The Iowa men’s golf team struggled on the green over the weekend in its final fall season tournament at the Royal Oaks Intercollegiate hosted by Baylor.

The team placed 10th out of 12 teams, while No. 6 Southern Methodist earned first place with a team (-27). No. 11 Baylor finished right behind them with (-16). Iowa finished ahead of Texas – San Antonio, as well as Big Ten rival Nebraska by 35 strokes.

The Hawkeyes started Monday tied for ninth place in the first round with a carded team score of 295 (+11), sophomore Gonzalo Leal Montero — who shot an individual 70 (-1) at the start early Monday — led the team. Leal Montero finished the day with the third-lowest stoke average (4.17; -5) out of 68 players and tied for seventh in birdies (8).

The team dropped in the standing after the round — tied for 10th place — despite seeing improvement in team score with a scorecard showing 291 (+7) in the second round at the par-71 Royal Oaks Country Club.

Leal Montero led the Hawkeyes again with a score of 69 (-2), while the Hawkeye’s No. 1 player senior Alex Schaake followed behind with a 73 (+2) for Monday afternoon. Schaake finished in 12^th place with a scorecard of 216 (+6) in 2018.

The Hawkeyes completed the final round in “Maxwell” style and scored a team overall 828 (-2) – their best performance of the tournament. The team was led again by the Seville, Spain, native Leal Montero, who carded another 69 (-2) to tie for eighth and earning his first top-10 finish of the 2019 season and third-straight below-par in the final round.

Leal Montero earned at least four birdies in each round and finished three strokes behind the tournament co-medalists from Michigan, SMU, and Liberty.

Schaake, coming off of a performance below his usual performance at the start of the week, returned to his normal game, scoring for even-par during the final round and tying for 37th. He also had a five-birdie stretch over eight holes, bringing his three-round total to 218 (+5) in Dallas.

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Junior Joe Kim followed behind Schaake, performing consistently through the competition, carding 74 (+3) for both rounds on Monday and finishing 73 (+2) Tuesday morning and tying for 49th.

Senior Benton Weinberg and freshman Mac McClear both joined Schaake in finishing at even-par on Tuesday. Weinberg, who was Iowa’s individual leader last year (T-9, +5), finished tied at 55th with 223 (+10).

McClear, who has been the team’s top-performing freshman of the season, came back from an impressive 10-stroke difference from the first to final round, starting Monday morning off shooting an 81 (+10), carding even-par for the final round, and finishing 61st individually.

Iowa’s third round 282 (-2) was tied for the fifth lowest of the day. The Hawkeyes placed fifth for pars (172) and recorded 39 birdies through the weekend. Schaake and Leal Montero are tied at six in rounds at or below par this season.

After ending their fall season this weekend, Iowa returns to competition at the Big Ten Match Play beginning Feb. 7 in Palm Coast, Florida.