After a three-month layoff from their last team tournament, the Gators women’s golf team is finally hitting the links again this afternoon in Lecanto, Florida.
The annual Florida Challenge will pit 11 Florida universities against each other in a one-day, 36-hole tournament. The No. 8 Gators will take on three other ranked teams in the field, including No. 4 Florida State.
“There’s certainly a level of excitement surrounding this team,” coach Emily Glaser said. “We have so many good players on this team that have experienced a lot of success."
Four different Gators recently competed in the South Atlantic Women’s Amateur Championship from Jan. 8-14. Kelly Grassel shot 8-under par, narrowly beating out fellow senior Maria Torres by one stroke and sophomore Sam Wagner by three strokes.
Grassel comes into the Florida Challenge after tying with junior Taylor Tomlinson for top individual honors at last year’s event. Florida also took home the team trophy after besting FSU by 12 strokes a year ago.
Grassel said the South Atlantic win was great, but that she and her teammates are ready to play under the UF banner again.
Meanwhile, Torres, who won last year’s individual title at the SEC Championship, said that since UF's roster is stacked with experience, the burden of leadership has been distributed equally.
“We don’t have one that is taking over," she said. "We manage to all share every experience.”
Torres and Grassel will be joined by senior Karolina Vlckova and freshmen Elin Esborn and Marta Perez in the starting lineup for the Gators today.
Contact Morgan McMullen at mmcmullen@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @morganmcmuffin.
Kelly Grassel lines up a shot during the 2015 SunTrust Gator Invitational at UF's Mark Bostick Golf Course.
