton Weinberg, and freshman Gonzalo Leal Montero.

This is a special tournament for Iowa.

The team will participate for the ninth time, and it will try to add another top-10 finish to the books. The previous eight times Iowa has earned a top-10 finish, while earning the team title in 2010.

Iowa wants to improve on last year’s seventh-place finish and add to its streak of finishing in the top five this season.