Florida Gators
USF Invitational
Tomlinson Fires Career-Low as Florida Claims Top-10 Finish at USF Invitational
Tuesday, March 4, 2014 | Men's Golf
Wrapping up round three at eight-under, Florida came away with a ninth place finish and a final team score of 856, their best of the year, at the USF Invitational on Tuesday afternoon. No. 17 Florida State shot an impressive 24-under (823) today to run away with the tournament title, while host, No. 21 South Florida, came in second (833).
Junior J.D. Tomlinson had a career-day on the green, firing a new low-round score of 64 and low tourney score of 207. Tomlinson's previous best round was a 68, which he has achieved three times in his career, including once this past fall. The junior completed play at nine-under (T7), granting him his third top-10 finish of the year for the Gators.
Freshman Ryan Orr carded rounds of 71-71-75 (217) to place T44 while junior Eric Banks notched a 73 today after matching a personal-best 68 yesterday.
Closing out the Gator lineup were sophomore Richard Donegan and freshman Victor Tarnstrom who completed tournament play with a score of 221, their best performances this spring. Competing as an individual for Florida was redshirt junior Santiago Gavino, who finished the day with a 223 after rounds of 71-76-76.
Buddy's Bite: “Well, J.D. just kind of picked us up and carried us to the finish line today. He played an awesome round of golf. This was easiest of the three days and the scores definitely reflect that. When you shoot eight-under par anywhere, anytime, that's a great day. I'm proud of J.D. We needed a good round out of him and that was great to see. You know, the fact that we broke par a couple of days in a row was positive even though the scoring wasn't that good. But, we're moving in the right direction and that's a good sign overall.”
The Orange and Blue Crew:
| USF Invitational – Final Florida Player Results | |||
| Place | Player | Score | Rounds 1-2-3 |
| T7 | J.D. Tomlinson | -9 (207) | 71-72-64 |
| T44 | Ryan Orr | +1 (217) | 71-71-75 |
| T55 | Eric Banks | +3 (219) | 78-68-73 |
| T66 | Richard Donegan | +5 (221) | 76-74-71 |
| T66 | Victor Tarnstrom | +5 (221) | 73-76-72 |
| T73 | Santiago Gavino* | +7 (223) | 71-76-76 |
*competed as an individual
Leaderboard (Golf World/Nike Golf Division I Coaches' Poll):
| USF Invitational – Final Team Scores | ||
| Place | Team | Score |
| 1 | Florida State (17) | -41 (823) |
| 2 | South Florida (21) | -31 (833) |
| 3 | UNC Greensboro | -26 (838) |
| T4 | Mercer | -24 (840) |
| T4 | Illinois (6) | -24 (840) |
| T4 | Purdue | -24 (840) |
| 7 | Memphis | -20 (844) |
| 8 | Auburn (24) | -15 (849) |
| 9 | FLORIDA | -8 (856) |
| 10 | Ohio State | -6 (858) |
| 11 | College of Charleston | -5 (859) |
| 12 | Cincinnati | -3 (861) |
| 13 | Eastern Michigan | +9 (873) |
| 14 | DePaul | +10 (874) |
| T15 | Marquette | +14 (878) |
| T15 | Air Force | +14 (878) |
| 17 | Wisconsin | +18 (882) |
| USF Invitational – Final Top 10 | ||
| Place | Player | Score |
| 1 | Jack Maguire (Florida State) | -16 (200) |
| T2 | Adam Schenk (Purdue) | -15 (201) |
| T2 | Brian Campbell (Illinois) | -15 (201) |
| 4 | Cristobal Del Solar (Florida State) | -13 (203) |
| T5 | James Beale (Mercer) | -10 (206) |
| T5 | Chase Koepka (South Florida) | -10 (206) |
| T7 | J.D. Tomlinson (FLORIDA) | -9 (207) |
| T7 | Kyle Westmoreland (Air Force) | -9 (207) |
| T7 | Will Pearson (Memphis) | -9 (207) |
| 10 | Will Long (Auburn) | -8 (208) |
Up Next for the Gators: Florida will travel to Statesboro, Ga. from Mar. 14-16 to compete in the Chris Schenkel Invitational at the Forest Heights Country Club. The Gators came away with a fourth place finish there last season.
For complete coverage of the Gators' men's golf program visit GatorZone.com, follow @GatorZoneGolf on Twitter and 'like' the University of Florida Men's Golf page on Facebook.
