The UF men’s golf team entered Day 1 of the Valspar Collegiate with high spirits.
The No. 2 Gators, who have finished inside the top three in every event this spring, began Monday’s first 36 holes at the Floridian Golf Club in Palm City looking to continue with this season’s great play.
They didn’t.
Instead, coach J.C. Deacon’s squad ended the day on the very bottom of the 15-team leaderboard, six shots behind plus-37 Memphis.
The Gators turned in a plus-43 total after the first two rounds — the worst opening 36-hole score in Deacon’s tenure as Florida’s head coach and the worst opening 36-hole score since the Gators shot plus 50 at the Fighting Illini Invitational in September 2013 under then-head coach Buddy Alexander.
“It’s just a really tough course, and the conditions were tough,” Deacon said after Round 2. “It was cool and very windy today, and we just played poorly. When you put those conditions and bad golf together, the results are not going to be good.”
Sam Horsfield, the reigning Southeastern Conference Freshman of the Week and Ben Hogan Award Watch List nominee, hasn’t had an over-par round since a closing 73 at the Florida Gulf Coast University Classic on Oct. 27. He had two on Monday.
The freshman’s 4-over 75 in Round 1 marked his second-worst round of the year.
Things started off well in Round 2, though. Horsfield carded three birdies en route to a 3-under 32 on the opening nine, but three bogeys and a double bogey on the back nine undid all that. After a 1-over 72 in the second round, Horsfield resides in a tie for 20th, well ahead of his teammates.
Freshman Jorge Garcia’s struggles began early in Round 1. He went 7 over on his first-five holes but shot 2 under on the back nine to shoot 76. His second-round 74 wasn’t much better, ending the day in a tie for 47th at plus 8.
Entering the tournament, Deacon had high hopes for Kyler Tate, who had put in a solid week of practice after a disappointing finish in the Gators’ last event in Las Vegas. Instead, rounds of 79 and 78 place him in a tie for 69th along with redshirt junior A.J Crouch.
The Gators will play the final 18 of the 54-hole event today, looking to avoid what would be their first last-place finish of the season.
“We have to find some resilience deep down,” Deacon said. “We need to dig really deep and have some pride and find a way to put up a low round.
“We just need to find a way to fight back, beat some teams and see if we can get some positives out of this tournament.”
Contact Ray Boone at rboone@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @rboone1994.
UF's A.J. Crouch follows through on his backswing at the 2015 SunTrust Gator Invitational on Feb. 14, 2015 at the Mark Bostick Golf Course.
