Florida lost its momentum in the second and third rounds, but its 4-under 284 opening round served as a buffer and secured it a 10-over 874, fourth-place finish out of 15 teams at the 54-hole Mary Fossum Invitational.
Sophomore Sophie Stevens alongside freshmen Addison Klonowski and Elaine Widjaja were in the starting lineup for the Gators at the Forest Akers West golf course in East Lansing, Michigan.
All three earned top-20 finishes, with Klonowski providing the greatest impact for the squad in her second appearance in the starting lineup.
Klonowski recorded a 6-under 210 performance. The Naples, Florida, native continued her momentum from the season-opener with a second straight top-10 individual finish. She strung together 15-straight bogey-free holes and sank six birdies in the first round. She tied for first at the end of the round with a season-best 5-under 67 score on the individual leaderboard.
She also holed back-to-back birdies on holes 12 and 13 in rounds one and two to highlight her performance in East Lansing. Her consistent performances in the final two rounds on Sunday and Monday were enough for a third-place finish.
Widjaja finished T15 and Stevens did her part en route to a T20 performance. They both played key roles in Florida’s second regular season event with 4-over 76 and 5-over 77 scores, respectively.
Both achieved their best performances in the first round. While Widjaja had a season-best streak of 17 holes of par or better, Stevens sank back-to-back birdies on holes seven and eight to advance Florida into second-place on the leaderboard.
Sophomore Ines Archer had a subpar performance with a cumulative 11-over 227 score. She recorded 13 bogeys, including two double bogeys and a triple bogey.
Florida began Sunday with 20 team birdies in the first round. The Gators stood in first place at 7-under after the first nine holes of tournament play. However, a strong effort by opposing Ole Miss dropped UF to second-place by the end of the opening round.
A 9-over 297 round two marked Florida’s worst individual round this season. UF recorded five double-bogeys and no starters finished better than par. Four bogeys, including two double bogeys, ultimately dropped the team only one spot to third place on the leaderboard.
The third and final round of the event was another that the Gators finished over par, but they once again dropped only one spot. Florida rebounded from nine team-bogeys on holes 13-15 with two birdies and zero bogeys through holes 17-18 to finish the final round 5-over 293.
Florida will next embark on a 4,042 mile trip to Dublin, Ireland, to play in the Barbara Nicklaus Cup Oct. 7-8.
Contact Aiden Wacksman at awacksman@alligator.org. Follow him on Twitter at @aidenwacksman.
