Florida Gators
NCAA Championships
Florida Women's Golf Delivers 18th Top 10 in Program History at NCAA Championships
Saturday, May 21, 2011 | Women's Golf
BRYAN, Texas – The University of Florida women's golf team hit the course to complete its third round at 7:30 local time (8:30 ET), ending with a 309 (+21) and then rebounded in its final round with a team score of 295 (+7) that landed them in a tie for 10th – the school's 18th top 10 at nationals – at the conclusion of the NCAA Championships at Traditions Club. The Gators had to earn it as there was a logjam between Florida, Vanderbilt, Alabama, California and Tennessee that came down to the final hole.
“We had a chance to regroup and relax at the hotel before we teed it up again (after completing the third round) so that helped,” head coach Jan Dowling shared. “They fought hard today. This golf course, you're going to face some adversity, whether it's minimal or major. I felt like we handled that really well. I'm very proud of this team. We're getting better and I loved working with them this year. We went from not qualifying (for nationals in 2010) to finishing in the top 10. That just shows how hard they work.”
Junior Andrea Watts (Bradenton, Fla.) fired a 71 (-1) in the fourth round – her fourth even or under par round in her last six rounds of the season – and was Florida's top finisher with a 72-hole total of 293 (+5).
“Honestly, I have not once looked at the individual leaderboard,” Watts said. “It's truly not what I'm here for. I'm here to put up as low of a score as I can for the team. It was a bonus for playing well and solid this week.”
Watts shined early, making a birdie on the par-5 10th for the second straight round and following that with another on the par-3 11th to quickly move to two-under.
“My first hole, I made my bunker shot and that put me in a confident mindset where I knew that if I just kept making good shots, I'd be fine for the day,” Watts said.
Watts added another birdie on 18 and made the turn at three-under. Her only two bogeys of the day came on Nos. 1 and 6 but she avoided further trouble to post the Gators' second under par round of the NCAA Championships.
“The cool thing is that I was able to shoot three-under (on her opening nine holes) without making any bogeys and it felt really calm and steady the whole time,” Watts continued. “Nothing really up and down, no serious recoveries. I got my driver under control and I was hitting my irons very accurately.”
“For Andrea to finish in the top 15 for us, she played phenomenal for us all week,” Dowling chimed in. “She hit the ball great and got it under par today so very, very proud of her.”
Sophomore Mia Piccio (Bacolod City, Philippines) posted a 76 (+4) in each of her last two rounds en route to a cumulative score of 294 (+6) that left her in a tie for 19th. With the result, Piccio placed in the top 20 in all seven of Florida's spring tournaments including the SEC Championship, the NCAA East Regional, the NCAA Championships, and star-studded fields at the Liz Murphey Collegiate Classic and Allstate Sugar Bowl Intercollegiate.
The 48th-ranked player in the nation in the latest Golfweek/Sagarin Rankings played both the front and back nine at two-over and in what has become a trademark of hers, recorded nothing worse than a bogey in her final round.
Junior Evan Jensen (Belleair, Fla.) carded her lowest score of the four-day event with a 73 (+1). Similar to Watts, Jensen did damage on her first nine holes, playing the back nine at one-under. Among the highlights was a birdie on 13 where she nearly holed out from 100 yards with the ball stopping just six inches from the cup.
“I thought I made it when it landed there,” Jensen recalled. “I hit it exactly where I wanted to. I was just hitting a gap wedge and it took a couple of bounces and stopped short of the hole.”
She birdied 18 for the third round in a row and played the front nine at two-over to finish with a four-day total of 301 (+13) that catapulted her 16 spots to a tie for 45th in the 126-player field.
“I just stayed steady and tried to make pars,” Jensen said of her mindset. “That's all I was trying to do. I made a couple of birdies and I was hitting it really well and putting really well so I'm happy.”
Senior Jessica Yadloczky (Casselberry, Fla.) capped off her collegiate career with a 75 (+3) in the final round – a five-stroke improvement from Friday and her best round of the tournament . She played the back nine at two-over, tallying a birdie on 17 – a hole that she referred to as “a beast”.
“I didn't hit my driver all week,” Yadloczky noted. “I had teed off with my 3-wood on every hole. 17 is playing really long so I had about 170 (yards) in and I hit it (5-iron) to five feet and made it so it was a good hole.”
A bogey on No. 2 had the lone Gator senior at three-over but three holes later, she delivered a 15-footer for birdie and closed the round out, going par-bogey-par-par on her final four holes.
“Since day one, I've been working on swing thoughts and tempo out here,” Yadloczky said. “This course is visually challenging and for me, it's all about tee shots. I played a lot better today and my putter was rolling a lot better today too.
“I'm proud of everybody (on the team). It was a long week and all of us hung tough. We were hoping for better than top 10 but we're blessed to be here and we played pretty good as a team today.”
