Florida Tees Off SEC Championship Friday

Friday, April 12

Belleair, Fla. / Pelican Golf Club

8:50 a.m. (18 Holes)

Florida Gators

SEC Championship

Florida Tees Off SEC Championship Friday

Thursday, April 11, 2024 | Women's Golf

Live Scoring SEC Tournament Central Watch (Semifinals)Watch (Finals)

The Gators tee off round one at 8:50 a.m. at Pelican Golf Club in Belleair, Florida.

By: Matthew Hutchison

TOURNAMENT INFORMATION
Dates: Friday, April 12 - Tuesday, April 16
Location: Pelican Golf Club - Belleair, Florida
Host: SEC
Course Par/Yardage: 70 / 6,150 yards
Format: 54-hole stroke play (18-18-18) and Match Play (3 matches)
Tee Times: 8:50 a.m. ET on Wednesday and TBA all other days
Live Scoring: Golf Stat
Watch: Semifinals (SECN+) and Finals (SECN)
Social Media: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook

LINEUP
No. 1 - Maisie Filler
No. 2 - Inès Archer
No. 3 - Paula Francisco
No. 4 - Jackie Lucena
No. 5 - Marina Escobar
Alternate - Sophie Stevens

TEE OFF
The No. 15 Florida women's golf team begins the first part of the postseason with the SEC Championship in Belleair, Florida from April 12-16. UF enters as the No. 6 seed and will be paired with Texas A&M and Vanderbilt in round one.

THE FIELD (Top-25 Ranking)
Alabama, Arkansas (No. 9), Auburn (No. 10), Florida (No. 15), Georgia (No. 23), Kentucky, LSU (No. 4), Missouri, Mississippi State, Ole Miss (No. 13), South Carolina (No. 2), Tennessee, Texas A&M (No. 16) and Vanderbilt (No. 20).

TOURNAMENT HISTORY
From 1981 to 1987, Florida women's golf claimed five of seven SEC titles. Also during that reign, the 1983 and 1985 teams each came in second at the conference tournament. The Gators set history and won the first-ever SEC Championship in 1981 in Opelika, Alabama with a team score of 875 as Lynn Connelly won the individual title with a score of 217. UF has also won conference titles in 1991, 1995, 2008 and 2017. The program has had seven individual Southeastern Conference titles.

The Gators have clinched a spot in match play the last two seasons. Florida dropped its quarterfinals match 4-1 vs. Texas A&M last year, who went on to win the SEC title.

In 2022, Gators finished runner-up and made it to finals for the first time since the format addition. The No. 5 seeded Gators knocked off the reigning conference champion and No. 1 seeded Auburn Tigers and the defending national champions, Ole Miss.

STRONG REGULAR SEASON
Florida put together a strong regular season. The Gators finished top-7 in all nine tournaments, including three victories, seven top-5 and six top-3 finishes. UF also ended with a 2-1 match play record with victories over Pepperdine and UCLA.

ROOKIE MOMENTUM
The freshmen duo of Inès Archer and Paula Francisco closed out the regular-season on a high note as the two had the top-2 finishes on the team in the final two tournaments.

Archer recorded a T7-T2, which the latter earned her SEC Freshman of the Week honors, which marked all three members of her signing class (Sophie Stevens and Francisco) earning the weekly conference honor. She had 54-hole score of 213 (-3) and had a career-low round of 67 (-5).

Francisco went T21-T7 and owned a T8 outing in the Gators Invitational (third final tournament) and was named SEC Freshman of the Week for the performance.

LEFT A MARK IN AUGUSTA
Maisie Filler finished T8 at the Augusta National Women's Amateur (ANWA), marking the best finish by a Gator all-time.

Her finish (T8) marked the best since Sierra Brooks T10 performance in 2019. Filler took part in her second appearance at the prestigious event, making the cutting for the first time and entered the day two shots off the lead from eventual champion, Lottie Woad.

Filler started the final round cutting down the lead to one shot behind a birdie on her second hole. She brought the deficit to one stroke multiple times and battled in the final round at Augusta National Golf Club with back-to-back birdies on seven and eight that kept her in reach of the leader. However, a pair of doubles over the next three holes gave way to a final round of 76 (+4) and her T8 finish.

She advanced to the final round for the first time and is the third Gator to achieve so joining Sierra Brooks (2019), Annabell Fuller (2022) and Marta Perez (2019). Last year Filler just missed the cut by one shot.

Filler began with an opening round of 68 (-4) on Wednesday to end T5. She highlighted her round with a hole-out for eagle on hole one. After a bogey on her fourth hole, she went bogey-free the rest of the way and capped off with a birdie. In round two, the senior finished strong again and found her rhythm. She bounced back from a 4-over mark on the front nine with a 3-under back nine, including a stretch of three birdies across holes 14-17 for a final round of 73 (+1).

