Two has been the magic number for the ISU men’s golf team.

In two tournaments thus far, two different Cyclones have earned medalist honors while the team finished second place for the second time.

This week, on the heels of teammate Nick Voke’s win just seven days ago, senior Scott Fernandez rallied from eight shots back in the final round to earn medalist honors at the Badger Invitational.

“It’s awesome, I’m really happy for both those guys,” said ISU coach Andrew Tank. “They played well and executed down the stretch. I’m very pleased with that.”

While Voke led nearly wire-to-wire in his victory at the VCU Shootout, Fernandez was not in the title picture until a hot start fueled his final round score of 66, the best 18-hole score of the tournament.

On what was a cool day in Madison, Wisc., where temperatures hovered in the ’40s, Fernandez began with pars on his first two holes, No. 5 and 6, before heating up.

“I hit a great shot on [No.] 7, which was my third hole and then I made three birdies in a row,” Fernandez said of his five-under-par stretch in the middle nine holes. “Then I just played the course, didn’t push anything and a couple more birdies came along.”

His final round heroics allowed him to overcome a three-over-par start through two rounds. He finished with a six-under-par round of 66, which was the best score in the final round by four shots. His low round in tough conditions did not go unnoticed by teammate Ruben Sondjaja.

“Out there today, that’s a real good score,” said Sondjaja, who finished tied for fifth place. “It was cold and windy out there, we played a few tough pins and that’s a great score for Scotty. That six-under [-par round] really helped us today. I think that should be a massive confidence booster for him to shoot six-under on a course like this and on a day like today.”

Fernandez’s low round at the University Ridge Golf Course not only improved his own fortunes, but it was a key ingredient in his team’s near-comeback.

Beginning the day, Iowa State was in sixth place and 14 shots behind Sam Houston State University. Being outside of the 10-shot gap that often separates the contenders in the final round of a college event, players said they were freed up to try to post a low round and disregard where they stood on the leaderboard.

With that mindset, Iowa State posted a tournament-best round in the form of a six-under-par total of 282.

Despite the strong finish, Tank’s optimism for Fernandez’s win and the team’s late rally was tempered by a slow start, which has been a consistent factor for the team in recent years.

“It’s a huge positive to finish strong, but it’s just the way we played in the first two days is very uncharacteristic,” Tank said. “The types of mistakes we were making. It was just very uncharacteristic of how our guys normally play.”

The uncharacteristic play often manifested itself on the greens, where Tank said his team struggled to make putts. In the final round, the putting showed improvement and Tank said he is confident heading into next week’s finale at the David Toms Intercollegiate.

“You’re only as good as the last round you shoot,” Tank said. “We’ll make some adjustments in the areas that we need to work on from the first two rounds, but I think we feel pretty good about what we were able to do in the final round and that’s the momentum we’ll take forward to LSU.”