“We're going to miss her,” Dowling said of the senior team captain. “She's always been a fighter and she's always been a team leader, both vocally and the way she works. She's just a great person to have around and she really gets the true meaning of team college golf. I'm very proud of her for the way she finished. She had a great par on 18 and finished her college career out on a high note.”
Sophomore Isabelle Lendl (Goshen, Conn.) was three-over through five but seemed to settle in after six consecutive pars. A double bogey on No. 3 and a triple bogey on No. 9 factored into her fourth round score of 81 (+9).
UCLA was crowned National Champions after posting a team score of 1,173 (+21) while LSU's Austin Ernst was the first freshman since Jennifer Rosales in 1998 to earn medalist honors at the NCAA Championships.
Fans can continue to follow the Gators on www.GatorZone.com for results, statistics and breaking news, on Twitter for team happenings and on the University of Florida Women's Golf Facebook page.
Team Scores After Round 4
| Place | School | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Score |
| 1. | UCLA | 289 | 295 | 294 | 295 | 1173 (+21) |
| 2. | Purdue | 292 | 295 | 298 | 292 | 1177 (+25) |
| 3. | LSU | 292 | 296 | 303 | 290 | 1181 (+29) |
| 4. | Virginia | 291 | 300 | 299 | 296 | 1186 (+34) |
| T5. | Southern California | 302 | 302 | 292 | 294 | 1190 (+38) |
| T5. | Arkansas | 305 | 296 | 296 | 293 | 1190 (+38) |
| 7. | Texas A&M | 295 | 294 | 302 | 300 | 1191 (+39) |
| T8. | North Carolina | 305 | 293 | 297 | 298 | 1193 (+41) |
| T8. | Alabama | 301 | 303 | 297 | 292 | 1193 (+41) |
| T10. | Florida | 294 | 298 | 309 | 295 | 1196 (+44) |
| T10. | Vanderbilt | 297 | 294 | 304 | 301 | 1196 (+44) |
| 12. | California | 306 | 292 | 305 | 294 | 1197 (+45) |
| 13. | Tennessee | 299 | 299 | 306 | 296 | 1200 (+48) |
| 14. | Wake Forest | 298 | 307 | 301 | 296 | 1202 (+50) |
| 15. | Arizona | 304 | 295 | 305 | 301 | 1205 (+53) |
| 16. | Washington | 312 | 307 | 297 | 293 | 1209 (+57) |
| 17. | Arizona State | 296 | 303 | 308 | 303 | 1210 (+58) |
| 18. | South Carolina | 302 | 315 | 298 | 296 | 1211 (+59) |
| 19. | Minnesota | 305 | 294 | 307 | 307 | 1213 (+61) |
| 20. | UC Davis | 313 | 305 | 307 | 294 | 1219 (+67) |
| 21. | Ohio State | 303 | 315 | 298 | 305 | 1221 (+69) |
| 22. | Notre Dame | 308 | 310 | 307 | 299 | 1224 (+72) |
| 23. | Stanford | 308 | 305 | 303 | 309 | 1225 (+73) |
| 24. | Coastal Carolina | 322 | 302 | 298 | 310 | 1232 (+80) |
Individual Top 10 Through Round 4
| Place | Player (School) | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Score |
| 1. | Austin Ernst (LSU) | 72 | 66 | 77 | 66 | 281 (-7) |
| 2. | Kelli Shean (Arkansas) | 75 | 70 | 71 | 68 | 284 (-4) |
| 3. | Laura Gonzalez (Purdue) | 74 | 71 | 70 | 71 | 286 (-2) |
| T4. | Tiffany Lua (UCLA) | 71 | 71 | 70 | 75 | 287 (-1) |
| T4. | Marta Silva Zamora (Georgia)* | 71 | 71 | 72 | 73 | 287 (-1) |
| T6. | Caroline Powers (Michigan State)* | 70 | 76 | 69 | 73 | 288 (E) |
| T6. | Katerina Ruzickova (Texas A&M) | 73 | 72 | 73 | 70 | 288 (E) |
| T8. | Lindy Duncan (Duke)* | 72 | 74 | 70 | 73 | 289 (+1) |
| T8. | Joanne Lee (California) | 73 | 71 | 76 | 69 | 289 (+1) |
| T8. | Numa Gulyanamitta (Purdue) | 71 | 70 | 77 | 71 | 289 (+1) |
| T8. | Natalie Sheary (Wake Forest) | 72 | 74 | 71 | 72 | 289 (+1) |
Florida Results After Round 4
| Place | Player | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Score |
| T15. | Andrea Watts | 72 | 74 | 76 | 71 | 293 (+5) |
| T19. | Mia Piccio | 72 | 70 | 76 | 76 | 294 (+6) |
| T45. | Evan Jensen | 76 | 74 | 78 | 73 | 301 (+13) |
| T108. | Jessica Yadloczky | 81 | 80 | 80 | 75 | 316 (+28) |
| 110. | Isabelle Lendl | 74 | 83 | 79 | 81 | 317 (+29) |
