The inaugural Big 12 match play tournament came to an end for the Iowa State men’s golf team Sunday evening. Baylor won the match play tournament by beating Kansas.

Iowa State played in the consolation matchup for 9th and 10th place. Iowa State lost to West Virginia in the consolation match and came in last place in the tournament.

Lachlan Barker leads the way again

“He has certainly played like one of our top guys so far,” said coach Andrew Tank. “He is so competitive and wants to win every game for us.”

Iowa State may not have finished right where it was hoping in the tournament, but Lachlan Barker did his part by securing individual match victories in all but one of the Cyclones’ matchups in the tournament.

Barker walked away with almost half of the individual wins for Iowa State over the weekend. Barker has been a driving force for team this year, placing high in the standings at every tournament Iowa State has had up until Big 12 match play.

Lack of execution

Iowa State has been its own worst enemy the first half of the season, as most tournaments resulted in the Cyclones overcoming an early hole to achieve late victory.

The Big 12 match play tournament had the same result but not the same outcome as the Cyclones lost all five matches over the weekend. Tank could not hide his frustration and disappointment with the team’s performance to close out the first half of the year.

“We all had a bitter taste in our mouths leaving this tournament,” Tank said. “We did not have a good showing even though I thought we had some chances in all of our matches except for Oklahoma on the first day, other than that we should have played much better.”

Time to reflect

Iowa State men’s golf does not play again till the end of January, so there will be a long offseason filled with many conflicting emotions according to Tank.

From poor execution to playing with the right mentality, Tank says Iowa State has much to reflect on during their three month absence.

“I told the guys that they will have to decide what they want to be and perform like,” Tank said. “In a perfect world you get back out there and play and move forward but we are going to have to sit with this loss till January.”

Tank did not let the negativity of the moment overshadow Iowa State’s strong first start to the season.

“We overcame a lot of adversity in some of our first tournaments and got some victories so that is always a good sign,” Tank said. “Lachlan has two great finishes for us, and Tripp gave us a big one too early on in the year.

“I believe we will be stronger once the spring rolls around.”