After starting the spring schedule above par on the scorecard and sub-par in results, the ISU men’s golf team hopes to find its swing this week at the Wexford Plantation Intercollegiate in Hilton Head, S.C.

The 922-stroke, 11th place finish at last week’s Club de Golf Santa Anita North Texas Classic in Guadalajara, Mexico, marked the Cyclones third last-place finish in six tournaments this year.

“We did not play up to expectations,” said coach Jay Horton. “There was disappointment in where we finished. We hit the ball better, but we’re not getting a lot out of our games right now and we’re trying to cure that.”

Sophomore John Larson and junior Rodney Hamblin led the Cyclones with 227-stroke performances, good for 11-over-par overall in the three-round tournament.

“It was a tough tournament to get started on for the first one of the year,” Larson said. “We finished poorly, but we want to improve in each tournament we play in. We take that tournament, and we all know what we’ve got to work on.”

Larson said one factor affecting the team is the Iowa winter.

The team has spent most of its practice time at an indoor facility in Des Moines. With warmer weather this past week, practices have moved outside to Briarwood Golf Course in Ankeny.

“We didn’t have a lot of outdoor experience prior to [last week’s tournament],” Larson said. “We’re looking forward to this week a lot more because everybody’s got a bit of a mindset going into it. They knew what they had to work on all this week. We were outside pretty much every day and we’re all pretty prepared.”

The Wexford Plantation Intercollegiate matches Iowa State against 14 other teams, including host Francis Marion University and intrastate rival University of Iowa.

Horton said the course for the tournament will seem familiar to the Cyclone golfers.

“This course will be similar to what we just played,” he said. “It’s not very long; it’s going to be short, it’s going to be tight. But that tends to favor us because we don’t have that many long hitters.”

Although a short course might favor the Cyclones, it’s not what they’re used to seeing in practice.

“Briarwood is a lot different from the course we’re actually playing, so we have to visualize a lot tighter golf course,” Larson said. “You have to pick out a lot narrower spots, pick out a target, and hit it there because the course we’re playing on right now, if you don’t hit the target, you’re going to be hitting again, it’s out of bounds.”

As the team hopes to stay on the course Monday and Tuesday in South Carolina, it looks to get back on course for the rest of the season.

“We all know we’re struggling, but like everything, there’s always something to work on,” Larson said. “I think we’ve all got confidence in ourselves and we’re going to be playing pretty well coming this spring.”

Despite the team’s struggles in past tournaments this season, Horton said the goal this week is as high as ever.

“I don’t set average goals,” he said. “Obviously you could say we’d like to improve from where we finished, but I don’t want anybody to be satisfied with just a top 10 finish or just a top five finish. .we’re always trying to win tournaments.”