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Last year, the Florida Gators men’s golf team reached its final destination: The National Championship. Then, they won it. Fred Biondi became only the third Gator ever to win the individual national title, Yuxin Lin earned first team All-SEC honors and four different Gators contributed to six solo victories. Only one player from that group remains.
Coming into the 2024 season, it seemed nearly impossible for head coach J.C. Deacon and the Gators to match the success of the last year. Yet, now headed into the SEC Championships, the Orange and Blue have once again been incredible.
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Roster Turnover
The Gators had four players graduate after their superb 2022-23 season, three of which are former All-SEC first team members. Losing major contributors such as Lin, Biondi and Ricky Castillo, it wasn’t hard to drop expectations for the team. Instead, Deacon has found players to fill the empty roles in different ways.
One of the main fills has come from the transfer portal. Junior Ian Gilligan has proved the portal is not only valuable for sports such as football and baseball. Its been one of the biggest bright spots of this Gator team so far. Transferring from Long Beach State, Gilligan has been named the SEC golfer of the week twice already, was named SwingU college player of the month in February and took home a solo victory at the Southern Highlands Collegiate. He has quickly become possibly the best golfer on this year’s roster, proving to be a huge addition so far.
Youth Impact
The youth from Florida’s roster has also found a way to step up. Besides Gilligan, sophomore Matthew Kress is the only other Gator to have an individual victory on the year. As a redshirt freshman last year, Kress played in 10 tournaments and made the lineup on six occasions. It was at the 2023 SEC Championships where he truly broke out, going undefeated (3-0) with match-clinching victories in the quarterfinals and semifinals. His solo win at the Georgetown Intercollegiate was the first of his young career.
Jack Turner has made an impact on the season, as well. The Freshman from Orlando, Florida, has earned SEC freshman of the week honors twice, with his best finish tied for second at the Georgetown Intercollegiate. He was an American Junior Golf Association All-American in his final year before coming to Florida.
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Though Deacon’s 2023-24 squad has found success in the regular season, matching last years team will be a difficult task. They’ll lean on the many new leaders of the team as they go into postseason play starting Wednesday, heading to St. Simons Island, Georgia, for the SEC Championship. They look to win an SEC title in consecutive years for the first time since winning four in a row from 1990-to-1994.
