Men's Golf Set to Host SunTrust Gator Invitational
Friday, February 12, 2010 | Men's Golf
After a trip to Arizona to kick of the 2010 spring season, the Florida Gators men's golf team will return to their home course for the 33rd annual SunTrust Gator Invitational. The event has been held annually since 1978 at Mark Bostick Golf Course on the campus of University of Florida.
“This year's Gator Invitational is a lot like our past tournaments,” said head coach Buddy Alexander. “We don't have a lot of top-10 teams, although Florida State is ranked fifth and we're ranked third so we have a nice little rivalry going on there. I know they'd like nothing more than to come to Gainesville and put an end to our six-year winning streak. Our kids are working hard and preparing and we're hoping to come out this year with another win.”
Florida has won the event 23 times, including six in a row entering this year's tournament. Augusta State, Georgia and LSU have each won the event twice while Florida State and Georgia Southern are the only other schools to claim the title. Florida has had 11 individuals win the event. Camilo Benedetti holds the tournament record with his 14-under par 196 in 2001 when he won the event. Florida also set the team tournament record in 2001, finishing at 30-under par 810.
Florida is coming off a fourth place finish at the Arizona Invitational on Feb. 1 & 2 where senior and Arizona-native Tim McKenney (Scottsdale, Ariz.) led the charge for UF, finishing in a tie for sixth place. Freshman Tommy Mou (Bradenton, Fla.) earned a top-15 finish, landing in a tie for 11th in his first collegiate tournament. Securing top-20 finishes were senior Tyson Alexander (Gainesville, Fla.) and redshirt junior Andres Echavarria (Medellin, Colombia), who both tied for 16th place. Florida has finished in the top-five in three of their four tournaments in 2009-10 and has not placed lower than sixth all season.
“Although we haven't won at all this year, we've been extremely consistent all year long and I'm real proud of that,” Alexander said. “Coming into the season we had a lot of unknowns. We had three seniors who participated in our top-five last year, including one of the best players in the nation in Billy Horschel. We played well and have had a good start to the spring so hopefully we can put it all together and get our first win of the year at the Gator Invitational.”
The No. 4 Gators enter the Gator Invitational as the highest-ranked team in the tournament field according to Golfweek's rankings. No. 9 Florida State is the only other team participating that is ranked in the top 20. North Florida (27), Duke (31), LSU (33) and Chattanooga (41) are all featured in the top-50. The Mark Bostick Golf Course will serve as familiar territory for all but one team participating this weekend. Lamar is the only team of the tournament field that did not compete in the 2009 event. Wake Forest competed in 2009 and will not be making a return appearance.
Florida will have eight golfers participating in the tournament this weekend. McKenney, Echavarria, Alexander will join freshman Phillip Choi (Orlando, Fla.) and junior Bank Vongvanij (Bradenton, Fla.) in the Gators' lineup. Mou, freshman Tyler McCumber (Ponte Vedra, Fla.) and senior Robbie Wight (Palm Beach, Fla.) will compete as individuals.
The tournament is open to the public and admission is free. The first round tees of at 8 a.m. on Saturday with a shotgun start and Sunday's third and final round has teams teeing off between 8 a.m. and 10:06 a.m. from the first and tenth tees. Please visit www.GatorZone.com for updated tournament information and go to www.golfstat.com to follow the tournament live.
Florida Lineup
| Player | Class | Stroke Average |
| 1. Tim McKenney | Sr. | 73.2 |
| 2. Andres Echavarria | RJr. | 71.5 |
| 3. Tyson Alexander | Sr. | 72.4 |
| 4. Phillip Choi | Fr. | 72.8 |
| 5. Bank Vongvanij | Jr. | 72.2 |
| Tyler McCumber* | Fr. | 74.3 |
| Tommy Mo* | Fr. | 69.7 |
| Robbie Wight* | Sr. | 77.3 |
* competing as individual
Tournament Field (Golfweek/Sagarin rating)
Chattanooga (41)
Coastal Carolina (55)
Duke (31)
Florida (4)
Florida State (9)
Georgia Southern (80)
Georgia State (119)
Lamar (82)
LSU (33)
Mississippi State (134)
Ole Miss (61)
UAB (129)
UCF (64)
UNF (27)
-UF-
