It was not the outcome it wanted, but the ISU men’s golf team found things to improve on going forward this season.

“Overall, we have a talented group of players,” said coach Andrew Tank. “I am disappointed with where we finished on the scoreboard, but we learned a lot of things that we could improve on. The mistakes came from inexperience.”

The Cyclones finished in eighth place at the Wolverine Intercollegiate, their first tournament of the season, at 872 strokes. Nate McCoy led the way carding 71 in each round, which is even par for the course, and finished at 213 strokes. He finished in the top 10 individually.

“I played all right,” he said. “I didn’t make a lot of big mistakes, but I didn’t make many birdies either.”

While the things McCoy worked on came into fruition, he just could not make the putts he wanted.

“My short game was sharp, which is what I practiced all week,” he said. “My lack of putting cost me a few birdies I should have had.”

The four other players for Iowa State participated in their first NCAA tournament event. A consistent theme was trying to force things too much on the course.

“It came down to strategy,” Tank said. “When they hit a poor shot, they tried to do too much on the next shot instead of accepting what they had. It turned into a double or triple bogey when they could have walked away with just a bogey.”

McCoy noticed the same thing during all three rounds of golf.

“The mistakes were compounded,” he said. “One bad drive caused a poor decision for the second shot. It was more decision-making, which cost us some strokes.”

Even with the mistakes made, each of these players had their shining moments. All of them had at least a round of 72 strokes or better, including Scott Fernandez, who had a 69 in the third round, the best round of any Cyclone.

“They did not play anywhere near their potential,” Tank said. “Nate did not make any double bogeys or worse. If they had limited their mistakes to just a bogey, it would have saved them 19 shots.”

California finished in first place, ahead of Baylor by a commanding 12 strokes. Missouri finished fourth as a team, but two of its players, Jace Long and Emilio Cuartero, finished in the top three individually.

Next up for the Cyclones is the VCU Shootout on Sept. 26.