Iowa State golf finished the Arizona Intercollegiate tied for fourth place with a team score of 832 (283-279-270).

Poor first round almost buries Cyclones

One of the messages coach Andrew Tank said he has tried to instill into his team this season is the idea of coming out of the gate strong.

Iowa State has had issues with this for most of the season, shooting over par by a big margin in the first round, putting themselves in a hole early.

In some cases the Cyclones have been able to climb back up the leaderboards with second and third-round play, but most often the first round has hurt the team’s overall success. 

Tank told his team before heading to Arizona it was crucial the team got off to a fast start to start the spring season.

The Cyclones were tied for 10th place after the first round, shooting 4 over par for the day. Iowa State shot 16 bogies and 15 birdies for the round.

Iowa State racked up 40 birdies and 27 bogies in the next two rounds combined.

Three out of the five golfers for the Cyclones shot over par for the first round.

Lachlan Barker shot 5 over for the first round, Sam Vincent shot 4 over and Ricky Costello ended the first round of 3 over.

“We just made a lot of sloppy mistakes from what I could see,” Tank said. “We were not making a ton of putts the first day.”

The first round was not all negative, as junior Tripp Kinney and sophomore Frank Lindwall both shot under par.

Kinney shot 2 under for the first round and Lindwall got the first round started with a minus-4 score.

“It felt really good to play like that right away,” Kinney said. “It was important for me to play some holes and see where I was really at and it went well.”

Tripp Kinney starts off spring strong

The junior from Waukee, Iowa, began the spring season off on fire.

Kinney led the way for the Cyclones by finishing tied for eighth overall in the tournament. Kinney shot a career-low 205 for the tournament (69-71-65). 

His 65 in the final round of the Intercollegiate is his career-best for an 18-hole round.

Kinney’s teammate Frank Lindwall said he has seen Kinney preform at a high level time and time again during his career at Iowa State and is far from shocked at how he performed in the tournament.

“I am honestly not really surprised to see that from [Kinney],” Lindwall said. “He always performs well each time we go out there and he did the same once again.”

Tank said he was happy to see Kinney play consistent throughout the tournament but echoed the sentiments of Lindwall, acknowledging Kinney’s performance is nothing new to him.

By tying for eighth overall, Kinney now has four top-10 finishes in his career at Iowa State.

Iowa State breaks the streak

The Arizona Intercollegiate has been the thorn in the Cyclones’ collective side for the past few seasons.

The tournament has been the first competitive play of the spring season for Iowa State each season since 2014-15 and always seemed to trip the Cyclones up as they returned from the long offseason.

The last three finishes for Iowa State at the Intercollegiate have been 14th, 10th and ninth place overall. 

However, the Cyclones turned the story around this time around. Iowa State finished tied for fourth overall, making it the first top-five finish at the Arizona Intercollegiate since the 2014-15 season.

Iowa State did not mask the excitement they had for how they finished at this tournament.

Kinney has been a part of the disappointment in past years at the Intercollegiate and he said he was proud the team didn’t quit on themselves and pushed in the end.

“That was really important to not lose trust in our game at the end,” Kinney said. “The way we finished shows how hard we have been working all offseason and I knew we would come out here and do that because this has felt different than any offseason I have had in the past.”

His coach agreed.

“There definitely was a special feeling, mostly because we really have done a lot of work for this event, so i think it is rewarding to see the improvement show right away,” Tank said.

Iowa State is back on the course Feb. 18 for the Prestige at PGA West in La Quinta, California.