One message was clear at the Hoak Family Golf Complex during Tuesday’s Iowa men’s golf practice ahead of the Hawkeye Invitational set for this weekend at Finkbine Golf Course: The Hawkeyes want to protect their home turf.

Head coach Tyler Stith, senior Mac McClear, and junior Callum Macfie each echoed an iteration of that phrase when discussing the upcoming home event after a second-place team finish in the 2022 edition of the tournament.

“There’s definitely a certain pride,” Macfie said. “Almost kind of how home teams want to protect their house, protect their stadium, that’s kind of how we feel about Finkbine and how we feel about this tournament.”

Stith said Iowa’s experience advantage at Finkbine should pay dividends on and around the greens.

“This golf course does present challenges for anybody playing here for the first time,” Stith said of Finkbine. “You have to know where you can miss it around the greens and just keeping the ball below the hole is obviously extremely important, so we try to take advantage of that as is as much as we can, and I think the guys feel like they have a great chance to win every time we play.”

Those advantages have aided the Hawkeyes in team victories in 15 of the previous 28 Hawkeye Invitationals and two of the last three. But the 2022 Hawkeye Invitational team champion Kansas Jayhawks will be back to defend their title this year.

Kansas’ three-round total of 10-under-par 852 last season bested Iowa by two strokes.

Kansas, Iowa, Central Arkansas, Creighton, Drake, Iowa State, Northern Illinois, South Dakota State, St. Thomas, Tarleton State, Kansas City, Western Illinois, and Wichita State will make up the 13-team field this weekend.

McClear chasing individual title

Through his three-plus seasons as a Hawkeye, McClear has put his name among the Hawkeye greats.

With three individual wins — the 2021 Spartan Collegiate at Sea Island, 2021 Big Ten Championship, and 2022 Iowa fall classic — McClear is one of six Iowa players to win multiple tournaments since the turn of the century, joining Alex Schaake, Raymond Knoll, Steven Ihm, Chris Brant, and Vince India.

Ihm, now an assistant coach for the Hawkeyes, is the only one of that group with four titles, and McClear can catch him this week.

McClear said the Hawkeye Invitational would be a special tournament for him to win, and to catch Ihm would make it more meaningful.

“Definitely one I want to win,” McClear said. “I won the [Iowa Fall Classic] but that’s not really our main event, so yeah, this would be great to get a win and catch Steve-o.”

Ihm was standing next to McClear on the driving range when he gave that answer.

In his two previous starts at the Hawkeye Invitational, McClear finished second behind Schaake in 2021 and fifth last season.

The 2022 Hawkeye Invitational will begin at 1 p.m. on Friday with a shotgun start, will continue until darkness, and then finish up on Saturday beginning at 9 a.m.

🚨 Hawkeye Invitational Update 🚨

Tomorrow, Friday, April 14
9:00 AM – Practice round
1:00 PM – First round until 7:30PM/8PM

Saturday, April 15
9:00 AM – Start time to finish#Hawkeyes pic.twitter.com/VOzWHrmACQ

— Iowa Hawkeye Golf (@IowaHawkeyeGolf) April 13, 2023

Live scoring can be found at golfstat.com.

Women head to Columbus 

The Hawkeye women’s team will play in the Lady Buckeye Invitational from April 15-16.

Iowa will be represented by freshmen Shannyn Vogler, Kaitlyn Hanna, Madison Dabagia, Riley Lewis, senior Jordan Amelon, and sophomore Paula Miranda.

The Hawkeyes will compete against Illinois, Indiana, Kent State, Maryland, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Nebraska, Ohio State, Purdue, Penn State, Rutgers, and Wisconsin.

The event will begin each day at 7:30 a.m. each day and live scoring can be found at golfstat.com.