A tough golf course along with some stiff competition gave the ISU Men’s Golf team a 10th place finish at the Colbert Invitational Tuesday in Manhattan, Kansas.

The Cyclones ended with a three round total of 968 at the Colbert Hills Golf Course.

The Cyclones were led by Kevin Oswald’s two-day total of 229 giving him a share of 10th place. Teammate Matt Gatchel tied for 44th with a total of 245 while Josh Clay finished just behind Gatchel with an effort of 249 for a piece of 49th. Phil Slovitt posted a 250, while Aaron Patton carded a 263 to round out the rest of the team scores.

“With a youthful team it sometimes seems like we’re on a roller coaster a lot of times, because when it goes bad, it goes bad for everyone,” said ISU Men’s Golf Coach Jay Horton.

“That was one of the hardest golf courses that we’ll probably see all year long. It was a very demanding course and we caught it at a very bad time,” he said.

One ISU golfer able to manage Colbert Hills was Kevin Oswald, posting a two day total of 229 with round scores of 76-76-77.

On the first day, Oswald was consistent by shooting rounds of 76-76. “I had a real bad start bogeying three of the first four holes. Then I kind of fought back in the middle stretch. I was at even par with 6 holes left and just stumbled with a few closing bogeys,” commented Oswald on his first round 76.

His second round that afternoon opened with another ominous start, but Oswald regrouped to make an eagle on a par 5 to pull even. The par didn’t last, as Oswald was once again plagued by bogeys through the back nine, and finished with another 76.

Only eight over par and four strokes off the leader heading into the final round, Oswald had put himself in contention to win the tournament.

“I started out with a triple bogey on the first hole, and never really had anything going. So I just grinded it out the rest of the round to finish 5 over,” Oswald said.

A final round 77, left Oswald tied for 10th.

“He really managed his game well enough to finish with a top ten performance,” Horton said.

The length of the course along with a stiff wind inflated players golf scores. A 4-over par score of 220 was good enough to give Missouri Tiger Mark McBride the tournament win. A stroke off in second place, was Illinois State’s Dave Klaas with a three round total of 221 and four others were tied for third with a 222.

“Individually, for 4-over par to win a golf tournament, and for Kevin to finish 13-over par and to get a top 10 finish at this level of competition in Division I golf shows how tough the course really was,” Horton said.

“We still have 3 tournaments left this year and if we can finish strong in those and hold some of that momentum into the spring, I think we’ll be all right.”

The men’s golf team will get their chance to build momentum when they travel to Cedar Rapids, Iowa on Oct. 16 for the Big Four Championship. Teams competing in the Big Four are Iowa State, Iowa, Drake, and Northern Iowa. ISU finished 4th last year.

“It’s very competitive, and there’s a lot of pride and bragging rights on the line,” Horton said..