Gators Card 21 Birdies In First Round of Schenkel

Friday, March 17

Statesboro, GA

All Day

Florida Gators

Schenkel Invitational

Freshman Andy Zhang carded six birdies in his first nine holes on Friday.

Gators Card 21 Birdies In First Round of Schenkel

Friday, March 17, 2017 | Men's Golf

By: Turner F. Street

STATESBORO, Ga. – The Florida's men's golf team took Forest Heights Golf Club by storm Friday in the first round of the Schenkel Invitational, carding 21 birdies on the day en route to a 282 (-6). The score puts the Gators in fifth place at the end of day one.
Andy Zhang dominated the front nine, notching six birdies. The freshman would finish with a 71 (-1) and in a tie for 21^st. After a four-birdie day, sophomore Gordon Neale also finished at one-under.
Sam Horsfield picked up his first eagle of the year on the fourth hole. After shooting a four-under 68, the sophomore is in a tie for fourth.
College of Charleston tops the team leaderboard after shooting a 279 (-9) in the first round. Lipscomb's Dawson Armstrong leads the individual scores, carding a 66 (-6) on day one.

The Gators are back in action tomorrow at the Schenkel Invitational in Statesboro, Georgia, for round two at 9:45 a.m.

Head Coach J.C. Deacon
On his team's performance during the first day:
"We made the birdies required to post a good team score, but we just had way too many mistakes. There were a lot of three-putts, a lot of missed shots that were pretty easy. Not a great day, we need to be better tomorrow, but we're close. We're hitting a lot of greens in regulation which is a very important stat and I know the guys are going to start putting well. They are great putters, we know how to do it, they just have to go out and execute tomorrow."

On Andy Zhang's performance:
"It was awesome. When somebody makes that many birdies in a short span, you know that they're playing some great golf. He's such a talented and exciting player. Once he can clean up the mistakes around it, the low round is coming, hopefully tomorrow, we need it."

On what the team has to do tomorrow to do well:
"We're going to work on our short putting after the round today and get a little bit of work in. They have the skill to do it, they've just got to go out there and execute it. I feel pretty good. We're right where we need to be. One good round tomorrow and we'll be right in the hunt, right where we need to be.

Rd. 1 Florida Scores
Team:

Place	Team	Score	Round 1
1	College of Charleston	-9	279
2	Georgia Southern	-8	280
T3	Iowa	-7	281
T3	Lipscomb	-7	281
5	FLORIDA	-6	282
T6	Vanderbilt	-5	283
T6	UAB	-5	283
T8	ETSU	-4	284
T8	Jacksonville	-4	284
10	NC State	-2	286
11	North Florida	+2	290
12	Kentucky	+5	293
13	Notre Dame	+9	297
14	Kansas State	+16	304

Players:

Place	Player	Score	Round 1
T4.	Sam Horsfield	-4	68
T21.	Andy Zhang	-1	71
T21.	Gordon Neale	-1	71
T29.	Ryan Orr	E	72
T46.	Ryan Celano	+2	74
T70.	A.J. Crouch*	+6	78

* = Playing as an individual

Full Leaderboard

Follow the Gators: Live scoring is available for this tournament on Golfstat.com.

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