A pair of in-state victories to start the spring suggest Florida might have turned around its season. After winning the season-opening Sea Best Invitational on Feb. 1, Florida claimed its second consecutive victory on Feb. 13 at its own Vystar Gators Invitational. The Gators have now won their home event 28 times in its 45-year history. This year, it was especially significant as Florida, ranked No. 29 in the Golfweek/Sagarin Rankings, finished 12 shots ahead of No. 4-ranked Oklahoma State.
Florida finished 54 holes at its own Mark Bostick Golf Course with a 28-under total.
“The fall was really frustrating because I knew how good this team was when we started the year and we just played terribly and it made no sense to me and I was starting to think maybe I’m crazy, and I don’t know what good golf looks like anymore,” Florida head coach J.C. Deacon said in a school release. “But I knew we had a really good team. They love this place. We play a lot of golf here. It’s our home. We’re really proud of it. And the guys stepped up this week is really important to them to protect home turf, and there was some really good teams this week does a quality field and a great Oklahoma State team we played with the last three days so wasn’t easy, but they play great and they deserve this.”
Florida was T-8 at the OFCC/Fighting Illini Invitational to start the fall at 12th at the Colonial Collegiate. They were T5 at the Isleworth Collegiate.
Redshirt junior Fred Biondi led Florida with a 14-under total for 54 holes that left him with the individual title for the first time in his college career. Junior Ricky Castillo, who won the individual title at this event in 2020, was second, four shots behind Biondi.
Golfweek/Sagarin Rankings: Men’s team | Men’s individual
College golf blog: The Road to Grayhawk