OTTUMWA — One round was played in perfect conditions for golf. The other was played in cold, rainy weather.

One round was a struggle for the Indian Hills golf team in their only home tournament of the fall. The other was a round that stood out among the rest.

It makes perfect sense to those that didn’t see IHCC’s first day at the Community 1st Credit Union Invitational on Monday. Those presented with those facts wouldn’t know that the top-ranked Warriors actually played their best as the conditions got worst.

After a head-scratching start to the day, the two-time defending national champs rallied as showers moved the Ottumwa Country Club course. IHCC responded by lower their first-round score by seven shots in the rain, firing a second-round 290 to move from third place after round one to a five-shot lead over Iowa Western heading into Tuesday’s final 18 holes.

It was definitely a day of very different conditions and emotions for Mike Hagen’s bunch on Monday.

“We came out lethargic. I didn’t like what I saw on the range. We just didn’t look to be ourselves,” Hagen said. “We were lucky enough to see where we stood after the first round and came out to play really well in the second round, especially considering the conditions.”

Mitch Tucker highlighted the midday turnaround for Indian Hills after struggling in his opening round with a two-over par 74. No stranger to the ever-changing southern Iowa weather conditions, the Oskaloosa native rallied himself in the rain and evened his day and his score with a second-round two-under par 70 in the second round.

“I actually played better in the rain, suprisingly. I made some more putts,” Tucker said. “I didn’t play well on the first 18. I didn’t putt well, but I started to as soon as the rain starting coming down.”

Tucker took over second place on the individual leaderboard, keeping himself at even-par overall for the tournament by using other facets of his short game to save par on his 36th hole of the day. After driving it off to the left to leave himself with a line of trees in front of the 18th hole, Tucker decided to play a chip forward instead of taking a major risk to reach the green in two.

“I thought about going up over the tree, but I could have made a really high number,” Tucker said.

The decision paid off as Tucker chipped in for par from just off the 18th green to remain alone in second.

“That (par) makes me feel good about my short game,” Tucker said. “It shows I can get a few up and downs in the final round and make a good score.”

The Warrior sophomore trails only Iowa Western linkster Max McGrail. Like Tucker, the Reivers’ top golfer also thrived in the rain and followed an even-par opening round with a three-under second round 69 to take a three-shot lead into the final round.

“I just had to block it out,” McGrail said of the conditions. “I had to scramble a lot and kept making putts.”

McGrail was joined by Reiver teammates Jimmy Jaskoske and Joe Pelayo in the top ten. Aside from Hutchinson’s Michael O’Connor and Kris Keeley of Independence, IHCC owned the top ten positions on the leaderboard with every Warrior golfer finishing within the top six.

Freshman Connor Peck finished the day in fifth individually after posting the top score of the opening round for Indian Hills for the second time in as many tournaments. The ability of the new players to step up so early on is encouraging for those players returning to seek another national title run this spring.

“Team-wise, I think we’ve shown a lot of potential early on this fall,” Tucker said. “A lot of the freshmen have been able to step up early on. It makes the sophomores feel better knowing we can count on them to step up for us.”

The Warriors will look to get off to a much better start this morning for the final round at 8:30 a.m. then their start to the opening day of the Community 1st Credit Union Invite. If IHCC duplicates that start, winning their lone home tourney could be a real challenge.

“Hopefully, we come out with a lot more urgency then we showed to start the first round,” Hagen said. “We can’t afford to have a let up with the quality of teams that are behind us. We need to come out and play the way we did when we saw the leaderboard going into the second round. I think that really woke the guys up.”

Community 1st Credit Union Invitational

At Ottumwa Country Club

9/17/12

Par 72

Team scoring — 1. Indian Hills 297-290-587, 2. Iowa Western 290-302-592, 3. Johnson County 294-314-608, T4. Hutchinson 311-314-625, T4. Independence 309-316-625, 6. Iowa Lakes 329-320-649, 7. Iowa Lakes ‘B’ 338-320-658, 8. Kansas City (Kansas) 337-328-665, 9. Northeast 361-349-710.

Medalist Leader — Max McGrail (Iowa Western) 72-69-141.

Runner-up — Mitch Tucker (Indian Hills) 74-70-144.

Top ten individuals — 3. Michael O’Connor (Hutchinson) 68-77-145, 4. Jimmy Jaskoske (IWCC) 71-75-146, 5. Connor Peck (IHCC) 73-74-147, T6. Ben Ludlam (IHCC) 76-74-149, T6. William White (IHCC) 74-75-149, T6. Colin Pearson (IHCC) 76-73-149, T9. Joe Pelayo (IWCC) 72-78-150, T9. Kris Keeley (Independence) 73-77-150.

IHCC individuals — 2. Tucker 74-70-144, 5. Peck 73-74-147, T6. Ludlam 76-74-150, T6. White 74-75-149, T6. Pearson 76-73-149.