With first and second place out of reach, the Gators men's golf team went into the final round of the Southern Highlands Collegiate with third as its objective.
Despite a solid performance of 1 over par on Sunday in Las Vegas - the best single-round score for the Gators in the event - No. 6 UF could not move into the top three.
The team finished the final round of the tournament in fourth place with a score of 8 over par, just two shots behind third-place Georgia.
Coach Buddy Alexander took away some positives from the event, however.
"Obviously, fourth is a whole lot better than seventh, but we were much more competitive this week in terms of strokes," Alexander said. "No. 1 Georgia only beat us by a couple."
Alexander did admit he was disappointed a big conference rival overtook UF on Sunday.
"We caught some people, but we had one go by us, and of course it was Georgia," he said. "It's one of our big conference rivals, and we like to beat them every chance we get, so that was a little disappointing."
Senior Billy Horschel turned in the best individual performance for the Gators. He shot 1 under par in the final round, which gave him a score of 2 under par for the weekend.
Meanwhile, junior Tim McKenney got better as the weekend went on. He shot 1 under par on Sunday, his best round of the tournament. McKenney finished with a score of 2 over par for the event.
Although no individual golfer played great for the Gators, the team was consistent.
"I would say this week was all positives - not that everybody played great, but there was some very solid golf," he said.
Max Kieffer, Toby Ragland and Will Strickler could not get it going in Las Vegas. The three shot a combined 25 over par for the weekend.
The Gators will be back in action on March 20 in the Chris Schenkel Invitational in Statesboro, Ga.
