Things seemed to hit a bump in the high-altitude as the Iowa State men’s golf team had a ninth place finish out of 14 teams at the Ram Invitational in Fort Collins, Colorado last Monday and Tuesday.

The Cyclones finished with a 54-hole total of 861, 24 strokes behind Big 12 rival Nebraska. Leading the Cyclones was Jason Knutzon, who fired a three-over par total of 213 with rounds of 70-74-69, good for a tie for 18th, at the par 70 Fort Collins Country Club.

“Jason played really solid the whole tournament,” men’s golf coach Jamie Bermel said. “If he could’ve got some putts to drop in the last round, he could’ve easily shot 63 or 64.”

Cory Braunschweig finished one stroke behind Knutzon and in a tie for 20th. Jon Brackmann shot 217 to finish tied for 31st and Matt Lewis finished tied for 66th at 226.

“Matt really struggled all week,” Bermel said. “Cory is a good scrambler when he gets in trouble, and that is what he did to play well. John had a solid final round of 68 to help us out as well.”

Overall, Bermel said the Cyclones “didn’t play well” and came undone in the second round.

“We just collapsed the second round,” Bermel said. “We played very well the first and last rounds but couldn’t find it in the middle round.”

With the altitude a factor in Colorado, the golf ball naturally travels farther, but Bermel said they “did a nice job adjusting.”

“This was the toughest field we have seen since the Big 12 Tournament last year,” Bermel said. “Three or four teams were in the NCAA Tournament last year.”

One of the biggest surprises of the Invitational was Pepperdine, who finished 11th, a team that recently won the NCAA title.

“They are rebuilding,” Bermel said. “They lost five seniors off that championship team, so I guess that is what happens when you play freshmen and sophomores.”

Bermel cannot explain why the Cyclones played the way they did.

“I don’t know what happened,” Bermel said. “We prepared pretty well, we had good conditions there to score well, the team was feeling good, so I don’t know what really happened.”

“When one aspect of our guys’ games was off, the other was on,” Bermel said. “We just couldn’t get it all put together for three rounds, and that is what we need to learn to do.”

“We also were not helped by the pairing we were in,” Bermel said. “We played with San Francisco and Wyoming, two teams that played badly, which slowed us down because their players were making bogey all the time.”

Medalist honors were shared by Ralph Gemoets of Texas-El Paso and Jamie Rogers of Nebraska, each firing 6-under par 204s. There was no playoff to decide the outright medalist because a thunderstorm prevented it.

“Nebraska was probably the best team there,” Bermel said. “Rogers played very solid golf the whole time.”

The Cyclones are currently in Corvallis, Oregon competing in the Oregon State Invitational.

“This will be a similar tournament, in terms of competitiveness, to the Colorado State tournament,” Bermel said. “Many of the Pac-10 teams will be there, including Stanford, which is not as good as it was when Tiger Woods was there.”

Washington, UCLA, Oregon and others are there, as well. The only other team from this area competing is Wichita State.

“This will be a good test for us,” Bermel said. “Our practices have been going good this week because we’ve been able to refocus after a good last round in Colorado. The main thing we need to do is put three solid rounds together in a tournament.”