Iowa City Today

The University of Iowa men’s golf team will conclude its fall season at the Fallen Oak Collegiate in Biloxi, Mississippi, from October 18 to 20. The event will take place at Beau Rivage’s private course, with teams playing one round each day over a total of 54 holes.

This year’s tournament field includes 14 schools: Alabama (ranked 20th), Arkansas (5th), Chattanooga, Georgia (36th), Illinois (18th), Iowa, LSU (9th), Mississippi State, Ole Miss (7th), South Carolina (38th), Southern Miss, Tennessee (19th), UNLV, and Wisconsin.

The competition is set on the Tom Fazio-designed Fallen Oak course. Since opening in 2006, the course has received positive reviews and debuted at No. 19 on Golf Digest’s America’s 100 Greatest Public Courses. Golfweek has ranked it as the top public course in Mississippi and named it the second-best casino course in the country for the nineteenth consecutive year.

Iowa comes into this event after finishing sixth at the Moraine Intercollegiate in Ohio earlier this week. Grant Gudgel led the Hawkeyes with a seventh-place finish at six-under-par (207) and achieved his first career top-10 finish. Gage Messingham finished thirteenth at four-under-par (209), marking his fifth career top-25 result.

Max Tjoa opened his season strongly at the Visit Knoxville Collegiate by tying for tenth overall with fourteen birdies and finishing two-under on par fours. At the Fighting Irish Classic, he shot six-under-par (204) with a career-low opening round of 65 that included a hole-in-one and five birdies. He advanced to a three-man playoff and finished second outright, which was his best career result so far.

At the Fighting Irish Classic in South Bend, Iowa tied for sixth as a team. Tjoa finished as runner-up at six-under-par with highlights including a hole-in-one and his lowest round ever of 65 in round one. Gudgel tied for eighteenth after shooting one-under-par in the final round—his highest career finish—and Messingham recorded his fourth career top-25 finish by tying for twenty-third overall.

Finkbine Golf Course—the home venue for Iowa men’s and women’s golf—will undergo significant renovations following the end of the current season. The project will be led by architect Scott Hoffman and managed by Troon, focusing on modernizing the layout, improving playability across skill levels, and incorporating sustainable turf practices. The renovation is funded privately by Fritz and Mary Lee Duda.

During this season under coach Tyler Stith, Iowa competed in eleven tournaments across eight states plus an international trip. The team secured three top-five finishes—including third place at both the Purdue Fall Invitational and Hawkeye Invitational—and set program records for both single-round team score (275) and total score over fifty-four holes (857) during their home invitational. Max Tjoa’s score of 66 placed him twentieth all-time among Iowa players for an eighteen-hole round. Additionally, Iowa finished fourth at the Gopher Invitational and eighth at another Fighting Irish Classic event while also posting the highest GPA among all men’s athletic programs at Iowa.

Looking ahead to next season, Iowa adds two newcomers: Grant Gudgel—who redshirted last year after transferring from Oklahoma State where he was an honorable mention Rolex Junior All-American—and freshman Bennet Warren who was Kansas’ top-ranked junior golfer and rated sixtieth nationally according to Junior Golf Scoreboard rankings.

Four letter winners return for next season: Max Tjoa recorded several top-25 finishes including seventh place at The Hawkeye Invite; Gage Messingham started strong with ninth place at Gopher Invite before adding more top-25 results; Chance Rinkol earned Big Ten Sportsmanship Award honors along with six rounds scored par or better; Ryan Shellberg participated in six tournaments recording three rounds par or better; Jack McCarty redshirted last season.

"Finkbine...will undergo a major renovation starting after the 2025 season," states information about upcoming changes to their home facility. "Led by architect Scott Hoffman and managed by Troon, the project will modernize the layout, enhance playability for all skill levels, and incorporate sustainable turf practices."

You can follow live scoring throughout this week's event via scoreboard.clippd.com or through links available on hawkeyesports.com.