Gators Gear Up for Southern Highlands Collegiate

Sunday, February 27

Las Vegas / Southern Highlands Golf Club

12:50 p.m. (18 Holes)

Florida Gators

Southern Highlands Collegiate

Ryan Hart holds the flag stick after setting a career low tournament score at the 45th VyStar Gators Invitational.

Gators Gear Up for Southern Highlands Collegiate

Friday, February 25, 2022 | Men's Golf

Live Stats

Seven of the top-25 teams make up the filed with round one starting at 12 p.m. ET on Sunday.

By: Matthew Hutchison

TOURNAMENT INFORMATION
Dates: Sunday, February 27 - Tuesday, March 1
Location: Southern Highlands Golf Club - Las Vegas
Host: University of Nevada-Las Vegas
Course Par/Yardage: 72 / 7,510 yards
Format: 54-hole strokeplay (18-18-18)
Tee Times: 12:50 p.m. ET on Sunday and TBD on Monday and Tuesday
Live Scoring: Golf Stat
Social Media: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook

TEE OFF
The Florida men's golf team heads out west to the Southern Highlands Collegiate for the third tournament of the spring from February 27 to March 1.

FLORIDA LINE UP
No. 1 - Ricky Castillo
No. 2 - Fred Biondi
No. 3 - Yuxin Lin
No. 4 - John DuBois
No. 5 - Quentin Debove
Indv. - Giovanni Manzoni

THE FIELD (Golfstat / Golfweek Top-25)
No. 24/18 Florida, No. 9/10 Georgia, No. 12/13 Georgia Tech, No. 19/21 Illinois, New Mexico, Northwestern, No. 1/2 Oklahoma, No. 5/4 Pepperdine, San Diego, SMU, Southern California, TCU, No. 15/19 Texas, UCLA and UNLV (host).

PGA TOUR EXEMPTION:
For the second time, the individual champion of the invite will receive an exemption into the Shriners Hospitals for Children Openn. The PGA Tour event takes place Oct. 6-9, 2022, at TPC Summerlin in Las Vegas.

TOURNAMENT HISTORY
The Gators will make their 19th appearance all-time in the tournament as they won in their debut in the fall of 1992. Florida claimed the title again in 2018 and won by four strokes to finish 5-under. The last appearance came in 2020 with a four-place finish.

LAST TIME OUT
Florida defended its home course and won the 45th VyStar Gators Invitational by 12 strokes over No. 3 Oklahoma State behind Fred Biondi, who finished 14-under at 196 to tie the tournament record and claim his first collegiate medalist honor. The Gators won the event for the 28th time in program history and third straight.

The back-to-back victories to start the spring season marked the second year in a row the Gators have done so. UF has won back-to-back tournaments in a season five times under head coach J.C. Deacon.

WEEKLY SPOTLIGHT
After a career outing in the spring opener, John DuBois was named the first SEC Men's Golfer of the Week. Florida laid claim to the weekly honor again as Fred Biondi was tabbed the award after his victory at the Vystar Gators Invitational.

Biondi was selected as the Golfweek Player of the Week for his performance along with Florida named the Golfweek Team of the Week.

GATOR GREAT COACHES
In the fall, head coach J.C. Deacon announced the addition of Dudley Hart as the next assistant coach. The Gator Great spent the last four seasons as the volunteer assistant coach. He was four-time All American, the 1987 SEC Freshman of the Year and a two-time PGA Tour winner.

To start the spring, Deacon again took the program to another level with the addition of Gator Great and former FedEx Cup Champion, Billy Horschel, as a volunteer assistant coach. He was a four-year (2006-09) member of the Gator golf team, three-time (2006-07, 2009) first-team All-American and two-time (2007 & 2009) SEC Player of the Year with over 282 professional outings.

OFF-SEASON HIGHLIGHTS
Fred Biondi rode the momentum into the off-season and finished tied for runner-up at the 2022 Latin Ameria Amateur Championship (LAAC). In his fourth consecutive appearance at the tournament, his 65 (-7) in round three on moving day tied the tournament course record and moved him into second on the final day, jumping 14 spots. With the performance, Biondi will be exempt into the final stages of qualifying for The Open and the U.S. Open Championship.

Concluding his 2021 strong, Quentin Debove had a runner-up finish at the Dixie Amateur and T3 outing at the Sunshine State Am. Freshman Matthew Kress started the new year with a 5-under top-15 placement in the Saguaro Am Series and a trio of Gators had rounds in the 60's to make the cut at the South Beach Am in John DuBois (67), Biondi (68) and Tyler Wilkes (69).

Both Joe Pagdin and Wilkes got to compete in marque tournaments as Pagdin represented Team England at The Spirit and Wilkes competed in the Patriot All-America, honoring fallen heroes.

PRESEASON RANKINGS & RECOGNITION
The Gators earned preseason recognition and were selected 8th in the Golf Channel/Golf Weekly and T17th by GCAA Preseason Polls. Ricky Castillo was 4th overall in the Top 30 Preseason Players by Golf Channel/Golf Weekly.

NEW GATORS
The Florida men's golf team added two new faces this season in Miguel Leal (Guatemala City, Guatemala) and Matthew Kress (Saratoga, Calif.) Leal won the 2020 Billy Horschel Junior Championship and was a two-time winner (2019-20) of the Central American Junior Tournament. Kress attended Bellarmine College Prep and shot 11-under par to win the FCG Encinitas Junior Championship. He was a 2018 First Team All-League WCAL and helped his school win the 2018 WCAL Championships.

THE TURN
Two tournaments - Linger Longer (March 20-22) and the Calusa Cup (April 3-5) - remain before the SEC Championship at St. Simons Island from April 19-24.