During the final stretch in the desert, the men’s golf team fell down the leaderboard.
Going into the final round of the Desert Mountain Intercollegiate, the Gators sat in second place as a team four shots off the eventual tournament winners, Oregon.
The team’s +5 performance on the final three holes spelled disaster for the squad as they finished fourth, losing to Michigan and Purdue by one shot each.
“We had a really tough weekend this weekend,” coach J.C. Deacon said. “We hung in there on a really tough windy first day and were really in a good position to have a good tournament going into the final round and then we had a pretty much complete meltdown on the last three holes.’’
“That hurt a lot and I know it hurt the guys a lot, and it was a bit of a wake up call for all of us. We’ve been trending the right way for so long and for something like that to happen was really tough.”
Despite the tough final round, the fourth-place finish for the Gators is the team’s fourth top-five finish in as many tournaments dating back to October.
Along with finishing fourth as a team, the Gators placed three individuals in the top ten in Scottsdale, Arizona. Freshman Alejandro Tosti and junior A.J. Crouch rounded out the top 10, finishing 2-over-par and earning a share of the 10 spot.
Senior J.D. Tomlinson earned sixth place at 1-under-par to secure his second top-10 finish in a row after earning the runner-up spot at the Gator Invitational.
“I think J.D., Alejandro, and A.J. have really solidified their place in the lineup,” Deacon said. “I think those last two spots are kind of there for the taking and we need someone to step up and grab it.”
The starting five in the Desert Mountain Invitational for the Gators were the same five as in the Gator Invitational and the only time Deacon has played the same five golfers in any tournaments this season.
Moving into the final month of play before the postseason coach Deacon said that the details would elevate his team to the next level.
“We talk a lot about details here and that’s what we're trying to clean up more than anything and we had some issues this week with details. A couple of guys had uniform issues. A couple guys were late for some things and that stuff catches up with you,” Deacon said. “I 100 percent believe that was the reason why we struggled coming down the stretch. It’s tough to get these guys to understand that everything they do in their life affects their performance on the golf course and I really think our lack of discipline is what caught up with us.”
The Gators return to action Friday when they take part in the Seminole Intercollegiate, a 17-team tournament hosted by Florida State, which features five ranked squads, FSU, Georgia Tech, South Carolina, South Florida and Virginia.
Follow Ryan Summers on Twitter @RyanSummers18
Alejandro Tosti putts during the 2015 SunTrust Gator Invitational on Feb. 14.
