HAWK TALK

June 2014

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31 "We will miss (senior) Steven (Ihm) dearly, but we have to re-group and get ready for next year," said UI head coach Mark Hankins. "We had a solid year, ranked in the 32 to 35 range nationally. It is one tournament; if we do not play well, we do not advance. It hurts a little right now, but when we start looking at our season in general, a couple tournament victories, other top finishes, we played really well." Four Hawkeyes — Ihm, junior Ian Vandersee, junior Brian Bullington and freshman Raymond Knoll — were named to the Division I PING All-Midwest Regional Team. Iowa and Illinois were the only two Big Ten teams to have four golfers honored by the GCAA. ree of the honorees — Vandersee, Bullington, and Knoll — return next season. Freshman Carson Schaake, who joined the four all-region honorees in the UI lineup this spring, will return in 2014-15, along with sophomores Voramate Aussarassakorn and Nate Yankovich. "Carson and Ray stepped up toward the end of the year," said Hankins. "ey are good players, have confidence, and want to win. We have some leadership qualities in freshmen that we haven't seen in a while, and that was nice to see. "Ian and Brian come back next season. Both are great players. Voramate is showing a lot of promise and Nate returns as well, who has a great deal of experience. ere is a lot of experience returning." IHM TO MAKE PRO DEBUT AT JOHN DEERE CLASSIC Ihm has earned a sponsor's exemption for the PGA TOUR's John Deere Classic for the second consecutive year. Aer competing in last year's event as an amateur, Ihm will of- ficially make his professional PGA TOUR debut July 8. In last year's John Deere Classic, Ihm birdied his first hole and posted a 36-hole score of 140 (71, 69, -2), missing the cut by two strokes. 6th-Straight NCAA Appearance Highlights 2014 By PATRICK SOJKA T he University of Iowa men's golf team conclud- ed its 2014 season at the NCAA Columbia Re- gional, joining Illinois and Northwestern as the only Big Ten Conference teams to appear in six straight NCAA Regionals. Leading up to NCAA Regional, the Hawkeyes recorded strong finishes in all six of their events, winning two tournament titles and finishing third at the Big Ten Championships. e Hawkeyes ran away with the team title at the Hawkeye-Great River Entertainment Invitational on April 12-13 in Iowa City, shooting team scores of 286 (-2), 282 (-6), 285 (-3) for an 853 (-11) total, topping second-place finisher Iowa State by 15 strokes. Iowa led throughout the tournament and tied the seventh-best 54-hole score in program history. e Hawkeyes followed that by defending their title at the Boilermaker Invitational from April 19-20. Iowa carded a one-over-par 54-hole score of 865, with a 14-under-par final-round score of 274. Iowa entered the final round in fourth place and trailed Illinois by 10 strokes. e Hawkeyes used the second-best round in school history (-14) to surge into first place, jumping nationally ranked UCLA and Louisville. e two titles came on the heels of strong finishes in Iowa's first three spring events. e Hawkeyes placed fourth at the Big Ten Match Play Championships (Feb. 14-15), won the Big Four Championship (March 1), and finished runner-up at the Arizona State University underbird Invitational (March 21-23). Iowa fell short of advancing to the NCAA Champion- ships, but the future is bright.

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