After two rounds of the SunTrust Gator Invitational, the Florida Gators men’s golf team is sitting in fourth place behind the play of their top competitor.
The team finished the first two rounds of their lone home tournament 7-over-par, only behind South Florida, Arkansas and Florida State.
Senior J.D. Tomlinson sits in a three-way tie for first place at 3-under-par through 36 holes.
Coach J.C. Deacon is happy that the team is in a position to compete going into to the final round of the tournament Sunday but thinks the team could have gotten a better result.
“It’s kind of been the same thing as all year, we just didn’t play great today,” Deacon said. “Our attitudes are good and we’re hanging in there but we’re just not playing our best golf during the event. We just have to play better tomorrow. There’s no sugar coating it, we’ve just got to go out and play a better round of golf. I think the guys are ready to do it. We’re prepared for it.”
Along with Tomlinson’s tie for first, freshman Alejandro Tosti finished tied for 13th at 2-over-par and senior Eric Banks finished tied for 15th shooting 3-over-par for the day.
Junior A.J. Crouch shot 5-over-par and finished tied for 20th.
Rounding out the Gators lineup, sophomore Ryan Orr finished tied for 38th with a score of 9-over-par for the tournament.
“I hope we have our best round of the year tomorrow. It’s our home course and it’s going to be beautiful weather. The course is perfect; it’s in great shape,” Deacon said. “We’ve been playing good at home and tomorrow’s a day that we just need to come out and have our best day of the year.”
Freshman Ryan Celano and redshirt Conor Richardson participated as individuals in the 75-man field and finished 5-over and 7-over-par respectively.
Along with being tied for first place, Tomlinson led the Gators with nine birdies through the first two rounds. The Gators as a team had 30 birdies overall.
Tomlinson hit a chip shot on the 18th hole to put him at 1-under-par moving into his last few holes of Round 2 where he bogeyed on Hole 2 and finished the round at par.
Tomlinson’s first round score of 3-under-par and his consistent performance in round two leaves him at the top of the leaderboard moving into the final round of his final home tournament as a Gator.
Follow Ryan Summers on Twitter @RyanSummers18
