The Iowa men’s golf team travels to Notre Dame this week to compete in its second-to-last fall tournament, the Fighting Irish Classic.

The two-day tournament is comprised of some tough competition such as No. 3 Arizona State, No. 10 North Carolina, Iowa State, Michigan, Michigan State, and Rutgers.

Iowa has had two weekends off since a tournament and are more ready than ever to compete again.

“Those two weeks are crucial,” senior Alex Schaake said. “We’ve been putting in a lot of hard work. A lot of the younger guys are stepping up in scoring, as well as having good qualifying scores for this weekend.”

After coming off of a successful fourth-place team finish at the Golfweek Conference Challenge last month, head coach Tyler Stith is enthusiastic about more success in South Bend.

“Coming off of a little bit of a performance at the Golfweek, I still feel like we have some things to work on,” Stith said. “It seems like were starting to hit our strides just at the right time.”

This is the second year Iowa plays at the Fighting Irish Classic, where it finished in fourth place out of 15 schools and broke a school record last fall.

“Three of our guys have played there before and everyone really likes the course,” Stith said. “It’s a great test and a good field.”

Senior Benton Weinburg finished best out of Iowa last year, carding a 135 (-7) and tying for sixth place in the tournament. He has experience from what to expect from a Midwest golf course in October.

“This is a nice course since we can drive to it and not have to worry about flying,” Weinburg said. “Last year was very soft and cold. It’ll probably be like that again, so we’ll be prepared.”

“Notre Dame is familiar to us, we finished well last year, but I honestly think we could have done even better.” Schaake said. “There were some guys that I thought could have stepped up even more on the course, but we’re on the right track with this team.”

That team includes three freshmen, all of which will have appeared in meets this fall.

“We have been off and on [with the freshmen] this season. They all have played at one point or another. Mac [McClear] actually just finished second in qualifying, so he will get his first start at Notre Dame.” Stith said.

The Fighting Irish Classic is being played at the Warren Golf Course in South Bend, Indiana, with a 7,023-yard, par-71 playing field. Rounds one and two will be played Monday with an 8:30 a.m. shotgun start, and the final round begins Tuesday with an 8:00 a.m. start based off of standings.

Warren Golf Course previously hosted the PGA US Senior Open this past summer and was the first collegiate course to host the event.

The Hawkeyes will conclude the fall season at the Royal Oaks Intercollegiate in Dallas, Texas, Oct. 21 and 22.