Incapable of improving its play, the Florida men’s golf team didn’t make any progress in the third-round of the Invitational at The Ocean Course on Tuesday, concluding their fall season with an eighth-place finish.
The Gators matched Monday’s team score of 15-over (303) in the final round to finish 42-over (906). UF ended 35 strokes behind tournament winner South Florida, who shot 7-over (871).
“A really strange fall in that there were a couple of really good rounds but there were so many poor rounds,” coach Buddy Alexander said. “That it makes you wonder who we really are.”
Freshman Ryan Orr regained his opening-round success as he lead the team by shooting 2-over (74) to finish in a tie for 17th place. Orr’s score for the tournament was 7-over (223).
Junior J.D. Tomlinson finished behind Orr at 10-over (226). Eric Banks (+14) was the lone Gator to improve his score by the round shooting rounds of 79, 76 and 75.
The men’s team is left looking forward to the spring season.
“As tough as this semester has been, I think we can move forward and with a good winter of work we can overcome it,” Alexander said.
The women’s team enters its offseason on a high note after taking fourth place out of 15 teams at The Alamo Invitational.
The No. 19 Gators improved from Monday’s result of sixth place, shooting 9-under (855) for the tournament.
“We had a nice finish [Tuesday],” coach Emily Glaser said. “The girls fought hard all day and finished strong. We would have liked to have made a run at the leaders, but hats off to Oklahoma, they played some great golf today.”
No. 11 Oklahoma (-24) won the tournament, with LSU (-16) finishing second.
Junior Sarah Schober shot 209 for the tournament, a career-best, and placed third individually. She made 15 birdies overall to finish with rounds of 67, 71 and 71.
“I’m not surprised to see Sarah (Schober) have a great finish this week,” Glaser said. “She is super talented and has adjusted well to her first year at Florida.”
Both the men and women’s team will work on polishing their game before the spring season starts early next year.
The men will tee off their season at the Sea Best Invitational at TPC Stadium in Ponte Vedra Beach on Feb. 3, and the women will compete at the Florida Challenge in Lecanto on Jan. 27.
Follow Lawrence Laguna on Twitter @LagunaLawrence.
