The Florida men’s golf team will travel Friday to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to compete in the 2021 LSU Invitational.
The Gators are looking to keep their spring momentum going. They won each of the tournaments they’ve competed in this spring, with first-place finishes at both the Gators Invitational and the Timuquana Collegiate.
Much like the Gators Invitational, Florida will compete against a stacked field in Baton Rouge this weekend. The 11th-ranked Gators are among six top-25 teams competing at the LSU Invitational. No. 6 Illinois is the only team ranked higher than UF, however. Other ranked teams include No. 12 Georgia, No. 17 Auburn, No. 19 Vanderbilt and No. 22 Tennessee.
The Florida lineup will remain the same as in the Gators Invitational. Sophomore Ricky Castillo will serve as the No. 1 golfer. In his last outing, Castillo carded a 6-under-par 64 in the final round of the Gators Invitational.
Sophomore Yuxin Lin will be the second golfer in the UF lineup. Lin finished in a tie for sixth at the Gators Invitational and shot a career-low total score of 202. Joe Pagdin slides into the No. 3 spot this week after he tied for eighth in the last tournament.The freshman didn’t record a round over par.
Freshman Tyler Wilkes and redshirt sophomore Fred Biondi will round out the Gator line up. Wilkes just achieved his best collegiate round and carded his lowest round (67) and his highest career finish (tied for 18th).
The three-day stroke-play tournament is set to begin Friday morning and continue through Sunday. It will take place at the University Club, the 7,227-yard home course of the LSU Tigers. The course, which opened in 1998, has played host to many big tournaments since its redesign in 2010, including the 2017 NCAA D1 Men’s Golf Regional Championship.
The tournament will get underway at 9:30 a.m., with Biondi leading the Gators off the tee. Live scoring updates can be found at Golfstat.com.
Contact Michael Hull at mhull@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @Michael_Hull33
Michael Hull is a fourth-year journalism sports & media major and a sports writer at The Alligator. He hosts the weekly sports podcast and has worked on staff for five semesters. In the past, Hull has served as the sports editor, the men's and women's golf beat writer, the volleyball beat writer and the football beat writer.
