It seems that as the Gators have moved through the season, they haven’t gotten better — they’ve gotten worse.
Florida ended its weekend at the three-day Chris Schenkel Invitational in 13th place out of the 15-team field. The Gators shot their worst round, 300 (+12), on Sunday, finishing with a total score of 890 (+26).
Georgia Southern, the host team playing on its home course in Statesboro, Ga., retained its first-place spot from Saturday, winning the tournament with a collective 850 (-14) score.
An Eagle also took the individual title. Scott Wolfes shot 68 (-4) on Sunday, his best round of the tournament, to finish with a 209 (-7) total.
In terms of the Gators’ performance, coach Buddy Alexander was candid.
“Probably the low point in the season as far as I am concerned,” he said.
‘The biggest disappointment from my standpoint has been our inability to learn and improve.”
Eric Banks and Ryan Orr were the only two Gators who had at least one positive to take out of Sunday’s performance. Banks was the highest finishing Gator, tying for 20th place with a third round score of 71 (-1). This matched his second-round score and put him at a total of 217 (+1).
Orr improved two strokes from Saturday, shooting 74 (+2) and bringing his tournament total to 224 (+8).
J.D. Tomlinson finished inside the top 50, tying for 49th place, with a total of 223 (+7). Although he played decently in the first two rounds, shooting 74 and 73, he struggled in the third round, managing a 76 score.
Richard Donegan, Victor Tarnstrom and Santiago Gavino can all say the same about their final rounds.
Donegan got worse throughout the weekend, shooting rounds of 74, 77 and 79, and finishing 14 strokes over par with a 230 total. Tarnstrom fell apart on Sunday after he shot a third-round score of 85, 13 strokes over par. He ended the tournament with rounds of 76, 73 and 85 with a total of 234 (+18).
Gavino, who competed as an individual, totaled 232 (+16) on the weekend. In the third round, he shot 77, five over par, but had scored 73 on Saturday.
“This team has an uncanny ability to hit the ball into the worst place possible, in spite of our strategy to the contrary prior to the round or the shot,” Alexander said. “I don’t know if they can’t hear, don’t listen or simply can’t help it.”
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Santiago Gavino hits the ball during the SunTrust Gator Invitational on Saturday at the Mark Bostick Golf Course. Gavino totaled a score of 232 (+16) as an individual competitor at the Chris Schenkel Invitational last weekend.
