Men's Golf Ties for Fourth at PING/Golfweek Preview

Sunday, September 26

Baltimore, MD

12:00 AM

Florida Gators

The Preview

Men's Golf Ties for Fourth at PING/Golfweek Preview

Tuesday, September 28, 2004 | Men's Golf

Junior All-American Matt Every (Daytona Beach, Fla./Mainland) fired an even par total score of 210 to lead the No. 1 University of Florida men's golf team into a tie for fourth place with Texas at the 16th annual PING/Golfweek Preview Tournament hosted by Loyola (Md.) College at the Caves Valley Golf Club.

The Gators, who were forced to open the 2004-05 season a week late because of the effects of Hurricane Ivan, placed three golfers in the top 25 of the event.

"On the first day, we didn't play well in the morning," Head Coach Buddy Alexander said. "We played our way back into the tournament in the afternoon and we gave ourselves a chance to move up on the final day."

At the close of the first day, the Gators were in seventh place, needing to make up 10 strokes to climb atop the leaderboard. Florida managed to climb three places in the final rankings to finish tied for fourth with a 22-over par score of 862.

Every, who placed fifth, led the Gators by posting the 11th top-10 finish of his career and was the only UF golfer to record more than one round under par.

Junior All-American Brett Stegmaier (Madison, Conn./Avon Old Farms) tied for 19th place overall by posting a six-over par total of 216. Recording a seven-over par score of 217, junior James Vargas (Miami, Fla./Christopher Columbus) was in a stalemate for 21st place.

Competing in his first career tournament, redshirt freshman Manuel Villegas (Medellin, Columbia/The Columbus School) carded a 16-over par score of 226 to tie for 56th place. Redshirt senior Duke Butler IV (Ponte Vedra Fla./Texas A&M) tied for 60th with a 17-over par total of 227.

"As a team we have some improvements to make," Alexander said. "We are going to address those areas for our next tournament in hopes of developing into a more consistent team."

The Gators return to action in Tampa, Fla., on Oct. 11-12, as they host the Gary Koch Invitational at the Old Memorial Golf Course.

TEAM STANDINGS

Place	Team	1^st Round	2^nd Round	3^rd Round	Total	Over/Under Par
1.	Oklahoma State	288	276	284	848	+8
2.	Georgia Tech	284	283	285	852	+12
3.	Georgia	290	292	279	861	+21
T4.	Florida	296	278	288	862	+22
T4.	Texas	284	289	289	862	+22
6.	Arizona State	284	293	286	863	+23
7.	TCU	286	281	297	864	+24
8.	Kentucky	296	291	279	866	+26
9	UNLV	290	292	286	868	+28
10.	Pepperdine	292	297	288	877	+37
11.	Clemson	300	285	297	882	+42
T12.	California	305	294	285	884	+44
T12.	Arizona	296	293	295	884	+44
T12.	UCLA	298	293	293	884	+44
15.	Loyola College	304	309	304	917	+77

OVERALL RESULTS

Place	Player	1^st Round	2^nd Round	3^rd Round	Total	Over/Under Par
1.	Pablo Martin-Ok. State	69	66	71	206	-4
2.	Matthew Rosenfeld- Texas	70	71	67	208	-2
T3.	Ryan Moore- UNLV	73	70	66	209	-1
T3.	Jesse Mueller- Ariz. State	67	71	71	209	-1
T5.	Matt Every-Florida	73	68	69	210	E
T5.	Michael Putnam-Pepperdine	70	71	69	210	E
T7.	Roberto Castro- Ga. Tech	68	72	71	211	+1
T7.	Tyler Leon- Ok. State	71	71	69	211	+1
T7.	Matthew Mills- Texas	71	70	70	211	+1
10.	Chris Kirk- Georgia	69	72	71	212	+2

FLORIDA RESULTS

Place	Player	1^st Round	2^nd Round	3^rd Round	Total	Over/Under Par
T5.	Matt Every	73	68	69	210	E
T19.	Brett Stegmaier	72	73	71	216	+6
T21.	James Vargas	76	67	74	217	+7
T56.	Manuel Villegas	75	70	81	226	+16
T60.	Duke Butler IV	76	77	74	227	+17