Nashville, Tenn. – The University of Florida women’s golf team played above and beyond the national rankings as it wrapped up the final round of competition Sunday at the season-opening Mason Rudolph Women’s Championship hosted by Vanderbilt. The Lady Gators finished fifth in a deep 17-team field and were led once again by true freshman Jessica Yadloczky (Casselberry, Fla.) as she finished with the squad’s best score for the second straight day.
The Mason Rudolph is arguably the nation’s toughest event other than the NCAA Championships with nine of the top-10 ranked teams in attendance. The Lady Gators proved to be unfazed by the No. 13 rating they received in Golfweek’s Preseason Top 30 released earlier in the month. Florida finished ahead of No. 3 USC, No. 5 Auburn, No. 7 Purdue, No. 8 Vanderbilt and No. 9 Arizona in the top 10. UF carded a team score of
292 to finish with a three-round total of 876 (+12).
“We have to continue what we’re doing and we’ll continue to progress like we want to,” head coach Jill Briles-Hinton said. “We’ll probably move up a little in the rankings but not too much. This was a nice first step to getting to where we want to be as a team.”
Yadloczky’s rapid progession continued as she finished with three birdies on the back nine for a career-low 70. After shooting an initial round of 75 on Friday, she battled swirling winds and adverse weather in Saturday’s second-round action to drop two shots off her score on Saturday and knocked off three more strokes to finish two-under par in the final round. The AJGA All-American reflected on her first career event as she recorded her first top-20 finish by placing 18th.
“In the first round I went out and just tried to hit fairways and greens and tried to get comfortable,” Yadloczky said. “The day before the practice round I was able to learn the breaks and get a feel for the speed. I kept putting better each day and went to 35 to 29 and to 25 putts. I’m still not hitting my irons as well as I would like to but I’m putting really well and getting up and down from great places. Being around my teammates has boosted my confidence and kept me going.”
Two-time All-American Sandra Gal (Leichlingen, Germany), broke even on the day with four birdies and four bogeys for a tally of 72. Gal recorded the team’s best finish by finishing 14th and was just one stroke away from her 15th career top-10 performance.
Tiffany Chudy (Miramar, Fla.) equaled her second-round total, wrapping up with a 74. Chudy started and ended the day tied for 36th. Fellow seniors Whitney Myers (East Berlin, Pa.) and Eleanor Tucker (Wilson, N. C.) each shot a 76 and ended up tied for 31st and 61st, respectively.
Up next on the slate for Florida is the Lady Wildcat Invitational Sept.
29-Oct. 1 hosted by the University of Kentucky.
Florida Results T14 – Sandra Gal (69-76-72—217) T18 – Jessica Yadloczky (75-73-70—218) T31 – Whitney Myers (70-76-76—222) T36 – Tiffany Chudy (75-74-74—223) T61 – Eleanor Tucker (71-82-76—229)
Team Scoring
1 – UCLA (281-283-287—851)
2 – Arizona State (280-293-292—865)
3 – Duke (284-292-290—866)
4 – Oklahoma State (292-292-287—871)
5 – Florida (285-299-292—876) T6 – USC (291-295-291—877) T6 – Arizona (283-301-288—877) T6 – Auburn (288-301-288—877)
9 – Georgia (291-299-290—880)
10 – Purdue (294-296-300—890)
11 – Wake Forest (291-306-296—893)
12 – Stanford (293-302-299—894)
13 – Vanderbilt (301-301-299—901) T14 – South Carolina (294-311-300—905) T14 – Kentucky (290-306-309—905)
16 – LSU (293-308-306—907)
17 – Ohio State (295-317-301-913)/article/swamp_overwhelms_davon_johnson/2280