During Friday’s round of the NCAA Championship in Eugene, Oregon, it was all freshmen for the Florida men’s golf team.
The No. 16-seed Gators were led by the freshmen-duo of Sam Horsfield and Gordon Neale, who both shot even-par 70s in Round 1 at Eugene Country Club. Both golfers are in a tie for eighth place, three shots back of a three-way tie for first at 3 under par.
At one point, Horsfield and Neale were under par but had their rounds tainted by ill-timed bogeys. Neale, who started on the back nine, scraped his way to 1 under with one hole left, but a bogey on the 445-yard par-4 ninth set him back.
Jorge Garcia, the third freshman in Florida’s lineup, posted a 1-over 71 and is in a tie for 33rd.
After the round, UF coach J.C. Deacon said he was pleased with how his freshmen handled being on college golf’s biggest stage.
“Sam, Gordon and Jorge all played really solid,” Deacon said in a release. “Anything right around even par obviously turned out to be a pretty good round, and all three of those guys did that.”
As a team, the Gators’ posted a 6-over 286 to tie for eighth. Entering Round 2, Florida is only six shots off the lead held by No. 21-seed Arkansas at 2 over par. Seven other teams stand in between Florida and Arkansas, including No. 8-seed Vanderbilt, No. 13-seed Florida State and No. 12-seed LSU.
It wasn’t the best of days for the squad’s older members, though.
Sophomore Alejandro Tosti and junior Ryan Orr had a rough day battling Eugene’s needle-like fairways and lightning-fast greens. Both players carded 12 bogeys and only 2 birdies between them and limped into the club house with 5-over 75s. Both are in a tie for 103rd place.
The Gators are gunning for their fifth national championship in program history. For that goal to be achieved, they’ll first have to make it through the first-three rounds of stroke play. After Round 3, the 30-team field will be cut to 15.
Florida is four shots within the top-15 cutline that stands at 10 over.
“I’m pretty happy with our round,” Deacon said. “I felt like the guys were really patient and learned a lot about what we need to do. I feel like we’re going to get better from here on out.”
Contact Ray Boone at rboone@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @rboone1994.
Sam Horsfield watches his ball roll toward the cup during Day 1 of the SunTrust Gator Invitational on Feb. 20, 2016, at the Mark Bostick Golf Course.
