Thirty-six straight holes did not faze the No. 16 Gators on Monday.
Instead, the team had its best overall performance of the year during the first two rounds of the 2014 Allstate Sugar Bowl Intercollegiate Championship with a score of 572 (-4).
Rain early Sunday morning pushed the first round of the tournament to Monday morning, forcing Florida to play two rounds instead of one on the same day.
The Gators responded to the long day of competition with a strong third-place finish, trailing No. 1 USC by six strokes and No. 2 UCLA by ten strokes.
The success at the English Turn Golf & Country Club is the first Florida has seen all season after dropping to 14th place in the Northrup Grumman Regional Challenge and coming in fourth place in the Florida Challenge a year after winning the tournament.
“The girls played well today and I am proud of them,” coach Emily Glaser said in a release. “We let a few get away at the end. It seemed to be a bit of fatigue because it was a tough day.”
Freshman Maria Torres shot seven birdies during the two rounds of competition, tying for sixth place after matching a career-best 70 during the second round.
Torres is tied with two other players in sixth place with a score of 141 (-3).
Karolina Vlckova led the four other individual players after ending the day of competition at even par. The freshman tied for 18th overall with six other players, including teammate junior Sarah Schober, with a score of 144 and a team-high nine birdies. Schober canceled out seven birdies with seven bogeys, while Vlckova struggled to overcome shooting double bogeys in each round.
Junior Camilla Hedberg and senior Elcin Ulu, the only members on the Gators who previously played in New Orleans, finished the day tied with each other and six other players for 24th place with a score of 145 (+1). Both Ulu and Hedberg shot three birdies in the first round, but Ulu shot two consecutive double bogeys early in the second round while Hedberg shot four bogeys.
Redshirt sophomore Katie Mitchell, the only player to make the lineup in every tournament of the 2013-14 season rounded out the Florida lineup with a score of 146 (+2).
The Gators look to clinch their third-straight top-10 finish in New Orleans today during the final round of the tournament. The team placed 10th in both 2012 and 2013.
“The team did a great job of managing their way around this course and it was a real team effort today,” Glaser said. “We are looking forward to being in the last group [Tuesday].”
Follow Emily Cochrane on Twitter @EmilySCochrane
