This year’s Lady Puerto Rico Classic provided Iowa State with a great opportunity to find its current identity as a team. Each school in the field came in ranked in the top 100 of GolfWeek’s rankings, so it was expected to be a competitive field.

The Cyclones were never quite able to find their rhythm during all three days of competition. They improved every day, from 16 over par on day one, to 15 over on day two and then finally 10 over par on the final day. It is pretty obvious that these numbers will not cut it if Coach Christie Martens and her team would like to compete for a top spot on the leaderboard.

Par 3s: 

Iowa State finished near the middle of the pack in average par 3 score for the tournament, much improved from last week’s second to last finish.

Their average score improved from 3.28 last week to 3.17 this week, and they also saved nine more strokes. This would be an area that the Cyclones could carry as momentum into their next tournament.

Par 4s and Par 5s:

On the other side of the spectrum, the par 4s and 5s did not go so well for the Cyclones. They finished fourth to last out of the whole field, regarding par 4 performance, with a total score of +49 and an average of 4.33 per hole. The par 5s were not much better, as they finished with a total of eight over par with an average score of 5.13.

Par 4s were the hardest holes on the course, as eight of the 15 teams in the field finished with a total of +35 or worse. Par 5s, on the other hand, were much more successful for the majority of the field.

Eleven total teams finished with a score of four over par or better on such holes. This could be a point of emphasis heading into the Arizona Wildcat Invitational in early March for Martens and her team.

Lack of Red Numbers:

Iowa State continues to have an inability to knock down a consistent amount of birdies. After finishing with 47 total in last week’s three-round tournament, it only got worse in Puerto Rico.

The Cyclones finished second to last out of the whole field with 27 total birdies.

Building for the future:

The combination of freshman Liyana Durisic and Ruby Chou continue to be the lone bright spots for the Cyclones. Both golfers have proved that they have the potential to lead a winning team in the future. Durisic finished tied for 12th in last week’s UCF Challenge, and Ruby Chou finished this week tied for 28th position.

Sophomore Taglao Jeeravivitaporn rounds out Iowa State’s top three golfers in the spring. The Thailand native has also gotten off to a solid start this season with an 18th and 31st place finish through the first two tournaments. 

This week certainly didn’t go exactly how Iowa State would’ve wanted it to, but it has some aspects to build upon heading into the Arizona Wildcat Invitational beginning on March 9th.