The Florida women’s golf team’s season is over.
The Gators failed to qualify for the NCAA Championship after finishing in eighth place at the NCAA Regionals in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Only the top six teams in the tournament would advance to compete at The Concession Golf Club at the University of South Florida for a chance to win the NCAA title.
Florida shot an 8-over, 296 in the final round at the Lonnie Poole Golf Course at NC State and finished regionals at 38-over par. UF was 10 shots behind eventual sixth place finisher Campbell and 25 shots behind the winner of the Regional, No. 4 South Carolina.
“This certainly isn't how we saw the season coming to an end and I'm disappointed for the team,” coach Emily Glaser said in a release. “I know they fought hard today but it wasn’t enough of a group effort this week to be successful. Today in itself wasn’t the issue, we dug ourselves a hole the past two days that was just too much to recover from.”
But while the team’s season is finished, sophomore Karolina Vlckova’s is not.
Vlckova qualified for the NCAA Championship as an individual after finishing in sole possession of eighth place after firing a 2-under, 70 in the final round at Raleigh. She finished the tournament at 1-over par and will look to take home the individual NCAA title beginning on May 22.
“I’m happy for Karolina to be going to Nationals,” Glaser said. “She has had a wonderful sophomore season and has carried the team since March. Obviously, it’s bittersweet for her. Karolina is the definition of a team player and played her heart out this week for her teammates.”
Senior Anna Young had a respectable finish to her career as she finished the three-day event at 7-over par. Her performance was good enough to finish in a tie for 18th. Young missed the entire fall season after dealing with a wrist injury.
But while those two were able to card top-20 finishes in the tournament, the rest of the team struggled on the course.
Freshman Taylor Tomlinson and sophomore Maria Torres finished in a tie for 59th after shooting 15-over par. Tomlinson had a poor second round which contributed to her fall down the leaderboard after being 2-over par after the first day of play.
Torres shot a pair of 78s the first two rounds, before carding at 3-over, 75 in the final round.
Camilla Hedberg on the other hand was much worse. Playing in the last collegiate tournament of her career, the senior turned in a performance that she will likely want to forget.
In a field of 96 players, Hedberg finished in 93rd after shooting 36-over par during the three days. After carding a 84 and a 81 in the first two rounds respectively, Hedberg shot a 15-over, 87 in her final collegiate round.
Glaser will look forward to working with the players who will be returning to the team next season.
“It’s an unfortunate end to the year. The team has come a long way since the fall, where we battled through some adversity,” Glaser said. “The good news is that we learned a lot about ourselves this year as a team. I think the girls who are returning are really starting to understand what it takes to be successful at this level and the effort and character it takes to be a successful team.”
Follow Luis Torres on Twitter @LFTorresIII
Sophomore Karolina Vlckova high fives coach Emily Glaser during the final round of the 2015 SunTrust Gator Invitational on March 8.
