Heading into the third and final round of the Cougar Classic, the UF women’s golf team is in a tie for third place out of 20 teams.
Sophomore Taylor Tomlinson will tee-off today tied for first out of 107 individual competitors at Yeamans Hall Club in Charleston, South Carolina.
The No. 22 Gators came into Monday morning tied for fourth and looking to climb, but the team maintained their position thanks to Tomlinson’s 4-under 68 and Ursa Orehek’s even-par 72 in the second round.
As a team, UF shot a 1-under 287 in the second round, an improvement from Sunday’s 2-over 290.
"I thought we hung in there well today, and overall we finished strong," coach Emily Glaser said in a release.
"We had a stretch where we lost a little bit of our focus, but we regained it and played hard all the way to the end. I’m proud of the fight I’ve seen this week, and we’re looking forward to tomorrow."
Sitting at 8-under for the tournament, Tomlinson continued her strong play from the opening round by making four birdies in her first five holes.
"It was nice to see Taylor put some more red on the board today," Glaser said.
"She’s been very smart this week, she had a great plan for this course, and there are no plans to change that for tomorrow."
Junior Maria Torres heads into today’s round tied for 14th after dropping back three strokes on Monday with a 2-over 74.
Orehek and Karolina Vlckova are tied for 31st at 4-over for the tournament after posting round two scores of 72 and 73, respectively.
No. 8 Arkansas holds a commanding lead at 11-under par, while No. 16 Virginia moved into second place at 1-under.
Florida and Southeastern Conference-rival Georgia open the final round deadlocked at 1-over.
The Gators will look to make a push in the final round today when the team tees off at 9 a.m.
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Taylor Tomlinson putts during the 2015 SunTrust Gator Invitational at UF's Mark Bostick Golf Course.
