Men's Golf No. 3 In Preseason Ranking
Thursday, September 4, 2003 | Men's Golf
The University of Florida men's golf team was ranked No. 3 in Golfweek's 2003-04 preseason rankings, while senior Camilo Villegas (Medellin, Colombia) was selected as a preseason first team All-American.
The Gators, who earned the program's 16th top-five finish at the NCAA Championships last season by tying for fourth, were ranked behind defending national champion Clemson (No. 1) and UCLA (No. 2). Florida returns eight players from last season's SEC Championship team, including sophomore All-Americans Matt Every (Daytona Beach, Fla.) and James Vargas (Miami, Fla.) and sophomore SEC individual champion Brett Stegmaier (Madison, Conn.).
"It's flattering that we're ranked in the top three," said Gator head coach Buddy Alexander, who begins his 17th season at Florida. "We do have a lot of players returning and I think that's probably about where we should be. We feel like we have a good chance to be a very competitive team this year."
A three-time All-American, Villegas was ranked as the fourth-best player in the country by Golfweek and will look to join Gary Koch, Dudley Hart and David Jackson as the only four-time All-Americans in Florida history. Villegas also enters his senior campaign with the best career stroke average in Gator history.
"There's no question Camilo is one of the best players in the country," Alexander said. "He'd certainly be on my list as one of the top 10 players in the nation."
Florida was ranked the highest of the six SEC schools in Golfweek's top 30 and was joined by Georgia (No. 5), Arkansas (No. 15), Auburn (No. 21), South Carolina (No. 23) and Tennessee (No. 25).
The Gators open the 2003-04 season at the Bank of Tennessee on Sept. 13-14 at The Ridges Golf and Country Club.
