The ISU golf teams will hit the road again Monday with hopes of continuing their solid play early in the season. The women will head to Lawrence, Kan., and the men will play in Reno, Nev.

For the women, the Marilynn Smith Sunflower Invitational will be their first tournament since opening the season on Sept. 10 in Madison, Wisc. In that tournament, they placed seventh out of 16 teams but thought they could have easily finished higher.

“I think there were some high points and some low points,” said coach Christie Martens.

“I saw a lot of good things, but we kind of had a few hiccups going down the stretch. The talent is there, we just have to keep on working on conditioning and finishing strong.”

Junior Kendra Hanson, who shot a team low 75 on the final day of the event, agreed that finishing strong is crucial to the team’s success.

“We’re going to try to improve on our finishes, and being steady those last nine holes,” Hanson said.

“We just have to keep making pars and finish strong.”

After the long layoff, the Cyclones will go into the tournament rested and eager to play.

The only thing that could pose a problem is that they have never played the course in Lawrence before. However, no one seemed too worried about what lies ahead.

“I feel good about it,” Martens said. “We have a practice round, which normally takes around five or six hours, so we’ll get pretty familiar with the course.”

Hanson suggested it might actually be easier for the players to play on a course they haven’t played before.

“You don’t have to worry about ‘this hole’ or ‘that hole,’ you just go in to it with a positive mind frame,” she said.

Meanwhile, the Cyclone men are coming off an impressive second-place finish two weeks ago at the very same golf course.

Led by junior Joe Cermak and freshman Cameron White, Iowa State tied Nebraska for runner-up honors in the Jayhawk Invitational. It was a higher finish than they had all of last season.

Coach Jay Horton wasn’t surprised by the high finish, and he believes the team is ready to reach the next level.

“We’ve got guys who have been around the block and are a little more mature,” Horton said. “They are able to turn some bad rounds into decent rounds, and we have better competition throughout the team.

Horton also said the talent on this year’s team is better than in years past.

“I’ve got good players who are back [home] and aren’t playing,” he said. “Having that talent back home has pushed the guys on the road to play well, too. So everybody knows that you have to play hard to keep your spot.”

To take the next step and win tournaments, the Cyclones believe they must improve their short game.

“The whole team has been struggling with putting; I have especially,” White said. “I’ve hit the ball great for the most part, just some of those birdie putts aren’t dropping. A couple more of those drop, and I think a lot of us could be contending for tournaments.”