The third round of the SunTrust Gator Women’s Golf Invitational teed off Sunday morning at the Mark Bostick Golf Course with No. 8 Florida leading the tournament after Saturday’s back-to-back rounds.
With a 10-stroke lead over second place North Carolina State, the Gators had room to play the final round at their own tempo.
However, UF improved on its lead and soundly secured a home victory. The Gators compiled a three-day score of 22 over par, an 11-stroke victory.
It was Florida’s second victory in a row, and the success so far this season wasn’t lost on head coach Emily Glaser.
"This is a pretty tight group. They really are supportive of each other, they play hard for each other, and that seems to be the difference maker this year," she said of the difference between this year’s team and previous teams.
No. 18 Florida State and No. 44 Ohio State placed second and third respectively, with three points separating the two schools. However, it was NC State’s Rachael Taylor who finished on top of the individual leaderboard with a final score of even par, thanks in large part to an impressive first-round score of 4 under par.
Individually, junior Maria Torres led the fight on the links for the Gators.
Beginning yesterday’s final round in a tie for sixth after significant improvement in the second round, Torres claimed a score of 2 under par for the first seven holes of the third round thanks to birdies on hole two and hole seven. That hot streak briefly carried her into second place.
Unfortunately, her front nine was marred by a double bogey on the eighth hole, due in part to the water hazard claiming her ball.
The back nine did not go much better for the veteran golfer, as she scored a double bogey on the 13th hole and a bogey on the final hole, while staying on par on the rest. However, Torres improved one spot on the day to finish the tournament in a tie for fifth place with a final score of 5 over par.
Unlike Torres, junior Karolina Vlckova improved in every round. Following a less-than-stellar first round weighed down by four bogeys and three double-bogeys, the junior ended the first round sharing 61st place with a round score of 9 over par.
Vlckova then climbed 36 spots to finish Saturday in a tie for 25th place. After the uncharacteristically slow performance, Vlckova realized something had to change.
"I don’t really know what happened the first round. I was pretty nervous before the tournament because obviously I wanted to do good and we wanted to do good and I probably didn’t stay patient," she said. "So then I’m like, well it’s not going to work this way so I should come back to my normal game and start playing how I always do."
With that in mind, the junior shot a 2 under par the last round of the tournament, improving a resounding 11 strokes from her first round and knocking one stroke from her second round. Vlckova finished in a tie for seventh with a final score of 6 over par.
"Just gives you a glimpse of the resilience of this team and she was a good example of that this week," Glaser said on Vlckova’s improvement.
However, the rest of Florida’s squad was unable to match Torres or Vlckova.
After an up and down performance, sophomore Taylor Tomlinson ended the tournament in a tie for 12th place, dropping four spots in the last round. Tomlinson climbed to a tie for fifth place by the sixth hole with a round score on par, but due to bogeys on holes eight and nine, the Gainesville native ended the front nine where she started: in a tie for eighth.
It got worse on the back nine for Tomlinson, who scored three consecutive bogeys on the 12th through 14th holes.
Junior Kelly Grassel and freshman Sam Wagner rounded out Florida’s lineup by placing tied for 19th and tied for 37th respectively. Grassel finished the third round with a score of 7 over par due to her back nine, which featured two double bogeys and two bogeys.
Wagner finished the third round with 12 over par, largely due to her play on the eighth hole where she notched a score of 5 over par.
Florida travels to Johns Island, South Carolina, for the Briar’s Creek Invitational on March 21.
You can follow Alfredo Morales on Twitter @amorales_95.
Maria Torres tees off during the 2015 SunTrust Gator Invitational at UF's Mark Bostick Golf Course.
