The Gators are headed back to the SEC Championship finals.
The No. 7 Florida men’s golf team traveled to St. Simons, Georgia, to compete in the Southeastern Conference Championship tournament Wednesday. UF beat the No. 6-seed Ole Miss Rebels and the No. 2-seed Texas A&M Aggies to advance to the final round.
After 54 holes of play, the top eight teams earned spots in the quarterfinals that took place Saturday.
The Gators earned the No. 3-seed Friday, which set them against No. 6-seed Ole Miss in the quarterfinals Saturday.
The starting lineup consisted of redshirt freshman Matthew Kress and seniors John Dubois, Fred Biondi, Ricky Castillo and Yuxin Lin.
Biondi and Castillo won their holes to give Florida the 2-0-3 lead over Ole Miss.
Castillo made a birdie on hole 11 to maintain a tie with his Ole Miss opponent, graduate student Hugo Townsend. At that moment, the Gators led two of the three remaining matches.
Kress secured the point that pushed Florida ahead in his postseason debut. He made a chip-in birdie from the bunker to win the first hole.
Biondi went back and forth with his opponent, freshman Patton Samuels. The two tied on the final holes, but Biondi took the point. The senior improved his match-play record to 3-0-1 all time at the SEC Championship.
The quarterfinal victory marked the second straight year the Gators advanced to the semifinals.
The Gators were set to face Texas A&M at 2 p.m. Saturday. Last year, the Gators defeated the Aggies in the same round.
The starting lineup for the semifinals remained the same. However, Kress kicked off the round with his second birdie to win the first hole of the round.
After not playing in his first year, Kress has made a name for himself throughout this tournament. His performance in round two was what moved Florida into third place, followed by an under-par performance Friday. Kress secured the match-clinching point twice in the semifinals to defeat Texas A&M.
The Gators will now have the opportunity to rematch the No. 1-seeded Vanderbilt Commodores for the SEC title Sunday.
The final round will be streamed live on SECN+ and tee off at 8 a.m..
Contact Madilyn Destefano at mdestefano@alligtor.org. Follow her on Twitter @DestefanoMadi.
