J.C. Deacon has accomplished a lot in his first season as the coach for the Florida men’s golf team.
He made his coaching debut in the first tournament of the year. He guided the Gators to two second place finishes in the fall and saw junior A.J. Crouch capture his first individual title at the Florida Gulf Coast Invitational.
And now he’s signed his first full-fledged recruiting class to national letters of intent at UF.
The four-man class includes Blake Dyer out of St. Petersburg High School, Jorge Garcia of American Heritage School in Plantation, Sam Horsfield out of Ridge Community High School in Davenport and Kyler Tate of West Orange High School in Orlando.
"I think this is by far, the most well rounded signing class I’ve ever been a part of," Deacon said in a release. "This is the class that is going to lead the new era of Gator Golf, and we’re in great hands with these guys."
Headlining the class is Garcia, who is ranked No. 3 by Golfweek in its junior rankings. Garcia is a two-time First-team Rolex Junior All-American and also captured the South American Junior Championship in 2013 and 2014.
The rest of the class doesn’t fall far behind Garcia. Horsfield would’ve been the top ranked junior golfer in the world, but he didn’t compete in enough tournaments to qualify for Golfweek’s top spot.
Horsfield, who Deacon calls "an overnight program changer," won the 2014 AJGA Junior PLAYERS Championship. He also won the 2013 Florida State Amateur by 11 strokes to in route to becoming the youngest winner of the event in 96 years.
Tate placed second at the 2014 FHSAA State Championship and won the 2014 KPMG Stacy Lewis Junior Open. He was an Honorable Mention Rolex Junior All-American in 2014 as well.
Rounding out the class is Dyer, who is a legacy recruit as his father competed for the Gators from 1984-88 and was Academic All-Southeastern Conference in 1985. Dyer won the 2014 Sam Parks Invitational and was named the 2013 Pinellas County High School Player and Conference Player of the Year.
The first full recruiting class for a coach is crucial for a program’s success in the future. Deacon knows the future is looking bright with the amount of talent that will be injected into the program.
"They’re hard workers, they love the game and they’re very, very close with each other," Deacon said."They’ve already built strong friendships and they’re all really proud Gators, so Florida golf is in great hands right now."
Follow Luis Torres on Twitter @LFTorresIII
