Florida has been traveling through some uncharted territory lately, and it is not somewhere it wants to be.
“This is like beyond my wildest dreams,” coach Buddy Alexander said after Florida’s 11th-place finish at the SunTrust Gator Invitational over the weekend. “I mean, we’ve never had a season even close to this.”
To show how dire this situation is for the Gators, their finish at the SunTrust Gator Invitational this past weekend was the worst performance ever at the tournament.
Alexander wasn’t even the coach at Florida for UF’s now-second-worst performance — an eighth-place finish in 1981. He was between jobs at his alma mater, Georgia Southern, and LSU and competing on the professional tour.
“I’ve never had any experience like this, even at Georgia Southern or LSU, if you want to know the absolute truth,” Alexander said.
The second-worst finish at the tournament under Alexander’s tutelage was last spring. The Gators placed fourth, led by then-sophomore Eric Banks, who tied for 10th place with a score of 211 (+1). Seniors Tyler McCumber, Tommy Mou and T.J. Vogel were also part of the squad but have since graduated and moved on to play professionally.
Despite the loss of those three, the 2012-2013 and 2013-2014 rosters look similar. The program has retained standouts such as juniors J.D. Tomlinson and Banks and added freshmen and transfers who have had success in their careers.
So why has Florida struggled so much?
Alexander thinks it all may be in the players’ heads.
“It starts in your mind,” he said. “Golf is a mind game in itself.
“I know where I am (mentally), and I’m ready to go to war and make some changes and keep battling like heck,” Alexander said. “But I don’t know exactly where (the players) are.”
The Gators could just be discouraged due to their disappointing finishes in this season’s tournaments. Their highest placement so far was a tie for third at the Shoal Creek Intercollegiate at the beginning of October. UF shot a collective 857 (-7) on one of the toughest courses it has played this season.
To Alexander, “the positives outweighed the negatives” during that tournament, but he still wasn’t particularly satisfied with UF’s finish.
The problem is not because of an absence of team chemistry. Tomlinson is sure of it.
“We’ve bonded really well, so we do everything together,” he said. “I think by having that team unity, it kind of makes everybody better, and kind of inspires each other. We have friendly rivalries, so you want to keep on doing better than each other.”
Whatever the problem is, Florida needs to find the solution soon. The Gators have only four regular-season tournaments remaining and are running out of time.
“Whatever upside they have, they need to come up with pretty quickly,” Alexander said. “There’s just some little aspect of a guy’s game that, whether it’s his wedge play or his putting or his confidence or an intangible of some sort, why some of these guys haven’t really performed.
“But it needs to start happening pretty quickly for us to realistically be able to go in the postseason and feel confident about doing some good things.”
Follow Layne Weitzel on Twitter @laynejweitzel
J.D. Tomlinson tees off during Day 2 of the SunTrust Gator Invitational on Feb. 16 at the Mark Bostick Golf Course.
