On Monday, Iowa State golf will head west, this time to participate in The Prestige at the PGA West.

Held in La Quinta, California, this will be the 19th annual Prestige at the PGA West. Iowa State finished 10th out of 16 teams the last time they were in The Prestige.

Tripp Kinney tied for 52nd in the tournament (74-77) and Lachlan Barker tied for 28th with scores of 74 and 72 respectively.

The name ‘Prestige’ says it all when it comes to the competition the Cyclones will face in this tournament.

The Prestige at the PGA West features 13 teams who are all ranked in the top 100 by Golfstat. Eight of the 13 teams rank in the top 50 teams in the country, including the reigning national champions Oklahoma State.

“We are going to be competing against teams that hopefully we will see down the road whether at the Big 12 Championship or in NCAA competition,” Coach Andrew Tank said.

Tank’s team backs up his sentiment, saying that playing against highly ranked opponents can offer the Cyclones a good idea of how they stack up against top-level competition.

Besides Oklahoma State, the Cyclones will compete against No. 14 Pepperdine, No. 16 LSU and No. 25 Arkansas.

“It doesn’t matter who we are playing in terms of what we do on the course,” Barker said. “On the other hand, it is always good to play against the best competition we can.”

Iowa State is heading into The Prestige after placing tied for fourth at the Arizona Intercollegiate, a tournament that had caused the Cyclones problems over last four years. 

The Cyclones admit mistakes and unforced errors might have cost them an even higher finish at the Intercollegiate and have been working the past two weeks to improve their game.

“The golf course is wide but then outside of the fairways there is a lot of trouble so I think driving will be pretty key,” Kinney said. “Everyone needs to have confidence off the tee and pick good lines.”

Individually, Kinney said he feels confident in his driving game but has continued to work on his putting and chipping. 

Barker and Kinney said they felt the coaching staff has led the players to focus on the small details in each of their games, allowing each one of them to have detailed work put in during practice time. 

Barker’s putting was something he said he felt was an issue at the Intercollegiate. He will be adopting a new putting strategy, along with a different mindset of calmness and patience.

“The course is a strong one and I think patience on our behalf is going to be key,” Barker said. “It’s not going to be one where birdies are flying around everywhere and I think it’s a venue for a team like ours with our discipline where we can shine through.”