Iowa State women’s golf struggled to find its footing in the fall season finale at the Cowgirl Classic.

The Cyclones were the only team in the tournament that failed to shoot under a 310 in any given round, shooting a 313, 316, and a 319 in their rounds. Baylor ended up taking home the team title, as they swiped the lead from Texas Tech in the final round on Friday. 

Par 3 success

For all the struggles Iowa State had, it was doing fine with its par 3s. Iowa State averaged a 3.27 on par threes, shooting +16 on the tournament. This was the 5th best team average on par 3s.

Leading the team was Amelia Grohn, who was one of only eight golfers to shoot even or better on par 3s, six of whom, including Grohn, were at an even 3.0. Ruby Chou also excelled at the shorter holes, shooting 3.17 per par 3, or +2 total.

Lack of birdies

Iowa State, outside of Joy Chou, struggled to get under par all tournament.

Joy had 10 birdies on her scorecard (tied for 3rd best), the other four golfers for Iowa State had a combined 14.

Iowa State as a team was only better than Brigham Young University (22) in the stat, with 24, which was tied with Texas Christian University for 7th. The 24 birdies were well behind Oklahoma State and Texas Tech’s 38, and even quite a bit low for the tournament average of ~31.

Worst on Par 4s

Not a whole lot to delve into here.

Iowa State was a miserable +115 on par fours, shooting a tournament worst 4.77 on said holes. The closest team to that was Brigham Young, who was at 4.61 per hole, or +92 on the tournament.

Shooting 22 shots worse than the next lowest team on a majority of the holes on any given course isn’t exactly a recipe for success.