The Florida men’s golf team will head to Statesboro, Ga., this weekend to compete in the Chris Schnekel E-Z-Go Invitational in search of redemption.
“Well I think that the guys felt really bad about the way that they played in the second round and weren’t pleased with the effort they gave,” coach Buddy Alexander said. “With golf, sometimes it gets the best of you, but you have to be a little tougher than the game and battle through those sorts of things and put your best foot forward. I didn’t necessarily get that [from the team] and so, consequently, we talked about it a little and I think you’ll see a little better effort from our team this weekend.”
After finishing in 14th place at the Southern Highlands Collegiate Masters Invitational, the Gators have had less than a week to make the necessary changes to their game, which has included a significant lineup change.
Freshman Tommy Mou will be stepping in for Florida, making his first collegiate start. Mou has competed for the Gators as an individual, with his best finish being a tie for 11th in February’s Arizona Invitational.
Fellow freshman Phillip Choi, who finished in a tie for 61st in his last appearance for the Gators, and Tyler McCumber have been taken out of the starting lineup, although McCumber will be competing as an individual.
In his last tournament playing as an individual, McCumber posted his best career finish, tying for fifth place at the John Hayt Invitational.
Rejoining the top five for UF will be junior Bank Vongvanij. Vongvanij has not played since earlier in the month at the John Hayt Invitational, where he posted a less than impressive tie for 65th place.
“He has been in and out of [the lineup this season],” Alexander said, “and since we didn’t play well last week, we are going to put him back in there.”
The No. 14 Gators will compete against eight of the other top-25 teams in the country this weekend, many of whom they have faced earlier in the season.
