Both the Florida women’s and men’s golf teams returned to action on Sunday with the women taking place in the Allstate Sugar Bowl Invitational in New Orleans, La., and the men competing in the John Hayt Collegiate Invitational in Ponte Vedra, Fla.
The women started strong in the first round and are currently tied for fifth after shooting two under par (286) as a team, four strokes behind current leader Tulane (282).
Florida is looking to rebound after a disappointing finish at the Grumman Regional Championship that saw the team fall apart in the third round and finish fifth.
“We want to win every week,” coach Emily Bastel said in the press release.
“But we don’t want to be totally focused on that right now. We really want to focus on the things that we can control and that’s just going out every round and playing the best that we can.
"If it’s good enough to win, that’s great, but we want to have solid finishes and beat a lot of teams. The fields are going to keep getting stronger and we’ve been talking about that and preparing, so we’ll be ready.”
Camilla Hedberg, who could set the Florida record for most individual wins in a season with a win at the Sugar Bowl, currently leads the team after shooting a 69 (-3) in the first round. Hedberg has finished in the top ten in all but one tournament this year and is looking to continue her streak of three straight top ten finishes.
Isabelle Lendl sits just one stroke behind Hedberg (70) and is tied for seventh place. Mia Piccio, who has a victory this year in the Lady Bulldog Individual Championship, continued her struggles after shooting a 74 (+2) and tying for 41st.
The two other Florida starters participating are junior transfer Elcin Ulu and sophomore Anna Young. Ulu improved from her performance in the Grumman Challenge shooting just one over par (73) and tying for 31st.
Young faired slightly worse after shooting three over par (75) and tying for 54th.
While the women remain only four strokes back from the top, the men have dug themselves into a much deeper hole after shooting four over par (292) and tying with UAB for sixth place, 16 strokes back (276) from leader North Florida.
“North Florida had a great day on their home course,” coach Buddy Alexander said in a release. “We are going to have to have a special day tomorrow to be with them. I think we can do better tomorrow.”
T.J. Vogel, who is still recovering from sports hernia surgery in the winter, had the best round for Florida shooting a 69 (-3) and tying for sixth. The next best finisher for Florida was senior captain Tyler McCumber who shot a 72 (E) to tie for 25th.
J.D. Tomlinson continued his strong spring by shooting just one stroke back of McCumber (73) to shoot one over par and tie for 33rd. The final Florida starters, Eric Banks and Santiago Gavino, both struggled to stay in contention.
Banks shot a sporadic 78 (+6) including eight bogeys and one double bogey to place him tied for 69th. Gavino, who shot the best round for Florida in their last tournament, finished tied for 84th (+10) after shooting five double bogeys.
Florida would be in a much different situation had freshman A.J. Crouch started over Gavino. Crouch is competing as an individual for the tournament but had the second best finish for any Florida player after shooting a 71 (-1) and tying for 17th.
“We only have had one tournament since October … we are looking forward to playing against someone else other than ourselves, getting out of town, and seeing what we can do," Alexander said.
Both teams will be in action again today.
Senior T.J. Vogel eyes his shot during the SunTrust Gator Invitational at Mark Bostick Golf Course on Sunday. Vogel is back with the Gators after competing in The Masters.
