When coach JC Deacon walked into his press conference on Monday after a disappointing trip to Las Vegas, he didn’t mince words.
“We were terrible,” he said. “(Our play) cost us the week.”
At the Southern Highlands Invitational, the Gators men's golf team ended the weekend at 20 over, 31 strokes behind victorious Southern California. Florida’s play was only good enough for a ninth-place finish, highlighted by a 15-over 303 on the second day of the tournament.
In a press release after the second round, Deacon said it was a disappointing day for the whole team.
“We had a chance to go out and execute all of the things we have been working on the last three weeks, but we weren’t able to do that, and our scores showed the results,” he said. “We’re at a big moment in the season as we’re finding out what this team is all about. We’ll see what kind of toughness we have tomorrow.”
The struggles were evident by the scores across the board. Alejandro Tosti cooled off after hot start to the spring, finishing tied for 32nd at 6 over. Freshman Andy Zhang shot 8-over, good enough for a share of 36th place. And Gordon Neale and Ryan Celano shared 53rd place after both shot duplicate rounds throughout the tournament (74, 78, 75).
Despite the struggles of the team, one Gator was able to turn the weekend into a positive. Sam Horsfield, the sophomore out of Davenport, Florida, shot 2 under during the three-day tournament, placing him in a tie for 12th place.
Deacon had high praises for Horsfield despite a poor performance from the rest of the team.
“Sam (Horsfield), from everything that I can see, he’s playing his best golf right now,” he said. “He hasn’t had that really low round yet, but it’s coming. And if it doesn’t come this week, I’m sure it’ll come next week in Vanderbilt.”
With their worst performance of the year behind them, the Gators will look to bounce back this weekend at the Schenkel Invitational, hosted by Georgia Southern University in Statesboro, Georgia.
Although a change in results has occurred from the Fall to the Spring season, expectations haven’t shifted.
“We just have too good of a team to string three bad weeks in a row,” Deacon said. “I’m expecting a great week, and we’re just going to go and a have a lot of fun and spend a lot of time together and see what happens.”
Contact Justin Ahlum at jahlum@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @justinn_case1.
UF head coach JC Deacon holds a scorecard during the SunTrust Gator Invitational on Feb. 18, 2017, at the Mark Bostic Golf Course.
