The Gators entered Tuesday with a 10-stroke lead. Turns out the cushion was more than enough.
Florida went 3-over in its final round to hold on and win The Bake at the par-72, 7,344-yard Ocean Course in Kiawah Island, S.C. The tournament victory is the team’s first of the season.
The Gators finished with a score of 858 (291-276-291, -6), 11 shots ahead of UAB.
Coach Buddy Alexander said he was proud of how his team rebounded after a disappointing showing at the rain-shortened Inverness Intercollegiate on Sept. 27.
“For them to bounce back and play well here was pretty cool,” he said. “We’ve worked pretty hard all semester, and it’s nice to get that first win of the year on a great golf course. This was a very positive couple of days. I’m not incredibly shocked or surprised, since I knew we were certainly better than how we played [the last two events].”
Junior Tyler McCumber shot a 211 (-5) but fell to No. 2 in the individual standings after tallying two bogeys and a double bogey on his final five holes. He sat atop the leaderboard for most of the tournament, but UAB’s Sam Love (-7), who made four birdies on his back nine, jumped McCumber to earn the individual title.
“Tyler is a very talented player,” Alexander said. “He’ll learn and get better from this, but I’m proud of the way he’s played all year. This is the first tournament where he’s ... hit the ball with a lot of confidence.”
Adding to his impressive third-place tournament finish, junior T.J. Vogel used three birdies and 13 pars to card a 1-under 71 on Tuesday. Junior Tommy Mou shot even par and recorded a team-high 14 birdies during the two-day span.
Vogel finished with his second top-five result of the season, while Mou tied with five other golfers for seventh.
In all, four Gators finished inside the top 20.
“Tyler and T.J. have been carrying us around a little bit this year, and they got some help,” Alexander said. “Two guys can’t do it by themselves.
“The bottom line is that we got some stuff from some other people this week, and the results were obvious.”
