Men’s golf

With the school year ending and spring sports coming to a close, the ISU men’s and women’s golf teams are looking forward to continuing its success next year.

Coach Andrew Tank has eight years of experience being the assistant coach at the Minnesota. While an assistant coach, Tank was a part of many Big Ten titles.

Tank said he plans on bringing many titles to Iowa State having already accomplished a first place title at the Bridgestone Golf Collegiate in Greensboro, N.C., in his second year as coach.

The men’s team only lost one senior, Nate McCoy, who has been a leader on the team and will be a hole the team is going to have to fill. The returning starters, however, include Scott Fernandez, Sam Daley and Borja Virto.

The team will have to replace McCoy and hopefully find another player to fill in its fifth spot, which has been a struggle this past year. If the team is able to do this, it will be looking at another year of high competition and a solid year.

Having Scott Fernandez playing the way he did this past year as a freshman means he will be vying to improve even more, this time with experience under his belt.

Women’s golf

Coach Christie Martens has eight years of experience with the Cyclones. In 2010, Martens signed a contract extension to coach the ISU women’s golf team through 2015.

Assistant coach Pina Gentile has five years of experience with Iowa State and has been a part of all three back-to-back NCAA Regional appearances.

The women’s team is also only losing one senior at the end of this year, Kristin Paulson, who has been the leader of the team for a few years. Her spot will not be an easy one to fill, but that will be the goal of the coaches this offseason.

Returning starters will be Punpaka Phuntumabamrung, Prima Thammaraks, Sasikarn On-Iam and Chonlada Chayanun.

With having to replace Paulson, the team is fortunate to have had a solid rotation of five players throughout the season. With Paulson having an impact on the team, someone will have to step up into the leader role.

Both teams practice at the Veenker Memorial Golf Course. During the cold winters in Iowa, the golf teams are fortunate to have Veenker right on campus, which has a driving range with the Cyclone golf performance center, which allows the teams to hit golf balls all year long.

“It is an important part of our offseason being able to practice there,” Tank said. “The ability to hit golf balls 365 days of the year is huge for us to compete against the southern schools.”

With both the men’s and women’s golf teams only losing one senior and having consistent showings at numerous tournaments last year, they will be vying to have an even better year next season.