Coach Buddy Alexander said he was surprised by his team’s hot start this season.
It would appear those days are over, though, as the No. 3 Gators cooled off during the first round of the Isleworth Collegiate Invitational in Windermere, Fla., on Sunday.
UF shot a 17-over-par 305 to open in 12th place, 15 shots behind tournament co-leaders Stanford and Texas Christian. The par-72, 7,544-yard layout showed its teeth early, as the Gators were 9 over and had just two birdies after nine holes.
Playing a difficult course, Alexander said he expected the scoring to be higher this week. But surely he could not have envisioned the start UF had Sunday.
“We just didn’t play well,” Alexander said. “But we have a chance to pick it up and do a little better tomorrow. Someone has to step up and nobody did today.”
Senior Bank Vongvanij led the Gators, shooting a 2-over 74 at the lengthy Isleworth Golf and Country Club. Vongvanij began with eight straight pars before recording a bogey at the 443-yard, par-4 ninth hole to make the turn at 1 over.
Two more bogeys at 10 and 12 dropped Vongvanij to 3 over, but the senior added two birdies over his last six holes to creep back toward even par.
Coming into the week, Tyler McCumber had just one over-par round through two tournaments, but the sophomore added to that total Monday with a 4-over 76.
The sophomore made back-to-back bogeys at holes 5 and 6 before adding a birdie at 8 to make the turn at 1 over. However, McCumber added bogeys at 10, 13 and 18 to drop his score further into the black.
Tommy Mou battled for a 2-over 38 on the front nine, but one birdie wasn’t enough to recover from four more bogeys on the back. Mou shot a 5-over 77, good for 43rd individually.
Both Phillip Choi and Michael Furci got off to bad starts and could not bounce back. Choi had a bogey, double-bogey start, and Furci bogeyed the first before carding a quadruple-bogey 9 at the par-5 third hole. Choi finished with a 6-over 78. Furci was one shot worse at 7-over 79.
The Gators don’t have a golfer in the individual top 20 for the first time this season.
They are playing without senior Andres Echavarria, but Alexander said that shouldn’t be an excuse for the team’s poor play.
“We can’t blame Andres for that,” Alexander said. “He is one of our better players, but it shouldn’t affect the way any of the rest of the guys played.”
