UF Men’s Golf Sweeps To Win Sixth Straight Gators Invitational

The Florida men’s golf team pushed through heavy rain and winds Sunday to sweep the 48th Gators Invitational at Mark Bostick Golf Course. It was a shootout, with Florida (-17) narrowly outscoring second-place No. 7 Oklahoma State (-16).

Senior Ian Gilligan closed the door with a par on hole 18 to secure the tournament for the Gators.

Gilligan’s day wasn’t over after regular tournament play. Gilligan finished the tournament shooting an 8-under 202, tied for first in the individual leaderboard with Charlotte golfer Justin Matthews. A playoff ensued to determine a champion. It took two holes for Gilligan to get it done.

It’s Florida’s sixth consecutive Gators Invitational win.

Day One

It was a beautiful day for golf day one of the stroke-play tournament. Florida got out to a hot start, with a collective five birdies on the first four holes of round one.

The Gators stayed consistent the rest of the round, finishing 9-under-par. All five Gators in the lineup finished even or better. Freshman Parker Sands shot a 67 (-3) including five birdies, his best collegiate round.

Round two was much of the same from Florida. 17 birdies and 11 bogies scored the Gators at -6 on the round. Gilligan led Florida with a 3-under performance.

Day one ended with Florida atop the leaderboard at -15, two strokes ahead of second place Oklahoma State.

Day Two

The final day of the Gators Invitational hosted just one round. A round of nail-biting, delays and a photo-finish.

Sophomore Jack Turner shot Florida’s first birdie of the day on hole three, the longest yardage hole at Mark Bostick (578 yards). Round three was also his best of the tournament, shooting 2-under.

While Turner looked good, the rest of the squad couldn’t get things going on the front nine. Florida lost several strokes with five bogeys on holes 4 – 6. Despite three birdies on hole 9 from Turner, Sands and Rylan Shim, Florida fell behind Oklahoma State by three strokes. Preston Stout led the Cowboys with a four-under-par performance in round three.

In a blink of an eye, the Gators recovered with back-to-back birdies from Turner and Gilligan on holes 11 and 12. They sat tied with Oklahoma State through 12. It was back and forth the rest of the way.

An early tee time was scheduled to beat out an impending storm, but it proved to be not early enough. With just two holes remaining for Florida and Oklahoma State, a downpour coupled with 20 mph winds halted play for more than an hour. A clutch birdie on hole 17 from Shim before the delay put the Gators ahead by a stroke.

Oklahoma State knew the stakes. Florida knew the stakes. It was just a matter of time as both teams huddled in the club house to wait out the storm.

When play resumed, it was Poulter on 18 and Gilligan on 17. Poulter pared while the Cowboys faltered, putting the Gators up two. It was up to Florida’s No. 1 golfer to finish the job.

Rain picked back up as fans and players crowded the final hole. Gilligan and OSU’s Filip Fahlberg-Johnsson both made the green in two strokes. Fahlberg-Johnsson birdied. Gilligan had to par to give Florida its sixth straight Gators Invitational win. That he did, knocking in a four-footer to declare Florida the champions.

The Gators had four golfers in the top-10 individual leaderboard. Here’s the team scoring:

https://twitter.com/GatorsGolf/status/1891264842079543606

Individual Playoff

The Gators had won, but Ian Gilligan’s day was not over. At 8-under, he sat tied with Justin Matthews. A sudden death playoff starting at hole 18 began to determine an individual champion.

After tying on the first hole, Gilligan knocked in a par through rain and wind on the second. Fahlberg-Johnsson missed his par by just a few feet, ending the playoff and declaring Gilligan as the individual winner.

It’s Gilligan’s sixth individual title of his collegiate career. More and more eyes are noticing Gilligan in the golf world. As he continues to add to his accolades senior year, in addition to moving to fifth in PGA U ranking two weeks ago, Gilligan is taking his gained recognition in stride:

“Obviously when you’re kind of a bigger name in golf, an amateur or whatever, there’s definitely going to be more eyes on you. I think you can kind of take it two ways, but I think its definitely something that I embrace and excited to just go out and keep proving that I’m one of the best players and obviously want the team to keep getting better because nationals and SECs is obviously are goals as a team and I think we have a great chance. Just gotta keep improving and the focus is to keep getting better and see where it takes us.” — Ian Gillian

Up Next

Florida travels to Las Vegas for the Southern Highlands Collegiate next month. It’s a three-day tournament from starting March 2.