LAST TIME OUT
The Gators wrapped up the regular season with a runner-up outing Athens at the Liz Muprhey Collegiate Classic.

Florida had the second-lowest round on the final day with a 292 (+4) for a total tournament score of 876 (+12). Auburn (+1) won the event by 11 shots with host Georgia placing third, three shots behind the Gators.

Ines Archer led the lineup with a career-best T2 outing for her third top-10 and fifth top-25 in her first collegiate season. After setting her season-best round with a 67 (-5) in round two, she followed up with a 71 (-1) in the final round for a 54-hole score of 213 (-3). The first-year Gator has recorded back-to-back team-best finishes (T7 at Briar's Creek). Archer averaged 3.93 (-2) on par3s and 4.83 (-2) on par5s.

Another Gator earning a top-10 was Paula Francisco, tying for 7th. The freshman picked up her fourth top-25 of the season. In the last five starts, the Madrid native has finished T28-T8-T21-T7. Francisco tied for fourth in the field with 10 birdies.

Jackie Lucena was steady throughout the weekend for T14 performance for her best finish of the spring season. She made 39 pars and six birdies across her three rounds. The 5th year had rounds of 73-72-74 for a score of 219 (+3).

NO. 1
Florida women's golfer Maisie Filler earned the No. 1 ranked player in the country by the NCAA Rankings on Feb. 21. She held the ranking for two weeks and is currently ranked No. 5.

Ranked No. 2, Filler won her third tournament title of the season on Tuesday at the Moon Golf Invitational, in a field that featured 12 top-25 teams. Currently, her three wins are tied for the most in the nation. She is also the eighth Gator all-time to win three medalist honors in a season with Sierra Brooks being the most recent in 2018.

The victory was Filler's third consecutive in stroke play tournaments as the spring opener was altered to match play only. She went 3-0 in the event with wins against three ranked teams; No. 4 UCLA, No. 8 Texas and No. 20 Pepperdine.

She shot a 54-hole score of 207 (-9) for a three-shot victory. Filler recorded all three rounds (66-69-72) of par or better with an opening round of 66 (-6). Over her 54 holes, she made 35 pars and 14 birdies. She averaged 2.83 on par3s, 3.90 on par4s and 4.67 on par5s.

A native of Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., Filler owns a stroke average of 69.5 and out of 15 total rounds this season, only two have been over par. Outside of her three victories, she has a runner-up finish at the Glass City Invitational.

FALL RECAP
Florida dominated the fall season with three consecutive victories behind back-to-back individual victories from Filler. A combined 25 strokes marked the margin of victory by UF along with 17 individual top-25 finishes. The team victories totaled 31 by head coach Emily Glaser; 32 total as she was an assistant coach for a win in 2011-12 at UF. This is the fifth time under Glaser that Florida has won three events in a season with the last being in 2019-20. It is also the seventh occurrence of multiple victories in a season with Glaser at the helm.

Maisie Filler's fall play earned her two medalist honors and a spot on the ANNIKA Award Watch List and a two-time SEC Golfer of the Week recipient. She currently leads the Gators in nearly every statistical category and ranks second in stroke average in the SEC with a 69.67. She is one of two golfers in the SEC (LSU's Ingrid Lindblad) who has two solo victories this season, which is also tied for second-most in Division I. The senior has finished 1-1-T2 in the last three events and under par for three of the four

STRONG DEBUT
Freshman Sophie Stevens had a collegiate debut to remember as the Highland, Michigan native finished a team-best T15. In her first round she posted a bogey-free 66 (-5) and later added a 69 (-2) in round three to end 5-under overall.

In her second tournament she placed T7 and finishing with a 54-hole score 216 (E) en route to being named SEC Freshman of the Week.

ONE LAST TIME
The duo Marina Escobar and Jackie Lucena returned for their fifth and final collegiate season heading into the 2023-24 campaign. This will be their third season together as Lucena joined the program in 2021 as a transfer from UC Davis.

NEW FACES IN THE ORANGE & BLUE
Five new Gators joined the program this year in Georgia Southern transfer Sarunchana Rattanasin and freshmen Ines Archer, Paula Francisco, Addison Klonowski and Sophie Stevens.

THE TURN
Following the tournament, UF will find out its regional selection on April 24 live on Golf Channel. This year's regional sites include Auburn, Ala., Cle Elum, Wash., College Station, Texas, East Lansing, Mich., Las Vegas, N.V. and Winston-Salem, N.C.