Florida Gators
Old Waverly Collegiate
Gators, Tomlinson Finish in Top Five to Close Out Spring at Old Waverly
Tuesday, April 8, 2014 | Men's Golf
After shooting even in round one, junior J.D. Tomlinson fired consecutive 70's to pace his way towards the top of the leaderboard and finish off the afternoon in a shared spot for fifth place at the Old Waverly Collegiate Championship. Tomlinson's finish was his third top-five placing of the season while he shot under-par for the second-straight event.
Behind consistent efforts from the rest of the Orange and Blue, Florida shot an 866 (+2) as a team to seal a fourth place finish in their final regular season event of the spring. Tournament host Mississippi State came away with the win with an 859 (-5), just one stroke ahead of second place Cincinnati.
The Gators' showing was their second-best effort of the year, and best of the spring semester, finishing T3 at Shoal Creek back in early October.
Junior Eric Banks concluded competition at even-par, carding rounds of 69-73-74 (216) to tie for 13th place while freshman Ryan Orr shot a 220, his third-best performance of the year.
Rounding out the five-man lineup were sophomore Richard Donegan and freshman Victor Tarnstrom who both shot 73's in round three to end play with a 222 (+6).
Buddy's Bite: “Probably our best tournament of the year in terms of consistency. All five guys were kind of in every round at least to a certain extent. I thought that was a positive. We actually were in the golf tournament to a certain degree as well, just could never get any real momentum going to make a move up the leaderboard, but we hung in there pretty well. Again, I see this team improving and unfortunately we just ran out of time.”
On Junior J.D. Tomlinson:
“J.D. is having a solid year and he's a solid player. It doesn't appear to me as though there's a lot in his game that should ever go bad.”
The Orange and Blue Crew:
| Old Waverly Collegiate Championship – Final Florida Player Results | |||
| Place | Player | Scores | |
| T5 | J.D. Tomlinson | 72-70-70 | -4 (212) |
| T13 | Eric Banks | 69-73-74 | E (216) |
| T28 | Ryan Orr | 76-74-70 | +4 (220) |
| T41 | Richard Donegan | 73-76-73 | +6 (222) |
| T41 | Victor Tarnstrom | 75-74-73 | +6 (222) |
Leaderboard (Golf World/Nike Golf Division I Coaches' Poll):
| Old Waverly Collegiate Championship – Final Team Scores | ||
| Place | Team | Score |
| 1 | Mississippi State | -5 (859) |
| 2 | Cincinnati | -4 (860) |
| 3 | Ole Miss | -2 (862) |
| 4 | FLORIDA | +2 (866) |
| T5 | South Alabama | +3 (867) |
| T5 | Chattanooga | +3 (867) |
| T5 | Austin Peay | +3 (867) |
| 8 | Southeastern Louisiana | +10 (874) |
| T9 | Louisiana Tech | +11 (875) |
| T9 | Troy | +11 (875) |
| 11 | Charleston Southern | +13 (877) |
| T12 | Louisiana Lafayette | +14 (878) |
| T12 | Memphis | +14 (878) |
| 14 | Southern Mississippi | +17 (881) |
| 15 | Wichita State | +24 (888) |
| Old Waverly Collegiate Championship – Final Top 10 | ||
| Place | Player | Score |
| T1 | Barrett Edens (Mississippi State) | -9 (207) |
| T1 | Marco Iten (Austin Peay) | -9 (207) |
| 3 | Blake Morris (Ole Miss) | -8 (208) |
| 4 | Jared Howard (Cincinnati) | -5 (211) |
| T5 | Phillip Brennan (Troy) | -4 (212) |
| T5 | J.D. Tomlinson (FLORIDA) | -4 (212) |
| T7 | John Michael O'Toole (Cincinnati) | -2 (214) |
| T7 | Chad Ramey (Mississippi State) | -2 (214) |
| T9 | Davis Bunn (Chattanooga) | -1 (215) |
| T9 | Michael Garretson (South Alabama) | -1 (215) |
| T9 | Cory Gaylord (Memphis) | -1 (215) |
| T9 | Tyler Klava (South Alabama) | -1 (215) |
Up Next for the Gators: Florida will compete at the SEC Championship from Apr. 25 – 27 in St. Simons Island, Georgia. The Gators have a total of 15 conference titles, the last coming in 2011 at the Sea Island Golf club in St. Simons.
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.
