CHICAGO — Buddy Alexander takes his revamped Florida men’s golf team to Chicago’s famous Olympia Fields Country Club Friday through Sunday to compete in the Olympia Fields Invitational, hosted by the University of Illinois.
Seniors Andres Echavarria (Medellin, Colombia) and Bank Vongvanij (Bradenton) lead the Gators’ new lineup that also includes sophomore holders Tyler McCumber (Ponte Vedra) and Phillip Choi (Orlando). The fifth member of the team is junior transfer Michael Furci (Sayville, N.Y.) who played collegiately in Chicago at DePaul University before transferring.
The 15-team field includes nine teams that advanced to the NCAA Championship field last year – the Gators, champion Augusta State, runner-up Oklahoma State, semifinalist Florida State, Top-10 teams Stanford and Arizona, California, Duke and Illinois. Those schools are well represented in this year’s Golf World Preseason Top 25: Oklahoma State (1), Stanford (2), Augusta State (3), Florida (8), Texas (11), Arizona State (12), Florida State (13), Alabama (15), Illinois (16) and Duke (18).
Echavarria, who finished third individually last season, is one of 13 individuals from Golfweek’s Preseason Top 30 in the field. Florida will be seeking to improve on last season’s sixth-place finish behind Arizona State, Oklahoma State, Texas, Stanford and Florida State.