Iowa State men’s golf team finishes the Fighting Irish Classic with a final score of 850 after Monday. The Cyclones finished the first two rounds in ninth place, but finished in 11th due to some struggles in the final round. 

Iowa State had a final round score of 292, the highest score of their three-round weekend. The Cyclones finished 25 strokes better than their appearance at the Fighting Irish Classic last season. 

Leading the way for Iowa State was sophomore Luke Gutschewski, who finished 16th and shot a three-round total of 207(-3). He shot for 71 (+1) in the final round. 

Junior Lukas Pany finished last among the Cyclones, tied for 83rd overall, with a final score of 233 (+23). In his final round, he had six bogeys and one double bogey. Redshirt senior Nate Vance finished with a score of 217 (+7) and tied for 54th overall. 

The Cyclone’s season opener shows that there’s a lot to look forward to with both the freshmen and the returners, despite struggling in the final round. 

Gutschewski shines in the season opener

Gutschewski improved from his 216 performance last season at the Fighting Irish Classic. He came in tied with Paul Beauvy in the top five after the first two rounds. 

After Beauvy took a slight drop in the first nine of round three, Gutschewski took the lead among the Cyclones. Gutschewski also finished with the most amount of pars among the Cyclones, with 36 on the weekend. 

Freshmen struggle in the final round

Coming into the final round, Paul Beauvy was tied for fifth among all golfers, scoring 136(-4). However, he would struggle in his last round with seven bogeys and three birdies, giving him a final score of 210 and finishing tied for 26th overall. 

Kyo Morishita, the other freshman who got the starting nod, started his final nine holes with back-to-back triple bogeys but would come back with three birdies in his last five holes. 

Morishita would finish with a total score of 216 (+6) and tied for 48th overall. 

Not many pars and birdies

Iowa State finished in the middle of the pack for both pars and birdies this weekend. It got 169 pars and 42 birdies, which kept them from finishing higher at the end of day two. 

Beauvy finished with 13 birdies which was the most among the Cyclones. 

Their season will continue on Sept. 11 at the Gopher Invitational.