Aug. 11, 2011
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IOWA CITY, Iowa – Former Dubuque Wahlert standout Steven Ihm is the third recruit to sign a national letter of intent to join the University of Iowa’s men’s golf team for the 2011-12 academic year. Ihm was a freshman at Indian Hills Community College a year ago and was a member of the national junior college championship team there. Ihm will join Joseph Winslow and Brian Bullington on the Hawkeye roster this fall.
“I couldn’t be happier to continue my career at the University of Iowa,” said Ihm. “I originally chose Indian Hills because I needed to improve my game. Now that I’ve gained that experience I’m excited to help the Hawkeyes and work towards a Big Ten title.”
Ihm, a native of Peosta, Iowa, played his prep golf at Wahlert HS before attending IHCC for one year. As a freshman Ihm led the Warriors to 11 tournament titles in 13 outings, including the 2011 NJCAA Division I national championship. Ihm competed in every event for IHCC and earned medalist honors at the William Jewell Spring Classic and the NJCAA District III Championships.
With a season stroke average of 73.81, Ihm was honored with the Phil Mickelson Award as the best junior college freshman golfer in the country. He was also named to the PING All-District, second team PING All-American, second-team NJCAA All-American and All-Tournament and PING All-Freshman teams.
“Steven is a nice addition to our golf program here at Iowa,” said Head Coach Mark Hankins. “He grew up a Hawkeye and has worked hard and succeeded at the high school, junior college and amateur tournament level to reach this point. He comes from a winning program at Indian Hills that expects the same discipline and hard work to succeed as we do here at Iowa. I look for him to come right in and compete for a starting spot on our traveling team and further increase the depth and quality of our roster.”
Ihm will join a Hawkeye squad that is coming off a tie for tenth place at the 2011 NCAA Championships and is currently ranked ninth in the country by golfstat.com. Iowa, who graduated its number one and two players (Vince India and Brad Hopfinger) from last season, will begin its fall season at the Golden Gopher Invitational in Minneapolis, Minn., Sept. 11-12.