Men's Golf Finishes Second At Gator Invitational

The No. 5 University of Florida men's golf team finished second in its home event Sunday in the 2003 SunTrust Gator Invitational at the University Golf Course. The Gators finished with an 872 (+32) three-round total, just three strokes behind tournament champion, No. 2 Augusta State at +29 (869).

The finish marked the 15th straight year and 20 out of the last 21 years that UF has finished in the top two of the standings of its tournament. Florida finished in a tie for second place last season. The second place finish this season also marked the first time since the 1981-82 seasons that UF failed to win the tournament title in back-to-back years.

"My kids battled hard today," Gator Head Coach Buddy Alexander said. "The weather and a six-shot deficit were looking them right in the face, but they battled and I'm happy about that. There are some positives that we can take out of this and our lineup is starting to take shape."

Florida's highest finisher was senior Ari Savolainen (Helsinki, Finland), who competed as an individual. Savolainen recorded the highest finish of his Florida career, as he took third with a three-over-par 213. The highest finish for Savolainen prior to this season was a tie for fifth place at the 2002 Schenkel E-Z-GO Invitational. Savolainen fired a one-over 71 in the final day after shooting a +2 (72) in the first round and an even-par (70) in the second 18 holes Saturday afternoon.

The highest Gator finisher that did count towards UF's score was freshman James Vargas (Miami, Fla.), who finished fourth for the second straight stroke-play tournament with a +5 (215). Vargas also finished fourth at the Gary Koch Invitational in October, as he carded a five-under par 139 in the weather-shortened two round tournament. Vargas shot his second round of +2 (72) in the tournament's final day.

Fellow freshman Brett Stegmaier (Madison, Conn.) was Florida's other top-10 finisher, as he finished tied for ninth at 218 (+8). Stegmaier, who recorded his second top-10 finish of the season, fired a seven-over 77 during the last 18 holes. Senior Jordan Code (Tampa, Fla.) finished tied for 12th with a total of 219 (+9).

Junior Camilo Villegas (Medellin, Colombia) made a jump of 22 places from the first to the second day of the tournament, as he finished tied for 17th with a +11 (221). Villegas shot a one-over 71 on Sunday, after finishing tied for 39th after the first 36 holes. Senior Dalton Melnyk (Jacksonville, Fla.) finished in a tie for 46th with a +18 228 in the last home tournament of his career.

Big Ten school Purdue finished third, 10 strokes back of the Gators with an 882 (+42). College of Charleston finished in fourth at +45 (885), while Vanderbilt and Georgia Southern finished in a tie for fifth at +50 (890). LSU, last year's team champion, finished 12th with a +62 (902).

UF will be back in action Feb. 17-18, as the Gators look to win their fifth straight team title at the Mercedes Benz Collegiate in Ponte Vedra, Fla.

Final Team Standings
Fin	Team	Rnd1	Rnd 2	Rnd3	Total	+/-
1	Augusta State U.	280	291	298	869	+29
2	Florida, U. of	296	281	295	872	+32
3	Purdue University	283	297	302	882	+42
4	Charleston, Coll. of	293	292	300	885	+45
5	Vanderbilt Univ.	291	301	298	890	+50
	Georgia Southern U.	288	291	311	890	+50
7	Georgia State Univ.	304	277	310	891	+51
8	Alabama, U. of	301	296	296	893	+53
9	UAB	305	288	303	896	+56
10	Florida State Univ.	299	293	305	897	+57
11	Kentucky, U. of	298	287	316	901	+61
12	Louisiana State U.	294	288	320	902	+62
13	Ohio State Univ.	303	312	299	914	+74
14	North Florida, U. of	299	306	319	924	+84
15	So. Florida, U. of	315	300	320	935	+95

