Florida Gators

ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. - The No. 8 Florida men's golf team advanced to match play for the fourth consecutive season behind their season-low round (270) at the SEC Championship on Friday at Sea Island Golf Club.
 
Florida carded the second-lowest round of the day with Auburn at 10-under 270 as the Gators finished with a final 54-hole score of 16-under 824. The 824 score is the program's lowest all-time score at the SEC Championship in the current stroke play format, which began in 1979 in four count five as the previous record was 828 set in 2006 and 2022. Florida's 270 was a season-low and the -16 mark was the third time shooting -16 or better - the season-low was -21 at the Schenekl Invitational. 
 
The Gators earn the No. 5-seed and take on No. 4 Oklahoma in the quarterfinals at 7:30 a.m. off hole No. 10 with the winner facing the victor of No. 1 Auburn vs. No. 8 Texas in the semifinals at approximately 1 p.m. Coverage of the semifinals begins at 3:30 p.m. ET on ESPN+/SECN+.
 
Florida faces the conference newcomer, Sooners for the first-time ever in match play, they are currently ranked No. 6 in the NCAA. UF is 7-4 all-time in match play at the conference tournament, the seven wins are tied third-most in the conference with Texas A&M, who has reached match play every year. Vanderbilt is first with 13 and Auburn second at 8. Florida advances to match play for the sixth time in eight total opportunities since the format was added in 2017, the six match play berths are tied for third-most in the conference.

The Orange and Blue lineup features three Gators that have played conference tournament match play - Matthew Kress (3-1), Jack Turner (1-0) and Ian Gilligan (1-0). Both Luke Poulter and Zack Swanwick will make their debuts as Poulter is 2-0 and Swanwick 1-2 in colleigate match play. 
 
On the other side of the bracket, No. 2 LSU takes on No. 7 Alabama and No. 3 Texas A&M vs. No. 6 Georgia. The conference finals are scheduled for Sunday at 8 a.m. with live coverage on SEC Network with Gator Great and a member of the first-ever Florida National Championship team (1968), Steve Melnyk on the broadcast.
 
Florida entered the day in 6th at 6-under and five-shot lead of the match play cut in front of Alabama and Arkansas, who both entered at 1-under.
 
Across the last four seasons, the match play cut score or 8th place score has improved every season as in 2021 it was +16, 2022 at +4, 2023 with +1, last season (2024) at 2-under then this year at 6-under. The first three years of the match play cut (2017-19) it was +12 in the inaugural season, +11 in 2018 and +16 in 2019 – no tournament in 2020 due to COVID.
 
Entering today's final round of stroke play, seven teams will compete for the final four advancing spots as the biggest difference is Georgia (-7) and Texas (+1) as the Longhorns had a 5-under day two to move up three spots. Currently Mississippi State and South Carolina are tied for 7th, controlling the cut line at -5 as rest of the teams scheduled to battle for the final match play spots, include Alabama (-1) and Arkansas (-1).
 
Playing in his 30th career postseason round, Matthew Kress started off with a birdie on his first hole, the par4 10th - UF teed off the back nine for third consecutive day. Freshman Zack Swanwick also made birdie to start and Florida was 2-under for an early seven-shot lead into the match play cut as teams below were waiting to tee off.
 
Swanwick added his second straight birdie on the 11th to finish with five in his third round en route to second straight under par round with a 2-under 68. He ended 3-under through 54-holes and T22.
 
Florida reached the 10-under mark behind Luke Poulter's birdie-birdie stretch on 12 & 13 to position the Gators ahead of UGA for the rest of the day once all five UF golfers were underway in round three.
 
UF started low and through the first 2-5 holes completed, they were 6-under and three shots back of 4th place Oklahoma with an 11-shot lead inside the match play cut; the biggest cushion the Gators had was 14-shots multiple times as they ended 12-shots clear of the cut.
 
Postseason newcomers Poulter and Swanwick began the turn for the lineup bogey-free and 2-under each with a pair of back-to-back birdies. Poulter bounced back from his second 18-holes of 76 (+6) yesterday with bogey-free 2-under 68.
 
They were followed by the postseason veterans, Jack Turner and Ian Gilligan, who mirrored each other with birdies on the 11th and 18th, and were bogey-free in their first nine, putting Florida 9-under making the turn. Turner finished with his fifth under par round in six total rounds at the conference tournament with a 1-under 69. The sophomore is 10-under through 108 holes at SECs. He secured a T16 outing and has placed T23 better in all four postseason appearances - T2 at SECs, T16 at Regionals & T23 at NCAAs.
 
Ranked No. 3 in PGA Tour U and No. 5 in WAGR, Gilligan continued his impressive senior season with back-to-back birdies on 2 & 3 which moved him to three shots back of the solo lead before sitting one back with his birdie on five. He almost moved himself tied for the lead on the next hole (sixth), but his birdie putt just went an inch to the left. Gilligan made his 13th birdie of the stroke play on the seventh to log four birdies in a six-hole stretch.
 
He was two shots back at that point as Drew Goodman (Oklahoma) and Jackson Koivun (Auburn) pulled ahead at 11-under heading to the 18th as Koivun made birdie to win the SEC Individual Title in back-to-back seasons, the fifth player ever to accomplish the feat in the conference joining Gator Greats - Tommy Aaron (1957-58), Phil Hancock (1975-76) and Gary Koch (1973-74).
 
Gilligan finished with a final round of 5-under 65 for a 54-hole score of 8-under 202 to finish solo 7th for his 23rd career top-10 in addition to 70 career under par rounds. The performance is his fifth top-25 and fourth top-10 in the postseason.

Team Leaderboard
 

Place	Team	Rd. 1	Rd. 2	Rd. 3	Score	Par
1	Auburn	264	270	268	802	-38
2	LSU	271	263	277	811	-29
3	Texas A&M	271	274	272	817	-23
4	Oklahoma	274	268	277	819	-21
5	Florida	275	279	270	824	-16
6	Georgia	276	277	276	829	-11
T7	Alabama	279	280	275	834	-6
T7	Texas	286	275	273	834	-6
Top-8 Match Play Cut
9	South Carolina	277	278	281	836	-4
10	Ole Miss	281	283	274	838	-2
11	Arkansas	281	278	280	839	-1
12	Mississippi State	279	276	286	841	+1
13	Vanderbilt	292	275	277	844	+4
14	Tennessee	286	285	278	849	+9
15	Kentucky	281	295	286	862	+22
16	Missouri	283	292	291	866	+26

Florida Player Leaderboard

Place	Name	Rd. 1	Rd. 2	Rd. 3	Score	Par
7	Ian Gilligan	66	71	65	202	-8
T16	Jack Turner	69	68	69	206	-4
T22	Zack Swanwick	71	68	68	207	-3
T51	Matthew Kress	70	72	71	213	+3
T57	Luke Poulter	70	76	68	214	+4

Quarterfinals vs. Oklahoma 
7:30 a.m. | Luke Poulter vs. Matthew Troutman
7:40 a.m. | Ian Gilligan vs. Clark Van Gaalen
7:50 a.m. | Zack Swanwick vs. Ryder Cowan
8 a.m. | Jack Turner vs. Drew Goodman 
8:10 a.m. | Matthew Kress vs. Jase Summy