Obscenities and a folding chair with a smiley face on it tossed to the ground pierced the otherwise serene mood of the 17th hole at the Florida Challenge on Monday.
As onlookers watched senior Kelly Grassel search for a ball driven into the brush to the left of the par-3 hole, Grassel made the tough choice to take the 2-stroke penalty and replay the hole from the tee, trekking back up steep hills.
The scene frustrated one fan so much that he threw his yellow folding chair.
But despite the outburst, the Gators dominated at Black Diamond Ranch in Lecanto, earning a 12-stroke win over rival Florida State and the rest of the field as a team. Individually, three Gators tied for first place.
However, the team got off to a tough start.
Elin Esborn, a freshman from Sweden, was taken out of the tournament due to an injured right wrist at the last minute. In her place, fellow freshman Carlotta Ricolfi, a member of the Italian National Team, got the nod from coach Emily Glaser.
Ricolfi did not disappoint.
After a difficult start to her day, she posted four birdies on the back nine, giving her the lift she needed to claim a share of top honors individually — along with two of her teammates.
“I think that the second 18, I played better, but I also knew where the flag was, and I knew the greens better,” Ricolfi said.
Ricolfi was not alone in providing some freshman heroics. Marta Perez, a member of the Spanish National Team, shot a combined 4 under in the second half of the 36-hole tournament, never missing a putt for par in that span.
“The greens are pretty difficult here, and knowing where the pin was and where to hit it to be in a good spot helped me a little bit,” Perez said. “Helped me a lot, I think.”
Reigning SEC Champion Maria Torres rounded out the trio of Gators who tied for the win, leading the team with five birdies in the second round.
But the Gators were not without fault on the day. Grassel finished off the first round with a double-bogie on the 17th hole and a bogie on the 18th.
On the 17th hole, she drove her ball into a brushy area off to the left side of the hole and could not find it, leading to the furniture being assaulted.
“I definitely had a rough stretch in the middle, and it can be hard not to wall up in that and be like, ‘What the heck is going on?’” Grassel said. “I was able to get it back to where it wasn’t a terrible round. I’m just really glad that my team came through.”
Glaser, meanwhile, felt that despite Grassel's struggles, there were plenty of opportunities to learn in the dominant win.
“I thought we got off to a slow start in the morning,” Glaser said. “I saw some, what we would call "unforced errors" and mental mistakes. But we saw a lot of improvement in the afternoon, and that’s the positive to take away.”
The Gators tee off next on Feb. 12 in Palos Verdes, California.
Contact Morgan McMullen at mmcmullen@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @morganmcmuffin.
Maria Torres tees off during the 2015 SunTrust Gator Invitational at UF's Mark Bostick Golf Course.
