After the Gators finished another miserable round, coach Buddy Alexander sounded subdued.
“It’s been a long time since we’ve finished ninth (eighth) in a tournament,” he said.
The Gators finished 17-over-par, 20 strokes behind tournament-winning LSU in the Hootie at Bulls Bay Intercollegiate on Tuesday.
That eighth-place finish was the worst for Florida in a regular-season event since a 14th-place showing in the Southern Highlands Collegiate Masters over a year ago.
The best performance for Florida in the tournament came from sophomore Phillip Choi. Choi finished with a 3-under-par 68 on Tuesday, lowering his overall tournament total to 4-under-par.
His final round vaulted him to third on the individual leaderboard, two strokes behind North Carolina State’s Mitchell Sutton and LSU’s Andrew Loupe.
Florida senior Bank Vongvanij rebounded from his season worst, 6-over-par round with an even-par round Tuesday. His 41st-place showing as an individual, though, was by far the worst of his senior campaign.
“I’m not that worried about Bank,” Alexander said. “Everybody deserves a little bump in the road once in a while, and I’m confident he will bounce back at conference.”
Sophomore Tyler McCumber played another poor round Tuesday, shooting a 6-over-par 77. McCumber's erratic day included four birdies, four bogeys, a double-bogey and a quadruple-bogey.
Junior transfer Michael Furci was unable to build on the 1-under-par round he shot Monday, but he finished the tournament with a solid 3-over-par 74 to finish 44th overall.
The real disappointment in the eighth-place showing this week was its timing. Florida’s next event is the Southeastern Conference Championship, to be played at Seaside Golf Club in St. Simons Island, Ga., on April 15-17.
“It’s disappointing,” Alexander said. “We may have gotten caught looking ahead to the postseason, or we may have struggled because Andres (Echavarria) wasn’t here, but it shouldn’t matter because it’s an individual game.”
