ATLANTA – The Florida men’s golf team ended a disappointing 13th in the 15-team field as the United States Collegiate Championship, hosted by Georgia Tech, concluded Tuesday at The Golf Club of Georgia’s Lakeside Course.
Florida never recovered from a disastrous second round (314) in harsh weather conditions Monday. Junior Tyson Alexander shot a 2-under 70 Tuesday to lead Florida’s 299 effort, which left the Gators with a three-round total of 909, 33 shots behind tournament champion Clemson, which played the final round in 284 and finished at 11-over-par 876.
Alabama’s Bud Cauley and UCLA’s Erik Flores shared medalist honors at 4-under-par 212. Both shot 73s.
“Obviously this was not a great week for us,” Florida coach Buddy Alexander said. “Tyson did a nice job of battling today. He was 3-over par after three holes and shot 2-under par for the round, so I’m proud of that.”
Senior Billy Horschel of Grant was Florida’s top finisher in a tie for 19th at 6-over par 222. Alexander ended in a tie for 28th at 8-over par 224 after overcoming a bogey-par-double bogey start with five birdies. Senior Toby Ragland of Jacksonville shot a 2-over 74 for a three-day total of 232 that left him tied for 64th.
Junior Tim McKenney of Scottsdale, Ariz., finished tied for 68th after shooting 80—233. Sophomore Andres Echavarria of Colombia (Medellin, Colombia) tied for 77th at 247 with a closing 86.
“This is not exactly what we were hoping for as we’re getting ready to go play in the conference championship,” coach Alexander said. “But sometimes these can be wakeup calls for you. Maybe we’ll switch the lineup a little bit and have something positive happen from this. We’ve got about 10 days to get it figured out and get on the right trail for the SEC Championship.”
The SEC Championship will be held at Frederica Golf Club in St. Simons Island, Ga., April 17-19.
U.S. COLLEGIATE CHAMPIONSHIP
ATLANTA – Results after Tuesday’s final round of the United States Collegiate Championship, hosted by the Georgia Tech men’s golf team at the par-72, 7,017-yard Lakeside Course at The Golf Club of Georgia:
Team scores: 1. Clemson 876 (283-309-284); 2. Stanford 878 (289-290-299); 3. Georgia Tech 881 (291-302-288); 4. Georgia 883 (295-292-296); T5. Alabama 886 (291-301-294) and Texas A&M 886 (296-287-303); T7. UCLA 887 (284-305-298) and Washington 887 (287-298-302); 9. Southern California 888 (285-308-295); 10. Oklahoma State 895 (289-305-301); 11. South Carolina 897 (291-303-303); 12. East Tennessee State 906 (306-303-297); 13. Florida 909 (296-314-299); 14. Indiana 910 (303-297-310); 15. Florida State 915 (302-309-304).
Individuals: T1. Bud Cauley (Alabama) 212 (70-69-73) and Erik Flores (UCLA) 212 (65-74-73); 3. David Chung (Stanford) 214 (75-66-73); T4. John Tyler Griffin (Georgia Tech) 216 (72-74-70) and Steve Ziegler (Stanford) 216 (70-71-75); 6. Brian Harman (Georgia) 217 (75-71-71); T7. Brooks Koepka (Florida State) 218 (70-74-74) and Geoff Shaw (Texas A&M) 218 (73-73-72); T9. Rhys Enoch (East Tennessee State) 219 (75-73-71) and Kyle Stanley (Clemson) 219 (69-79-71); T11. Jorge Campillo (Indiana) 220 (76-73-71), Matthew Giles (Southern California) 220 (67-77-76), Chesson Hadley (Georgia Tech) 220 (73-75-72), Ben Martin (Clemson) 220 (73-74-73), David May (Clemson) 220 (67-75-78) and Adam Mitchell (Georgia) 220 (74-71-75).
Florida scores: T19. Billy Horschel 222 (70-77-75); T28. Tyson Alexander 224 (74-80-70); T64. Toby Ragland 232 (78-80-74); T68. Tim McKenney 233 (76-77-80); T77. Andres Echavarria 247 (76-85-86).