Consistency has been a problem all season for coach Andrew Tank’s men’s golf team, but after a few encouraging meets, the problem seemed to be going away.

But even with relative home field advantage and a little momentum, the Cyclones started sluggish in Iowa City over the weekend, finishing tied for sixth at the Hawkeye-Great River Entertainment Invitational. It was a meet the Cyclones felt they could win.

“This was probably our poorest tournament of the season,” Tank said. “I think everyone is disappointed. We had some momentum that was building and unfortunately we didn’t capitalize this weekend.”

Scott Fernandez finished fifth individually, cracking the top five for the seventh time this season in eight tournaments. But even the Cyclones’ best golfer started slow, shooting a first round score of 75 — his highest of the season.

Although Fernandez and the team finished their second and third rounds better than the first, Fernandez finished with his third-worst score of the season along with the team’s fourth-worst.

Much of the team’s struggles came from a slow start, with all but Sam Daley shooting its worst round of the meet in the first round. The sluggish start, along with poor short game play, put the Cyclones tied for eighth heading into the second round.

“We are really going to get after the short game this week,” Tank said. “It just really wasn’t at the level we need it to be, so that’s going to be the real emphasis of practice this week.”

Although much of the field struggled hitting under par in Iowa City, the Cyclones recorded 80 bogeys-or-worse as a team to only 39 birdies-or-better. Fernandez finished with one-third of the team’s under-par holes.

Tank stressed prior to the meet that most of the team needed to finish in the top 25 to do well at meets. Only Fernandez found himself in the top 25 this time around.

Sam Daley finished tied for 28th after an encouraging first-round score of 74, which led the team. Collin Foster (tied-32nd) and Blake Waller (tied-55th) finished in the bottom half of the field after high-scoring first rounds.

The meet was led by Kansas, which outscored Iowa State by 30 strokes. The outcome caused some concern for the Cyclones, who will face the lower-ranked Jayhawks in the Big 12 Championship later in April.

“We got blown out this weekend by [Kansas],” Tank said. “It wasn’t that strong of a field, so yeah, it’s very concerning to be so far off that pace.”

Iowa State also finished far behind rival Iowa, which was edged by Kansas for first place by one stroke. The closest team in the field to Iowa State was Nebraska, which finished 10 strokes ahead in fifth place.

The Cyclones are hoping to put the mediocre finish behind them as they prepare for a battle with some of the best teams in the nation at the Big 12 Championship.

“It’s a quick turnaround for us, so we just need to get back to work tomorrow and have a better week of practice,” Tank said. “We really need to have our best week of practice all year in order to give us a chance to go down there and play our best.”