Individual Results
Fin	Name	School	Rnd1	Rnd2	Rnd3	Total	+/-
1	Oliver Wilson	Augusta St	67	70	73	210	E
2	Brandt Snedeker	Vanderbilt	69	73	69	211	+1
3	*Ari Savolainen	Florida	71	70	72	213	+3
4	James Vargas	Florida	72	71	72	215	+5
5	Ty Harris	Georgia St	74	66	76	216	+6
6	John Humphries	LSU	70	70	77	217	+7
	John Holmes	Kentucky	68	71	78	217	+7
	Adam Grodhaus	Charleston	69	75	73	217	+7
9	Peter Karmis	Purdue	73	71	74	218	+8
	Chris Mayson	Purdue	69	73	76	218	+8
	Brett Stegmaier	Florida	75	66	77	218	+8
12	Jordan Code	Florida	73	70	76	219	+9
	Jonathan Fricke	Georgia St	74	68	77	219	+9
	Emmett Turner	Augusta St	69	72	78	219	+9
15	Aron Price	Ga. South	73	69	78	220+	10
	James Heath	Augusta St	72	75	73	220+	10
17	Camilo Villegas	Florida	76	74	71	221+	11
	Bruce McDonald	Charleston	73	72	76	221+	11
	Scott Jamieson	Augusta St	72	74	75	221+	11
	Heath West	LSU	71	70	80	221+	11
	Jon David Kennedy	Ga. South	72	74	75	221+	11
22	Zach Doran	Ohio State	73	78	72	223+	13
	Shiv Kapur	Purdue	74	76	73	223+	13
	Kasper Jorgenson	Georgia St	75	69	79	223+	13
	Mac Butler	Alabama	76	73	74	223+	13
	Miguel Ordonez	N. Florida	72	77	74	223+	13
	Robert Svensson	UAB	78	68	77	223+	13
	Clint Provost	Alabama	76	75	72	223+	13
	Toshi Hirata	Ga. South	74	74	75	223+	13
	Peter Mitchell	Florida St	76	70	77	223+	13
	John Assey	Charleston	78	71	74	223+	13
	Ryan Thomas	UAB	74	76	73	223+	13
33	John Limanti	N. Florida	73	75	77	225+	15
	Lars Brovold	Alabama	70	78	77	225+	15
	Kevin Hall	Ohio State	72	81	72	225+	15
	Matt Kohn	Kentucky	72	71	82	225+	15
37	Travis Mobley	Ga. South	69	74	83	226+	16
	Brad Lusenhop	Florida St	74	75	77	226+	16
	Dustin Cone	Purdue	67	79	80	226+	16
	Tim Vickers	Florida St	76	73	77	226+	16
	Kalle Edberg	Augusta St	74	75	77	226+	16
	*Andy Dustman	Kentucky	76	76	74	226+	16
43	Brandon Waldrop	Kentucky	77	73	77	227+	17
	Tigh VanLeeuwen	UAB	76	76	75	227+	17
	Kyle Bradley	Charleston	76	74	77	227+	17
46	Oscar Fraustro	So Florida	77	74	77	228+	18
	Matt Adcock	Florida St	73	75	80	228+	18
	Dalton Melnyk	Florida	77	75	76	228+	18
49	Chris Cousins	UAB	81	70	78	229+	19
	Lance Goodson	Vanderbilt	79	75	75	229+	19
	Mark Donnell	Vanderbilt	77	75	77	229+	19
	Daniel Creel	Alabama	81	74	74	229+	19
	Jason Dallas	Vanderbilt	74	78	77	229+	19
	Austin Hynson	Alabama	79	74	76	229+	19
55	Aaron Smith	LSU	76	73	81	230+	20
	Scott Anderson	Ohio State	80	74	76	230+	20
	Clark Brown	UAB	77	74	79	230+	20
	Ben McClung	Vanderbilt	71	80	79	230+	20
59	Will Lloyd	N. Florida	74	73	85	232+	22
60	Federico Mautone	So Florida	79	75	80	234+	24
	Ryan Coyne	Kentucky	81	72	81	234+	24
	Jason Horrell	LSU	77	75	82	234+	24
	Darren Baynes	Georgia St	81	75	78	234+	24
	Ryan Shears	So Florida	79	72	83	234+	24
65	Luke Epps	Purdue	79	77	79	235+	25
	Kellen Altman	Charleston	75	76	84	235+	25
67	Adam Wallace	Florida St	83	79	74	236+	26
	Darren Lundgren	Ohio State	78	79	79	236+	26
67	T.J. Washburn	Georgia St	81	74	81	236+	26
	Matt Wells	Kentucky	82	74	80	236+	26
71	Pablo Ceron	So Florida	80	79	80	239+	29
72	Adam Swope	LSU	85	75	82	242+	32
73	*Brendan Suhr	N. Florida	78	78	87	243	+33
74	Peter Riddell	Ohio State	80	84	80	244+	34
75	Evan Osteen	N. Florida	81	81	83	245+	35
76	Matt Torrance	N. Florida	80	82	87	249+	39
77	Drew Bowen	Ga. South	85	84	86	255+	45
WD	Jeremy Sims	So Florida	84	WD	WD

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