The Florida men’s golf team will be returning to the course this weekend, but without a couple of regular starters.
Senior Andres Echavarria, who took home the individual title at the Gator Invitational two weeks ago, is returning to his native Columbia to participate in a Nationwide Tour event, while sophomore Tommy Mou will be sidelined because of a back injury.
The rest of the team will be traveling to Ponte Vedra Beach to play in the John Hayt Collegiate Invitational, which begins Sunday.
UF coach Buddy Alexander said he is looking forward to the challenge of playing at Sawgrass Country Club, a solid course that poses plenty of risk/reward scenarios for players.
In the past, the Gators have had some uneven results in the John Hayt Invitational.
The last time Florida finished first was 2005, when the team overcame a six-stroke deficit to win the title over Alabama.
Since then, Alexander’s squad has either finished in the middle of the pack or skipped the event. Last year, Florida finished in seventh, 23 shots behind first-place North Florida.
Despite UF’s No. 1 national ranking, Alexander is hesitant to call his team a favorite for the event. He has spoken at length about how the strength of the team is its depth, and the loss of Echavarria and Mou negates that advantage to some extent.
“We don’t pay attention to last year’s result,” Alexander said. “We’re a more grown-up team now, but I don’t feel all that good about our chances to win.”
Filling in for Echavarria and Mou will be junior DePaul transfer Michael Furci and freshman Payne Denman.
Both golfers participated in the Gator Invitational as individuals. Furci finished ahead of Mou in the event, carding an 11-over-par 221 for the three rounds. Denman, who was an unexpected opening-round star of the tournament after shooting a 1-over-71, struggled the rest of the way to an 18-over-228.
Bank Vongvanij, meanwhile, has emerged as one of the NCAA’s top golfers, earning the senior national attention and award consideration.
On Feb. 19, Vongvanij was put on the watch list for the Ben Hogan Award, given annually to the nation’s top golfer. Earlier this week, Vongvanij was honored as the Southeastern Conference Player of the Week. Alexander believes any recognition Vongvanij receives is well-deserved.
“He’s playing as well as anybody in the country right now, so it doesn’t come as a surprise to us,” Alexander said.
This weekend, Florida will face a field similar to the one it faced at the Gator Invitational, which will include SEC rivals Arkansas, Auburn, LSU and Tennessee.
If the Gators can win this tournament against a such a strong field — missing two of their top five golfers — they can safely consider themselves national championship contenders.
