Charles Jahn headlines impressive summer for Iowa golf
A number of Hawkeye golfers had impressive summer performances including Charles Jahn, who won three tournaments in a two-week span.
A ball lands close to the flag during a golf invitational at Finkbine Golf Course on Saturday, April 20, 2019. Iowa came in first with a score of 593 against 12 other teams.
September 7, 2020
Despite not competing for most of the spring, Hawkeye golfers proved sharp over the summer, earning multiple individual wins.
Whether it was Alex Schaake winning the Indian Creek Invitational, Lea Zeitler besting 11 challengers at the International Tyrolean Championship in her native Austria, Lilly Gentzkow taking first place in South Bend, or Morgan Goldstein’s victory at the Nevada Women’s Amateur Championship, the Hawkeyes found themselves at the top of the leaderboard quite frequently.
However, the most impressive offseason, by volume at least, came from Charles Jahn.
The graduate transfer from Sperry, Iowa, who got his degree from Bradley University in May, tallied three wins in a two-week period during the offseason.
“Charles was just really solid and consistent throughout the summer,” head coach Tyler Stith said. “He played really well.”
First, on July 12, Jahn capped a 68-70 start at the Iowa Masters in Ames with a final-round 66 to finish at 12-under-par and win by six shots over Iowa State alum Nate McCoy.
After starting off strong in last year’s Iowa State Amateur but fading late in the tournament, Jahn was ready to take the next step this year.
“Going into the final round I had a two-shot lead,” Jahn said. “I had had the lead in the State Amateur last year and the Herman Sani Tournament [last year] and wasn’t able to finish off on it. So, going into this summer, I wanted to finish a big one off. It was probably the biggest win of my career.”
Jahn allowed last year’s struggles to simplify the game on the final day of the Iowa Masters and not only win the event but run away from the field.
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“Last year I got caught up in the pressure of [final rounds of big tournaments,]” Jahn said. “I just told myself, ‘You’re playing really well, there’s no reason why you can’t hit good shots and score well when there’s more pressure.’ I just relied on the fact that ‘I’m hitting it better than anybody here, you’re the person that should win.’
“I just went shot-for-shot and executed each shot instead of getting ahead of myself,” Jahn said. “I knew if I got ahead of myself, then I’d start thinking about trying to win it versus executing in the moment. I did a really good job of that and won by a lot. It’s fun to win by a lot.”
Just three days after his heroics at the Iowa Masters, Jahn won again. This time it was a PGA pre-qualifying tournament, a one-round sprint to try to get into the 3M Open on the PGA Tour.
Fresh off of his maiden victory of the summer, Jahn fired a 5-under-par 66 to win the event by a single stroke.
“I had a two or three-week stretch there where I was pretty much shooting in the 60s all the time and not making many bogeys,” Jahn said. “In golf, the most important thing is having confidence and over that stretch I, I mean, I won my club championship by 10 shots. I think it’s just having the confidence to do it and putting.”
Jahn and the rest of the Iowa golf program may not tee it up in team competition until the spring, but both the men’s and women’s teams are looking forward to competing as individuals in some tournaments this fall.
