If it were not for Arizona State, it would have been a banner week for the ISU men’s golf team.

Unfortunately for the Cyclones, the Sun Devils successfully defended their home turf at the Arizona State Thunderbird Invitational as they buried runner-up Iowa State by 25 shots.

“I knew they were going to be tough and they’re a good team,” said ISU coach Andrew Tank. “They had two guys [Jon Rahm and Max Rotluff] that really just lapped the field. Twenty-nine-under-par between their top two guys, it’s pretty tough to compete with that.”

It was a narrow race after one round, with No. 48 Iowa State and No. 14 Baylor trailing No. 3 Arizona State by four and two shots, respectively.

After 36 holes, however, the Sun Devils’ fifth team victory of the season was inevitable as they ballooned their lead to 14 shots before the final round began.

Just as Arizona State was a lock for the team victory, it was a foregone conclusion that a Sun Devil would also take medalist honors.

Rahm and Rotluff, No. 2 and No. 17 in the Golfstat NCAA individual rankings, were deadlocked for much of the tournament before Rahm emerged for a one-shot victory, his third of the season.

The gap between Rahm and Rotluff and the rest of the field proved insurmountable as Rahm beat the nearest non-Sun Devil, Iowa State’s Nick Voke, by 10 shots.

Voke finished in third place at five-under-par (68+69+68) to record his third top-10 of the season.

“I don’t think I played particularly well this week,” Voke said. “I managed my momentum and I held a lot of solid putts for par the whole week. My short game is what saved me this week, without a doubt.”

Tank was less critical of the sophomore’s performance, particularly with how he handled the pressure of the gallery that formed to watch Rahm, the hometown hero, and No. 55 Andreas Gjesteby of Baylor.

“He played very solid, he was really overshadowed by how low those two guys shot,” Tank said. “He had a good opportunity playing in the final pairing with Jon Rahm, the No. 1 amateur in the world [in the World Amateur Golf Rankings]. It was a good experience for Nick and he performed well under those circumstances.”

Voke’s efforts were not enough to lift the Cyclones over the Sun Devils, but they were enough to earn the team’s fourth runner-up finish of the season.

Iowa State can also take consolation in placing ahead of its Big 12 foe, No. 14 Baylor, and in-state rival, No. 43 Iowa.

As the NCAA regional tournament looms a month in the distance, Tank said his team’s effort this week is closer to the effort needed to be one of 30 teams to advance to nationals, something he has not seen consistently this season.

“I’d say it’s close but I don’t know if it’s quite as good as we would need [to advance past regionals], to be honest,” Tank said. “It’s a step in the right direction. We’ve got some momentum to build on and we’ve just got to keep working hard this last month of the season.”

Iowa State will next compete in its regular season finale on April 18 at the Hawkeye Invitiational in Iowa City, Iowa.