The regular season is over for the ISU men’s golf team. This past weekend the team finished up at the Hawkeye-TaylorMade Invitational. The Cyclones continued their downhill slide by finishing in 11th place in Iowa City.

A bright spot on the weekend was sophomore Borja Virto. The sophomore and native of Spain, carded rounds of 76 and 72 to finish with a 148, total which landed him in a tie for 10th place. In the fall season Virto had one top-five finish, but after that seemed to disappear into the mix of the lineup. This spring has been a different story, as Virto has led the Cyclones in three of the last four meets, and with this past meet, it’s his second top-10 finish of the spring season.

“This fall I was getting very upset when I would string together a few bogeys,” Virto said. “So coach Tank has helped me to control my emotions and just to focus on each shot one at a time.”

The team only brought four players in a move that was thought of as “best for the future of the team” by coaches Andrew Tank and Patrick Datz. As for those three other golfers, senior Nathan Leary finished right behind Virto with a 153, which earned him a tie for 29th overall. Junior Nate McCoy finished with a 157 total which put him in a tie for 45th, and sophomore Josh Bruder, making his second collegiate start, finished in 58th with a 164 total.

In Iowa City, the golfers certainly weren’t treated to beautiful conditions. Much like Ames, the weekend featured sub-40 degree temperatures, gusty winds and rain on Friday. Then Saturday the golfers were prevented from play the morning 18 holes due to a snow shower.

“It was very windy and cold, which made it very tough,” Virto said, “but I was able to make good contact with the ball, and keep it low, so I was able to play through it.”

The leaderboard featured high scores all weekend. On Friday in the wind and rain, only two golfers in the entire field shot sub-par rounds. Then in round two on Saturday after the snow cleared up, the golfers were able to attack the course, and be a little more aggressive, Tank said.

“I feel like our guys let the weather anticipate our performance,” Tank said. “They have to be able to grind through it, and they didn’t do that this time.”

Again this week the team will be having individual practice in getting ready for the Big 12 Championships. Tank is trying to stress that it’s time for his guys to start worrying about what they can control, rather than letting things carry over such as the weather, or how they’ve been playing lately.

“These things like how they’ve performed recently, or what the weather’s doing, has lowered the belief that they can compete at a high level, and has created a mental let down,” Tank said. “They’re letting outside things control their performance and the amount of confidence they have, so that’s the mentality we need to change”

The team leaves Friday for Hutchinson, Kansas to compete in the Big 12 Championships which will be held April 25 to 27.