The national championship ended the way it started for the Gators: disappointing.
There was little to no optimism from the beginning, as UF immensely struggled by going 9-over-par in Round 1, placing it tied for 23rd out of 30 teams.
The jet lag from flying out west to Carlsbad, California, subsided in Round 2 as Florida was the second-best team in that frame, posting a 285 (-3).
The Gators continued that valiant effort and did one stroke better in Round 3. At that point, they made the top 15 cut and hope was on the horizon.
Thanks to a rough Round 4, UF couldn’t continue its upward climb and missed out on match play, accumulating an 1168 (+16). It finished in 11th and five strokes behind eighth-place Pepperdine.
UF’s lineup consisted of Paula Francisco, Megan Propeck, Siuue Wu, Katelyn Huber and Elaine Widjaja, with Addison Klonowski as the substitute.
Despite the early exit, Wu carried the Gators, accumulating a 286 (-2). She tied the NCAA record in Round 2, going 8-under-par and potting eight birdies while going bogey-free. The sophomore continued her great play in Round 3 by hitting five more birdies and was under par again. However, Wu sunk the Gators further with a quadruple bogey in the final frame.
Propeck ended the tournament with a 294 (+6). She was solid in rounds 2 and 3, combining for 1-under-par, including a bogey-free Round 2. Overall, the graduate student had nine birdies.
Even with a team-best 3-under-par Round 1, Widjaja could not maintain her shine in the later rounds. She posted just one bogey in the opening frame but had five single bogeys the next round and one triple bogey, plummeting her score. The sophomore’s Round 4 proved to be costly for the Gators as she hit three single bogeys, one double bogey and another triple bogey. The Indonesian native finished the tournament with a 295 (+7).
Francisco didn’t fare much better, and her recent struggles continued. She finished 298 (+10) and did not go under par in any of the four rounds. The junior only recorded eight birdies throughout, and her best round was Round 2, where she had a dead-even score and went bogey free in the back nine.
Despite Huber placing in fifth at the Tallahassee Regional, she had a rough national championship showing. In the first two rounds, the freshman went a combined 11-over par, including eight single bogeys and two double bogeys. She improved in Round 3, accumulating a dead-even score, but the Gainesville native still ended the tournament with a 301 (+13).
Now, the Gators’ national championship title drought has been extended to 40 years.
Francisco and Wu return to the golf course for the U.S. Women’s Open, which takes place at Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, California, from June 4 to 7. Propeck will head across the Atlantic Ocean to West Barrow, Ireland, from July 3 to 5 for the Arnold Palmer Cup.
Contact Colby Kistner at ckistner@alligator.org. Follow him on X @colbykistner22.
Colby is a sports journalism senior in his second semester with the Alligator covering golf. He has experience covering Buchholz and Santa Fe High School sports and also worked in UF's innovation center where he wrote and created radio content for WRUF. Furthermore, he is interning at Idaho Education News Center in Boise and is looking to minor in business. In his free time, he watches the Seattle Kraken and the NHL as a whole.
