Iowa City Today

The University of Iowa men's golf team is preparing to open its 2025-26 season at the Visit Knoxville Collegiate, held from September 5-7 at Tennessee National Golf Course in Knoxville, Tennessee. The event will feature a 54-hole format, with teams playing 18 holes each day.

Seventeen schools are scheduled to participate, including five that finished last season ranked in the top 25: Ole Miss (#4), LSU (#8), Florida State (#10), Georgia Tech (#23), and Tennessee (#25). The first rankings for the new season are expected in October.

This marks the third year of the Visit Knoxville Collegiate at Tennessee National Golf Club. LSU won last year's tournament with a score of 23-under par and returns to defend its title. Tennessee won the inaugural event in 2023 with a team score of 25-under par.

Tennessee National Golf Club is a Greg Norman Signature Design course that opened in 2006. The course measures 7,393 yards from the back tees and features revetted pot bunkers reminiscent of links-style courses found in Ireland or Scotland. With five sets of tees on every hole and wide fairways, it accommodates players across skill levels.

Iowa's lineup for this week's tournament includes Grant Gudgel, Gage Messingham, Bennett Warren, Max Tjoa, and Chance Rinkol.

During the previous season under head coach Tyler Stith, Iowa played in eleven tournaments across eight states as well as internationally. The Hawkeyes achieved three top-five finishes—including third place at both the Purdue Fall Invitational and Hawkeye Invitational—while setting program records for single-round (275) and total (857) scores at their home invitational. Individual highlights included career-best rounds by Max Tjoa (66) and Gage Messingham (67). Tjoa’s performance placed him twentieth on Iowa’s all-time list for an individual round. The team also earned fourth place at the Gopher Invitational and eighth at the Fighting Irish Classic while recording the highest GPA among all Iowa men’s athletic programs.

New additions to this year’s squad include Grant Gudgel—who redshirted last year after transferring from Oklahoma State—and freshman Bennett Warren. Gudgel was previously named an honorable mention Rolex Junior All-American and won an Oklahoma state individual title; he also contributed to Team USA's third-place finish at the Toyota Junior Golf World Cup in 2023. Warren arrives as Kansas' top-ranked junior golfer and was rated No. 60 nationally by Junior Golf Scoreboard rankings.

Returning letter winners are Max Tjoa—whose best finish was seventh place at The Hawkeye Invite—and Gage Messingham who notched several top-25 performances throughout last season including two top-ten results. Chance Rinkol returns after being named Iowa’s Big Ten Sportsmanship Award honoree; he posted six rounds at par or better during his previous campaign. Ryan Shellberg started six tournaments with a stroke average of 75.7 while Jack McCarty returns after redshirting last year.

Following this week’s competition in Knoxville, Iowa will play next at Chicago Highlands Club during the Highlands Invitational Invite on September 15-16.

"Stith guided the Hawkeyes through 11 tournaments across eight states and an international trip, earning three top-five finishes, including third at the Purdue Fall Invitational and the Hawkeye Invitational," according to information provided by University officials.