The Florida Gators arrived at the Schenkel Invitational looking to repeat as champions. Last year, the team won this tournament with 27-under.
Florida trailed only Oklahoma State and Wake Forest for all-time wins at the event. However, UF fell to Utah this year by one stroke. This is the 24th time the Gators have finished in the top-five.
Despite Florida losing the team competition, sophomore Luke Poulter finished the weekend at the top of the individual leaderboard. He held the lead all three days of competition. Before the Schenkel Invitational, senior Ian Gilligan was the only individual winner of the season for UF.
This is only Poulter’s fourth tournament of the season after returning from an injury that left him sidelined throughout the fall. He suffered from a stress fracture, which left him unable to swing a club for seven months.
On Friday, Poulter carded a bogey-free 5-under round. This propelled him to an early lead ahead of his teammates, Gilligan and junior Matthew Kress. The pair finished the first round in third place, two strokes from the lead.
Their efforts allowed Florida to finish the first day leading as well. Freshman Zach Swanwick rounded out the counted scores for the team with 4-over 76.
Ending the second day of play, the Gators fell to second place alongside Utah. Poulter remained on top of the leaderboard after recording a 3-under for the day. His teammates slipped back in the standings, with Kress and Gilligan ending the day in sixth and eighth place, respectively.
The final day of play saw more movement at the top for the individuals. Poulter carded his first score of the weekend that wasn’t under par, breaking even. However, Gilligan made a huge leap to first place at the end of the tournament by birdying four times on the back nine.
His total allowed Florida to take a solo second place with a final score of 21-under 843.
Gilligan ended his final round with a birdie, which tied him with Poulter. As the weekend’s leading man, Poulter was the final golfer on hole 18, so the pressure was on to outscore his teammate.
Despite bogeying twice in his round, he managed to birdie on 18 and win the tournament outright. The Gators ended in second place with a one-two finish on the individual leaderboard.
Florida will have one more tournament before postseason play. The team will return to Florida for the Calusa Cup in Naples on April 6-8.
Contact Brooke Bastedo at brooke.bastedo@gmail.com. Follow her on X @BrookeBastedo.
