After back-to-back wins to end its fall campaign, the Florida women’s golf was hoping to ride that momentum into 2025’s opener: the Sea Best Intercollegiate in Jacksonville.
The Gators trotted out a young lineup for their first event of the spring season, consisting of sophomore Paula Francisco, freshman Siuee Wu, redshirt freshman Addison Klonowski, freshman Elaine Widjaja, sophomore Ines Archer and individual participant sophomore Sophie Stevens.
The Gators were the only Power Four team in the tournament, which consisted of Coastal Carolina, Daytona State, Florida, Florida Gulf Coast, Florida Southern, Holy Cross, Illinois State, Jacksonville, Lipscomb, Navy, Richmond, Seminole State, South Alabama, Stetson and USC - Upstate.
Day One
The Gators raced out to a -7 mark on Monday behind the stellar play of Klonowski, Widjaja and Archer. Klonowski came out of the gates hot, recording four consecutive birdies on holes three through six to take the lead, one she would only relinquish to her teammate Widjaja.
Widjaja took the lead early into the back nine of round one with one of her six birdies in the opening 18 holes. This propelled her to shooting 68 (-4) on the opening 18, placing her tied for first place with Archer heading into day two.
Despite a lackluster first round from Archer, she stormed back with a -4 in the second round, just the second -4 of the day after Widjaja in round one.
Rounding out Florida’s performance on day one were Francisco (+3) and Wu (+8), with Stevens posting a +2 in the individual heat.
Even though the Gators had three standout performances in both rounds on opening day, they entered the second day tied with Illinois State, which collectively shot -9 in round two.
Day Two
With Florida and Illinois State having dueling impressive performances on day one, and the rest of the squads quickly falling behind , it was a two-horse race heading into the second and final day.
Chaos was expected, and chaos was delivered.
Tuesday’s action was much quicker, with one round of 18 holes instead of Monday’s two. Illinois State initially raced out to a lead this time, at one point holding a five-stroke lead over Florida with 16 total holes remaining across the lineup.
Florida slowly cut back into Illinois State’s lead before a stretch of birdies from Archer, Francisco and Wu not only gave the Gators the lead, but a three-stroke advantage that would not be relinquished.
Four of the five Gators competing in UF’s lineup placed in the top 13. Archer placed fourth and Widjaja placed seventh, while Francisco and Klonowski tied for 13th.
Rounding out the five was Wu, who shook off a shaky first day to shoot -1 on Tuesday, placing her 30th overall. As an individual, Stevens finished 39th.
The Gators evidently hadn’t lost any momentum from their two consecutive wins to wrap up the fall campaign, making this season the second straight season in which they have posted three wins.
Florida, which came into the week ranked 26th in the country by Clippd.com, could possibly land in the top 25 like the men’s squad, which is currently ranked 14th.
The Gators won’t have much time to rest after this win, as they return to action quickly in Palos Verdes, California, in the Therese Hession Regional from Feb. 2-4.
Contact Josh Stevens at JStevens1@alligator.org Follow him on X @josh.stevens.15
