Gilligan Ties Program Record; UF Leads At Gators Invitational

In the first day of the Gators Invitational, the UF men’s golf team saw a shot at history.

Junior transfer Ian Gilligan’s 62(-8) score on day one tied a UF record set in 2003 by Camilo Villegas at the Atlanta Intercollegiate. His bogey-free round puts him in first among all golfers in the tournament at Mark Bostick Course and came just one shot away from tying his career high.

The Gators have two teams competing this week. Florida A sits at 22-under through 36 holes while Florida B sits two shots back at 20-under. An 18-under round two from Florida A set the second lowest team round by par in program history, just one shot away from tying the record set in 2006 at the SEC Championship.

Round One

Parker Bell highlighted the first set of 18 holes with a career-low 65 (-5), which tied for the sixth-lowest round by a Gator sophomore. He was bogey-free until his 16th hole of the day and carded six birdies, ending as the round one leader by two shots.

Bell was joined by three other members of Florida B to shoot under par with Jack Turner (68, -2), Ryan Hart (68, -2) and Luke Poulter (69, -1). The group finished with a round score of 270 (-10) and led nearly all of the round and carried a three-shot lead over UNF (273, -7) and Florida A (276, -4).

A late charge on holes 17-18 from the Gators A team jumped it into third place at the end of the round. Matthew Kress had a birdie-birdie finish for an opening round of 67 (-3). Right after him Gilligan made eagle on 17 (par-4, 336 yards) for a 1-under 69 and Tyler Wilkes, playing in the No. 1 spot, rounded out with a birdie on 17 for a round of even par 70 along with Joe Pagdin.

Round Two

Florida A began its surge to the team leader in round two. Gilligan paced the attack with four consecutive birdies out of the gate on holes 1-4. He also finished the front nine bogey-free and 5-under. Since transferring from Long Beach State, he has been one of the better players for the Gators.

All five Gators shot par or better in the first nine holes. Joe Pagdin went 2-under along with Quentin Debove’s 1-under to push in front of Florida B by two strokes, and they never looked back.

The second round of the day also featured multiple Gators battling in and out of first place. Gilligan finished as the day one leader at 9-under, while four other Gators wrapped up day one in the top-10; Hart (T3), Kress (T5), Turner (T5) and Pagdin (9). Eight of the 12 Gators competing are in the top-25.

Florida’s A squad all fired rounds of par or better with Pagdin (65, -5) and Kress (67, -3) tying their career-lows for round. The only not counting score was Wilkes’ 70 (E).

The Gator’s B team also turned in rounds of 60, led by Hart’s career-low 5-under 65. Turner set a season-best with a 4-under 66, as John DuBois bounced back from +4 in the opening round with a 1-under 69 in round two. The group shot back-to-back rounds of 270 (-10), for the second-lowest round in the field.

The final round is scheduled for a 7:30 a.m. modified shotgun start today at Mark Bostick Course, as the Gators look to build on a great tournament start.

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