Hawkeyes Finish Round 1 at Big Ten Championships

NORTH PLAINS, Ore. – The University of Iowa men’s golf team opened play at the Big Ten Championships on Friday, carding a 13-over-par 293 in the first round. The Hawkeyes are tied for 11th alongside No. 26 USC and Penn State and sit two strokes ahead of No. 42 Purdue.

Redshirt freshman Grant Gudgel paced Iowa with a one-over-par 71. The Stillwater, Oklahoma, native opened his round with birdies on two of his first three holes and finished with five on the day, tying for the third-most in the field. He sits in a tie for 16th place in the 90-player field.

“We started well but unfortunately had a difficult stretch in the middle of the round”, said head coach Tyler Stith. “We just made way too many big numbers. It’s that simple. We have to keep the ball in play and be disciplined out of position. We were top six in pars and birdies. Those are good indicators. We’re hitting a lot of good shots; we just need to do the simple things better the final two rounds.”

Junior Max Tjoa followed with a two-over-par 72 and is tied for 26th. Tjoa recorded 14 pars in the opening round, tying for the fifth-most in the field. Freshman Bennett Warren and sophomore Ryan Shellberg each posted five-over-par 75s and are tied for 63rd. Redshirt freshman Jack McCarty sits in a tie for 87th after shooting 10-over-par 80. McCarty played the par fives at two-under, tied for the second-best mark in the field.

As a team, Iowa tied for fourth in par-five scoring at three-under par and tied for third on par threes at one-over. The Hawkeyes recorded 13 birdies, tying for sixth among all teams.

No. 12 Illinois leads the team standings at one-under par, holding a two-shot advantage over No. 33 UCLA and No. 50 Washington, who are both at one-over. Individually, Freddie Turnell (Illinois), Jeremy Chen (Northwestern), and Josh Kim (UCLA) share the lead at three-under par.

HAWKEYE SCORECARD

T11/18	Team	293 (+13)
T16	Grant Gudgel	71 (+1)
T26	Max Tjoa	72 (+2)
T63	Bennett Warren	75 (+5)
T63	Ryan Shellberg	75 (+5)
T87	Jack McCarty	80 (+10)

UP NEXT
Round two begins Saturday at 11:30 a.m. (CT), with groups teeing off from holes 1 and 10. The final group is scheduled to tee off at 1:50 p.m. (CT).