It’s not any easy task to defend a Southeastern Conference title, and that’s what the men’s golf team found out Friday.
Although they still have Saturday and Sunday to play, the Gators are currently in fourth place, 11 strokes behind first-place Alabama.
“We didn’t really get a whole lot going,” coach Buddy Alexander said. “It was just kind of a ho-hum day. We didn’t get a lot of momentum but did OK seeing that we didn’t make many birdies.”
Between the five Gators competing, they only carded 10 birdies — half of which came from junior T.J. Vogel. In addition to the low number of birdies, Florida had 16 holes in which they shot a bogey or higher.
Vogel leads Florida after ending Friday’s round in a four-way tie for second place by shooting a 67 (-3). His current standings give him a good chance of getting his first SEC title, as well has his third win this season.
“We’re getting accustomed to seeing T.J. doing well for us so it was nice to see him go out and do his thing today,” Alexander said
Although Vogel is in position to win the school’s 23rd individual title, the team will need to take advantage of every opportunity to shoot low in the last two days of the tournament in order to win the team title.
“Tomorrow is a new day and hopefully it will be our day,” Alexander said. “We just have to go out play our game and hopefully make some moves and get back into it.”
Florida’s women’s golf team is also several strokes out of first in their SEC Tournament. The women are 10 strokes behind the leader in third place. However, they are only one stroke behind second-place Auburn.
“Judging by the scores it’s obvious that this golf course is difficult. We made some big numbers but we’re right in the mix, which is all you can ask for,” coach Jan Dowling said. “We’re in good spirits.”
Despite all competitors finishing the first day over par, Florida still has three players in the top 20 individually with the other two sitting in 28th.
Isabelle Lendl leads the trio with a 75 (+3), which ties her for ninth place. She birdied thrice Friday against four bogeys and a double bogey.
“I couldn’t be more proud of my team’s effort today but we could also learn a lot from the mistakes we made today and over the next few days keep working extremely hard and limit our mistakes,” Dowling said. “If we keep our heads on straight, we’re going to have a chance on Sunday.”
