Junior Camilla Hedberg’s second consecutive top-five placing while braving both sleet and wind led the Gators to a ninth-place finish Sunday.
No. 18 Florida finished the three-round Bryan National Collegiate tournament in the middle of the leaderboard with a score of 915 (+51).
“The conditions today were some of the toughest I’ve ever seen in my career, both as a player and as a coach,” coach Emily Glaser said in a release.
Hedberg, the only Gator who had played the Bryan Park Champions Course in Greensboro, N.C., previously, had a shaky start, recording two bogeys and a double bogey during the first round of play.
However, after consistently shooting one-over, one-under, and par during the second and third rounds, Hedberg shot up the leaderboard on Sunday and finished tied for third with three other players.
Her score of 220 (+4) put her at least 11 shots and 30 places ahead of the rest of the team.
“Camilla’s round was outstanding, and she was very patient and smart — the two main factors you needed to play well [Sunday],” Glaser said. “The rest of our team struggled immensely and it was disappointing that no one stepped up to fight through the elements.”
Junior Sarah Schober tied with eight other players with a score of 231 (+15). Despite having two double bogeys and seven bogeys in the third round alone, Schober’s score was the second highest from Florida’s lineup.
Freshman Maria Torres and redshirt sophomore Katie Mitchell started out the tournament strong, finishing Round 1 fewer than five strokes over par, but increasingly struggled as the tournament progressed. Mitchell failed to score a single birdie in the third round while Torres’s two birdies in the two rounds were canceled out by 10 bogeys and two double bogeys.
Freshman Karolina Vlckova rounded out the team’s standings tied for 73rd after shooting only two birdies during the entire tournament.
“The key was to not beat yourself up by making big numbers,” Glaser said. “And that is what we did.”
The Gators’ first tournament of the postseason will be the Southeastern Conference Championships in Birmingham, Ala., on April 18.
Follow Emily Cochrane on Twitter @EmilySCochrane
Camilla Hedberg putts the ball during the SunTrust Gator Invitational on March 15.
