A school from Florida is atop the NCAA Championship leaderboard – but it isn’t the Gators.
They finished the second round of the NCAA Championship on Wednesday in Chattanooga, Tenn., sitting in fifth place.
No. 6 Florida finished the day at 289, (+1), 14 strokes behind tournament leader and rival No. 19 Florida State.
“As a team, we played fairly well,” UF senior Tim McKenney said. “Andres Echavarria was the low guy, he shot a two under, and the rest of us were right around par. We didn’t play great, we didn’t play awful, we played well enough to still be in it.”
On the first day of the NCAA Championship, the Gators finished tied for seventh at 287, (-1) and were led by freshman Phillip Choi. Choi was playing in his first NCAA Championship and carded a 69, (-3) in the first round, finishing in a tie for third place.
“The national championship doesn’t know whether you’re a senior or a freshman,” McKenney said. “I think he treated it like any other round and he played really well. He’s played in many big events outside of college, so I’m sure this was nothing new to him.”
When the Gators came out to play Wednesday, some of the teams older players received a little motivation going into the second round, as four Gators were named to the PING All-Region Team.
Seniors McKenney and Tyson Alexander made the team for the second year in a row, and it was a first-time honor for juniors Echavarria and Bank Vongvanij.
“It shows I had a pretty good year,” McKenney said. “The award takes a look at the whole year as opposed to just one tournament. If I play well in this tournament maybe All-American may be next.”
The Gators were confident going into Wednesday, but continued a trend of posting lackluster second-round scores, forcing them to fight back in the third round.
The Gators have struggled on par-4 holes. Out of the team’s 21 bogeys, 16 of them were on par-4 holes. Also of the 10 total team bogeys Wednesday, eight of them were on par-4 holes.
“They are very important,” McKenney said. “Par-4 holes are what you play the most rather than a par-5 or a par-3. One thing that’s really important on these par-4 holes is getting the ball on the fairway off the tee. Especially out here because the rough is very difficult. So I think if we hit the ball well off the tee then we should have a better opportunity attacking the holes (in the third round).”
Going into today’s round the Gators remain poised and positive.
“The expectation (today) is to play well enough to get into the top eight, and have a chance to win the national championship” McKenney said.
