Iowa City Today

The University of Iowa men's golf team will travel to Kettering, Ohio, for the Moraine Intercollegiate tournament, scheduled for October 13-14 at Moraine Country Club. The event will feature 14 collegiate teams and will consist of two rounds on Monday and a final round on Tuesday, with play starting each day at 7:45 AM Central Time.

Live scoring for the tournament can be accessed through scoreboard.clippd.com, with links available on the team's schedule page at hawkeyesports.com.

Participating schools in this year's competition include Bowling Green, Dayton, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Miami (OH), Missouri, Ohio State, Penn State, Rhode Island, UConn, VCU, Wright State and Xavier.

Moraine Country Club was originally designed by Alec “Nipper” Campbell in 1930. It has been restored by architect Keith Foster to reflect its classic Scottish links-style layout. The course is recognized for its firm fairways and challenging greens and has received national rankings such as inclusion in Golfweek’s Top 100 Classic Courses.

In their previous outing at the Fighting Irish Classic held at Warren Golf Course in South Bend, Iowa tied for sixth place. Max Tjoa led the Hawkeyes with a runner-up finish at six-under-par (204), which included a hole-in-one and a career-low round of 65 (-5) in the first round. Grant Gudgel finished tied for 18th after posting a one-under 69 in the final round. Gage Messingham recorded his fourth career top-25 finish by tying for 23rd overall.

Max Tjoa has maintained strong form throughout the season. He opened with a tie for tenth place at the Visit Knoxville Collegiate—recording 14 birdies and finishing two-under on par fours—and achieved his best career finish as runner-up at the Fighting Irish Classic following a three-man playoff. Tjoa has finished under par in every event this season.

During their season debut at the Visit Knoxville Collegiate tournament, Iowa posted a second-round score of 276—the fourteenth-best single round in program history. Gage Messingham matched his career-low round with a score of 67 during that event. Newcomers Bennett Warren and Grant Gudgel made their Hawkeye debuts there as well.

Finkbine Golf Course—the home facility for both men’s and women’s golf at Iowa—will undergo significant renovations after the current season. The project will be led by architect Scott Hoffman and managed by Troon. It is privately funded by Fritz and Mary Lee Duda and aims to modernize the course layout while incorporating sustainable turf practices.

In the current season under head coach Tyler Stith, Iowa competed in eleven tournaments across eight states—including an international trip—and earned three top-five finishes. These included third-place results at both the Purdue Fall Invitational and Hawkeye Invitational. The team set school records with a second-round score of 275 and an overall total of 857 over three rounds at the Hawkeye Invitational. Max Tjoa's individual round of 66 placed him twentieth on Iowa’s all-time leaderboard for single rounds; Gage Messingham also posted career-best scores during this period. Additionally, Iowa recorded the highest GPA among all men’s athletic programs at the university.

Looking ahead to next season, Iowa welcomes two new players: Grant Gudgel—who redshirted last year after transferring from Oklahoma State—and freshman Bennett Warren from Kansas who was ranked number one junior golfer in his state according to Junior Golf Scoreboard rankings.

Returning letter winners include Max Tjoa (who had multiple top-25 finishes), Gage Messingham (with several top-10 results), Chance Rinkol (the Big Ten Sportsmanship Award honoree), Ryan Shellberg (six starts last season), and Jack McCarty (who redshirted).

After competing in Kettering this week, Iowa is scheduled to participate in the Fallen Oak Collegiate tournament from October 18-20 in Biloxi, Mississippi.