Although the Florida men's golf team ended its first Fall invitational in fifth place with two of its golfers finishing under par, coach J.C. Deacon wasn't satisfied with the results.
"We were defeated by quite a few shots," Deacon said in a release, "so we've got to get home and get back to work and figure out how to get better."
The Gators finished Round 3 of the Carpet Capital Invitational on Sunday in a tie for fifth place with a final score of 1 under par.
In the third round, sophomores Sam Horsfield and Jorge Garcia finished below par, while sophomore Gordon Neale finished at even par.
But even with Florida's solid score, the three sophomores still had their fair share of ups and downs.
Horsfield, who set himself up within striking distance of the leader on Saturday, couldn’t continue to narrow the distance, hitting four birdies and three bogeys to end his day at 1 under par.
He finished the tournament at 8 under par in a tie for sixth place.
Neale hovered over par all day on Sunday, only falling below par once with a birdie on the first hole.
On the front nine, he bogeyed three times and failed to record another birdie.
The back nine was a little different.
Neale hit two birdies to start, but traded bogeys and birdies to keep his score at even par for the day.
He ended the three-day tournament at 4 under par, finishing in 17th place.
Garcia had trouble on the front nine, hitting three bogeys and failing to record a birdie.
He turned it around with four birdies on the back nine to end the day at 1 under par, but finished the tournament at 2 over par and in a tie for 30th.
Junior Alejandro Tosti continued to struggle like he did all tournament.
Despite hitting five birdies and the only eagle for the Gators on Sunday, Tosti couldn’t build on his performance, recording four bogeys and two double bogeys to cap his score for the day at 1 over par. His tournament score of 7 over par was a tie for 53rd.
"There were some very tough but very necessary lessons learned this week both on and off the course," Deacon said.
Despite hitting 1 under par on Saturday, senior Ryan Orr also had a rough showing.
He only hit two birdies and shot six bogeys and a double bogey to finish with a Round 3 score of 6 over par and his tournament score at 9 over par in 59th place.
"It wasn't an ideal weekend for us as a group," Deacon said, "but I think we learned a lot of the tough lessons that are going to help us going down the line."
Florida’s next tournament is the Windon Memorial Classic on Sept. 25 in Glenview, Illinois, and Deacon is optimistic that his team will play better there.
"Our goals are high and that's where our work ethic needs to be, too," Deacon said.
"It's going to take some time, but we can really get this thing going."
Contact Jake Dreilinger at jdreilinger@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @DreilingerJake.
Jorge Garcia tees off during the 2016 SunTrust Gator Invitational at the Mark Bostick Golf Course.
