Florida Women’s Golf Sweeps Gators Invitational

The Florida women’s golf team swept the Gators Invitational at Mark Bostick Golf Course for the first time in four years Saturday.

The Gators finished +9, two strokes ahead of Virginia (+7). The Gators have staked their name back on their home grass after falling short at last year’s tournament.

Freshman Jessica Guiser (IND) won the individual by shooting -4. It’s her first individual win of her young collegiate career. Her previous best outing was a T13 finish at the Cougar Classic last fall. Guiser becomes the first true freshman to win the event since the early 1990s.

Redshirt freshman Addison Klonowski led the stating five with a ninth-place finish. She scored one-over-par through the 54-hole stroke play match, earning her team-best seventh top-25 finish.

The Gators flexed an all underclassmen starting five en route to their 27th Gators Invitational win. A contrast to second-place Virginia’s lineup that included two grad students and two seniors. It’s a good sign for the program. The team has now won four events this season.

Gators coach Emily Glaser spoke on her team’s youth and potential:

“I think we’re all aware of that. It’s not something that we actively talk about. I think that now that they got a little time under their belt, they’re starting to maybe see themselves in a different light. Looking at it more as about experience than you know necessarily what the grade level is … and so, it was fun to be able to go toe to toe with them this week and hopefully it just keeps opening this group’s eyes to how good they can be.”

The Florida golf programs have successfully completed the quadruple sweep. The men’s team were crowned Gators invitational champions just a few weeks ago. Senior Ian Gilligan won the individual.

The win by the numbers 📊#GoGators 🐊 | Presented by @WellsFargo pic.twitter.com/pm8Nyy3o1D

— Gators Golf (@GatorsGolf) March 8, 2025

Final Round

The Gators teed off Day 2 one stroke behind first-place Ole Miss. Florida took the lead through the first five holes and never gave it back. The squad didn’t shoot great scores on those holes, making four bogeys. Ole Miss and Virginia, however, scored worse, combining for 12 bogeys on the front five.

UF fell to a one-stroke lead early after the turn. Heavy rain started coming down and remained for most of the final round. When asked if she wished for play to stop or continue, Glaser said:

“I think you definitely want to keep going, mostly as a tournament host, because there’s logistical issues with getting people around the golf course and things like that. But all these girls are high-level athletes. They’ve played in tough weather before, it’s a little bit of a nuisance, but it’s almost how you handle it mentally.”

Who knows the momentum shifts that could have happened if play was suspended? The Gators and the 13 other teams played on.

It was close down the stretch. A trifecta of even holes from sophomore Inès Archer, redshirt sophomore Karoline Tuttle and freshman Siuue Wu between holes 16 – 18 kept Florida stable at the top. A Klonowski birdie on hole 17 was the dagger, securing the top finish, two strokes ahead of the Cavaliers. 

Guiser shot a one-under 69 in her final round. She came into the day down one stroke from the lead. Back-to-back birdies on the first two holes made her job harder. Guiser broke down her final round after the tournament:

“I just tried to stay patient. Especially because I didn’t get off to the best of starts. I bogied two holes pretty early on, so I knew my putting was pretty good the past couple of days. So, I just tried to stay patient, one shot at a time, and knew the ball would eventually go in.”

She stayed patient, and her time came. A clutch three birdies on the last five pushed her ahead of UCF’s Pimpisa Sisutham (-3) by a stroke. 

Our freshman Champ! 🏆💙

Congrats to Jess on her first collegiate win 👏#GoGators 🐊 pic.twitter.com/3ur4bdeh7u

— Gators Golf (@GatorsGolf) March 8, 2025

Guiser on the win:

“It was amazing, especially here at the University of Florida of course. My whole team being here means the world to me. My coaches and all the supporters who came out to watch us.”

Takeaways

This team can make a run. It seems when one player falters, someone’s behind them to carry the weight. Any starter on this roster can be Florida’s top performer in any given tournament. Guiser is a golden example of that. She didn’t qualify this tournament for UF’s starting five, then went on to win the whole thing.

The Gators had six golfers in the top-23. With just one tournament remaining before the SEC Championship, Glaser spoke on the roster’s talent and how she will approach it moving forward:

“I think in some ways it maybe got more complicated. You got a lot of people who played well this week, so we’ll probably do a little more qualifying before the end of the year and see who steps but its nice to know that you’ve got all these players in the tank … who wants it the most.”

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