Gators snag early lead at Tavistock Collegiate Invitational

Sunday, October 16

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Tavistock Collegiate

Jorge Garcia finished atop the Gators' scorecard after carding three birdies in his last four holes

Gators snag early lead at Tavistock Collegiate Invitational

Sunday, October 16, 2016 | Men's Golf

By: Turner F. Street

WINDERMERE, FL. – The University of Florida men's golf team saw three of its players finish inside the top-10 on Sunday in the first round of the Tavistock Collegiate Invitational. The three under-par scores propelled the Gators into a tie for first place with Purdue at -5 (283).

Sophomore Jorge Garcia fired four birdies on his back nine, including three in his last four holes to land in a tie for fourth at -3 (69).

Junior Alejandro Tosti tallied five birdies en route to a -2 (70) first round, while sophomore Sam Horsfield closed out his round with two birdies in his final three holes to secure a -1 (71).

Texas Tech's Hannes Ronneblad shot a -5 (67) to claim a one-stroke lead after round one.

Head Coach J.C. Deacon

(on the play of Jorge Garcia)
"Lucky for me, I was with Jorge (Garcia) today and we really focused on our walking and breathing and all of the weird things that golfers need to focus on. He did a wonderful job. He admitted that he started thinking about his results and his future a little bit, but caught himself in the moment and got back to what he needed to focus on to execute the next shot and he finished phenomenally. To play those last four holes at three under-par, Jorge picked up a lot of strokes on everyone. We really appreciated it, it helped the team a lot."

(on the team's performance)
"We've been focusing on finishing, what it takes to finish, and all of the little details that go into finishing the round. We have an awesome team and these guys are so, so talented. Alejandro (Tosti) had a big-time round going today. It's a long race this week and this year, but today was a product of our preparation and a nice start to get us in contention for the rest of the week."

Leaderboard
Team:
T1. Florida -5 (283)
T1. Purdue -5 (283)
T3. UNF -2 (286)
T3. Vanderbilt -2 (286)
T5. Arizona State E (288)
T5. Augusta E (288)
7. North Carolina     +1 (289)
T8. Texas Tech +5 (293)
T8. UCF +5 (293)
10. Illinois +7 (295)
11. Arizona +9 (297)
12. New Mexico +10 (298)
13. North Texas +14 (302)
14. UAB +15 (303)
15. California +22 (310)

Players:
T4.          Jorge Garcia -3 (69)
T6.          Alejandro Tosti     -2 (70)
T9.          Sam Horsfield      -1 (71)
T26.        Gordon Neale      +1 (73)
T34.        Andy Zhang +3 (75)
Full Leaderboard

Follow the Gators: The Orange and Blue will tee off the second round in Windermere, FL, on Monday.