While some things remain constant, a level of uncertainty surrounds the UF men’s golf team as it travels to Chicago today to play in the season-opening Olympia Fields Invitational hosted by the University of Illinois.
The No. 8 Gators return three starters from last year’s roster that finished 11th at the NCAA Championships in May and UF’s longest-tenured coach, Buddy Alexander, is back for his 24th season.
Missing, however, is two of the team’s top contributors from the 2009-10 season. Tyson Alexander led the team in birdies and total rounds while Tim McKenney led in top-5 finishes.
“The first tournament of the year, you never know exactly what to expect,” Alexander said. “We return three starters from the top five, which is exactly what we did last year. Two of those guys are seniors, which is exactly what we did last year. I think that we’re going to be very similar to what we were last year.”
Looking to step into the vacated spots at the top of the rotation will be seniors Andres Echavarria and Bank Vongvanij, who were just behind McKenney and Alexander statistically last season.
Echavarria won the Golden Ocala Invitational and Vongvanij finished second on the team in scoring average, so it’s easy to see why Alexander doesn’t foresee much of a drop off.
The two will open the season at the top of the rotation on Friday.
Joining them in Chicago will be junior Michael Furci, a transfer from DePaul University, and returning sophomores Phillip Choi and Tyler McCumber.
“We got a couple new guys in the mix and a couple guys here we’ve been developing for a while,” Alexander said. “Hopefully we can develop them and be even better at the end of the year and do a little more in postseason.”
The Gators look to avoid what Alexander called a “devastating” finish to the 2009-10 campaign that saw the Gators fail to advance to the match play portion of the NCAA Championships.
The team added three freshmen recruits including Payne Denman – ranked 12th in the class of 2010 – local Gainesville Buchholz star Alex Slaton and Santiago Gavino.
The season begins at a course the UF team has only seen once before in a sixth place finish last year. Olympia Fields Country Club in Chicago, Ill., has been the site of two U.S. Opens and will play host to one of the toughest fields the Gators will face all season.
Of the 15 teams in the field, nine advanced to the NCAA Championships last season and three are ranked in the top-5 in preseason polls: No. 1 Oklahoma State, No. 2 Stanford and No. 3 Augusta State, defending national champions.
