Florida finished the first round of play at the Fighting Illini Invitational in second-place at 1-under 279. However, the Gators followed up their opening round performance with 46 team bogeys through the final two rounds.
UF scored 10-over 850 and finished T9 out of 15 teams in its second regular season tournament at the Olympia Field Country Club in Chicago, Illinois.
Despite Florida’s inconsistent play, junior Parker Bell and senior Ian Gilligan were bright spots for the team as they earned top-25 individual finishes.
Bell finished 1-under 209 in T14 and responded from a 6-over 222 in Florida’s season opener. He recorded par or better scores through all three rounds this weekend. Meanwhile, Gilligan earned a team-best 2-under 68 performance in the first round en route to a par-210 score and T17 finish.
Sophomore Jack Turner, freshman Zack Swanwick and junior Matthew Kress didn’t find the same success. All three recorded 6-over 216 or worse scores and especially struggled in the final round, combining for 11 team bogeys and a double bogey.
Kress wasn’t able to find a rhythm on the course for the second-straight tournament after finishing 8-over 218.
Florida had its best performance in the opening round. Gilligan, Bell and Kress finished the round with par-or-better scores and Bell recorded nine-straight par or better scores on holes one through nine. The Gators recorded just five team bogeys during the stretch and advanced to T2 on the leaderboard.
Florida, though, was unable to build upon its first round success.
Florida dropped seven spots on the leaderboard through the next two rounds and posted up to 15 bogeys within a nine hole stretch.
Hole 17 proved to be a glaring challenge in the final two rounds for Florida. Four starters recorded bogeys with Turner being the lone exception. Moreover, nearly 11 percent of Florida’s team bogeys occurred on the hole.
Hole one was seemingly a breeze for the Gators as they recorded three birdies on the hole in each round. However, Florida was consistently unable to build off its strong starts.
The second round set the Gators back on the leaderboard significantly. No UF starters finished the round with a score better than par and it recorded a 7-over 287 finish, slipping four spots to T6 on the leaderboard.
The back nine of the second round may have been Florida’s worst stretch of the tournament. 15 team bogeys, five of which occurred on holes 10 and 11, forced Florida into an uphill battle.
It was more of the same in the third round. The Gators once again started strong, recording four birdies and no bogeys through the first three holes Saturday. But more team bogeys and four on the final two holes prevented UF from making a late push on the leaderboard.
The Gators finished the final round 4-over 284.
Head coach J.C. Deacon’s squad will seek a better result at the Barbara Nicklaus cup at the Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ireland, October 7-8.
Contact Aiden Wacksman at awacksman@alligator.org. Follow him on Twitter at @aidenwacksman
