Scott Fernandez will be the first one to say he didn’t play a perfect 54 holes of golf at the Furman Intercollegiate, but it’s hard to complain when he played better than everyone else.

After a shortened day of golf due to a rain delay in the morning, Fernandez walked away with medalist honors for the second time in his ISU career on Sunday.

The rest of the ISU men’s golf team had no complaints either with Fernandez’s performance helping it to a fifth-place finish, besting 16 teams in the field of 21.

“I’m definitely happy about it,” Fernandez said. “After a round you will always say you could have done a little better, but I’m pretty happy.”

With reason, too. The first-place finish marked just the second time in his Cyclone career and first time this season earning medalist honors after finishing in the top five in three events earlier this season.

Fernandez’s 3-under-par campaign in the first round was highlighted by a chip-in for birdie on hole three and an eagle on hole 15, putting himself tied for fifth after day one.

He outdid himself in round two, rattling off four birdies — one of them another chip-in — on a six-hole stretch to help him go 4-under-par day two and tie for the lead.

“My chipping has improved a lot in the past year, and I’m really excited about that,” Fernandez said. “The chipping helped a lot.”

On the final day, he hit even-par to tie for the lead and medalist honors with Samford’s Drew Aimone.

But even with the best player on the course, the Cyclones still struggled to keep the team score down. The Cyclones lost to tournament champion Virginia Tech by 36 strokes and was only three strokes from falling to eighth place.

“Overall, I still feel like we have a lot of work to do from a team standpoint,” said ISU coach Andrew Tank. “We just haven’t been able to put that team effort together and getting contributions from all five players in the lineup.

“We are just struggling to find a bit of depth there. It’s a process and we need to keep working at it to get everybody playing better.”

Zach Steffen was the team’s second-best option over the weekend in Greenville, S.C., hitting an even-par second round en route to a 6-over-par finish.

“I was pleased with Zach’s performance,” Tank said. “This was his first tournament where he was in the lineup for the spring. He took advantage of that opportunity that he got and played pretty solid.”

However, having a 13-stroke difference in a team’s first- and second-place golfers is a problem the Cyclones have struggled with all season.

“Everybody’s just got to step it up,” Tank said. “Scott is obviously performing at a high level, but the other four guys in the lineup just need to perform a lot better and that’s what’s lacking at the moment: depth.”

The team will have a week off to try to build up the depth that it’s been lacking before heading to Tempe, Ariz., to play in the ASU Thunderbird Invite. With some emerging consistent play from players like Steffen, the Cyclones can do just that.

“I know they are capable of much more,” Tank said. “I know they can do it, now they just have to step up and do it.”