Florida Gators

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – After coming back from a seven-stroke deficit at the end of the second round, the Florida Gators men's golf team fell to No. 3 Vanderbilt by one stroke on the final hole to take home second in the Florida Gators Invitational.
 
Florida finished the second round Saturday night in fourth place, seven strokes off Vanderbilt, who led the field. After the first nine holes of the final round Sunday morning, Florida had improved to 9-under-par and sat in first place, three strokes ahead of Vanderbilt, who is the defending champions of the Gator.
 
Some bogey trouble on the back nine had the Gators finishing on par. Vanderbilt had some bogey trouble of its own and, with Florida done for the day, the Commodores sat tied for first with the Gators with three holes left to play. A birdie and three pars on the final hole gave Vanderbilt the one-stroke advantage over Florida to take home the team and individual title.
 
Florida had three players and two individuals finish inside the top 20, with sophomore John Axelsen having the highest finish at tied for fourth. Freshman Aden Ye finished tied for tenth while competing as an individual and freshman Eugene Hong finished tied for twelfth as a part of the team total.
 
Coach's Take
"It was really, really close today. I knew we were close to a big performance and today was obviously better. But were just not quite there yet. There's so many positives. Eugene's birdies on the last two holes was unbelievable. John getting to four under through 11, those are the things we need to see and they'll finish it out, they will. They work hard and want it bad enough, they'll figure it out a way to get it done. We're getting better." – Head coach JC Deacon
 
On Eugene Hong's steady performance
"This kid's amazing, he does everything we ask and he does everything right. He works so hard, day in and day out, gets up early, stays late, it's amazing. When the big moments come, like today, down the stretch, the last three holes on the line, the kid birdies two out of three, the last two holes. That's what he does, he's got that IT factor. When the moments big that guy plays his best golf and someone like that on our team is really valuable. I think his best is coming soon and we're really lucky to have him." – Coach Deacon
 
Final scores
Teams

1	Vanderbilt	839	-1
2	Florida	840	E
3	Liberty	842	+2
T4	North Florida	846	+6
T4	South Florida	846	+6
6	Missouri	857	+17
7	UCF	859	+19
8	West Virginia	861	+21
9	Coastal Carolina	862	+22
10	Mississippi State	867	+27
11	Michigan	868	+28
12	Georgia Southern	871	+31
13	Jacksonville	875	+35
14	Princeton	883	+43
15	Southern Illinois	886	+46

 
Florida Players
T4 John Axelsen                (-3) 207
T12 Eugene Hong             (E) 210
T18 Manuel Girona          (+2) 212
T30 Chris Nido                   (+5) 215
T40 Gordon Neale            (+7) 217
 
Also Competing
T10 Aden Ye                       (-1) 209
T18 Ryan Celano               (+2) 212
T55 Robby Eisch                (+11) 221
T63 Blake Dyer                  (+13) 223
 
Next up
The Gators will be back in action March 3-5 at home at the Southern Highlands Invitational in Las Vegas, Nevada.