One year after repeating as champions of the Cougar Classic in Charleston, S.C., the Florida women’s golf team finished in 12th place after the final round with a team score of 294.
The No. 17 Gators completed the final day at 6-over-par and ended the tournament at 25-over-par, which was 43 shots behind the winner of the event, Southeastern Conference foe, No. 7 Arkansas. Arkansas shot 18-under-par as a team, and won by seven strokes over No. 2 UCLA.
Sophomore Kelly Grassel was the most consistent player for UF over the three days, as she finished at 5-over-par and shot a 75 (+3) on the final day. Grassel ended her first tournament as a Gator in a tie for 38th place.
Junior Ursa Orehek had her best round of the week as she completed the third round at even-par. Orehek moved up 25 spots on the leaderboard to finish in a tie for 59th place. She ended the three-day event at 10-over-par.
Freshman Taylor Tomlinson fired her best round of her collegiate career on the third day. She completed her round at even-par as well. The Gainesville native shot a 77 and a 78 in the first two days before her even-par 72 on the last day of the event.
Even though the Gators struggled as a team overall in the three day tournament, coach Emily Glaser said the performances of Orehek and Tomlinson on the final day will help the team as they move forward.
"Overall, it wasn’t a great event for us, but despite that, we will take a lot of positives from our experience," Glaser said in a release. "I’m happy that Taylor and Ursa finished strong today. Everyone contributed this week and everyone had their own individual successes even though the scores weren’t great."
A day after shooting a 1-under 71, sophomore Karolina Vlckova struggled on the final day, as she ended up shooting 8-over-par. Vlckova dropped 34 spots on the leaderboard from a tie in 19th place to a tie for 53rd.
Senior Camilla Hedberg, who won the tournament as an individual two years ago as a sophomore, completed the three day event at 10-over-par and in a tie for 59th place with Orehek after shooting a 3-over, 75 on the final day. When Hedberg won the tournament, she shot 13-under-par and won by four strokes. It was also Hedberg’s first individual win as a member of the UF golf team.
As a team, Florida shot 889, which is 30 strokes worse than the team number of 859 the Gators shot one year ago in Charleston.
Glaser said she expects the team to learn from the first tournament and move forward as the team heads into their second tournament of the fall season in October at Chapel Hill, N.C.
"We have a lot to work on over the next few weeks before the Tar Heel Invitational," Glaser said, "and I feel confident that we can improve."
Follow Luis Torres on Twitter @LFTorresIII
