The Iowa State men’s golf team finished third with -29 after setting a tournament best -22 as a team in the third round of the National Invitational Tournament (N.I.T) in Tucson, Ariz, on Tuesday, securing three of the top four individual scores in the same round.
The Cyclones entered the final day tied for seventh at the Catalina Course, a 7,200-yard, par-72 setup. After sitting sixth at the end of the first round and dropping a place midway through the second, the tournament was suspended due to darkness, with many teams still needing to finish five to seven holes.
Round three saw Iowa State set the second-best team round in program history, 22 under par, the top team round of the tournament, besting No. 30 Arizona’s round one -21 and round three -19, as well as No. 5 Texas’s round two -18.
The Cyclones’ round three score was powered by senior Zach May, who tied for a tournament best -7 with an eagle on hole 10 and five birdies.
Junior Owen Sawyer -6 had six birdies, and senior Paul Beauvy -6 had five birdies with an eagle on hole two. Both finished one stroke behind May and tied for second on the round and third-best individual round scores.
Junior Jackson McCommon -3 also finished under par with four birdies and an eagle on hole eight, while junior Dianchao Wu +2 helped to round out the team’s top round score with two birdies for himself.
As a team, the Cyclones -29 rounded out the podium, behind No. 5 Texas -41, and No. 30 Arizona -40, while finishing ahead of No. 27 BYU (-20), who finished tied for fourth with Saint Mary’s.
Individually, Sawyer -11 finished third overall in the tournament behind Arizona’s Filip Jakubcik -14 and Texas’ Luke Potter -12. Fellow Cyclones Beauvy finished tied for eighth -8, McCommon tied for 14th -6, May tied for 25th -4 and Wu placed 67th +8.
The Cyclones’ next tournament will be Feb. 16-18 in La Quinta, Calif., against 23 other teams for the Prestige at PGA West hosted by the University of California, Davis.
All statistics and scores are provided by scoreboard.clippd.com
