Friday, April 15
St. Simons, GA
All Day
Florida Gators
at
SEC Championship
The UF men, coached by J.C. Deacon (left), are ranked fifth heading to the SEC Championships, while Emily Glaser's bunch checks in at No. 8.
Two Teams, Two Paths, Same Positive Outlook
Thursday, April 14, 2016 | Men's Golf, Women's Golf, Chris Harry
The UF men's and women's golf teams are headed to their SEC championships this weekend.
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — For J.C. Deacon, the Florida men's golf season has been a roller-coaster ride for the second-year head coach. The youthful Gators have had their triumphs, but also their trials and tribulations in arriving at the start of the postseason.
A couple offices down the hall, women's counterpart Emily Glaser has enjoyed a relatively calm and climbing campaign, having notched more team tournament wins than any program in the country.
Two fairly different tracks, to be sure, yet with their respective Southeastern Conference championships set to tee off Friday, Deacon's and Glaser's Gators appear to be in similar spots.
Ask them.
"I don't think we could be in a better place, and that's the beauty of it," said Deacon, whose squad will be ranked No. 6 when it fires away at the SEC field this weekend at Sea Island Golf Club in St. Simons, Ga. "The adversity, I think, helps you gel as a group. They've screwed up together, done great together and now they want to do it all together."
Glaser, meanwhile, is taking No. 8 UF to Birminghamm, Ala., for the women's competition at Greystone Golf and Country Club. The Gators have not won the league crown since 2008.
"I believe we can win, but I also know what we need to do to make that happen," she said. "As a coach, I really try to talk in process. My goal is to make sure we go up there and stick to the game plans, that we're focused, that we have good energy and do all the little things right."
Florida is one of four SEC women's squads ranked in the top 11, along with Alabama (3rd), Georgia (4th) and Arkansas (11th). This Gators team has won its last four tournaments and six of the previous seven.
Along the way, junior Maria Torres and sophomore Taylor Tomlinson have grown leaps and bounds since a year ago. Glaser said Torres returned last fall more determined and even more outspoken about her goals, while Tomlinson embraced the challenges put to her heading into the summer, with her work ethic carrying through the fall and into the spring. Torres, out of Puerto Rico, has been a flatlined influence, with three top-10 finishes, including a win at the Alamo Invitational, and eight top-25s. She leads the club in stroke average at 72.1. Tomlinson, from Gainesville, also has three top-10s, eight top-25s and tied for the tournament crown at the Florida Challenge.
Freshman Sam Wagner, by way of Orlando, has the team's season-low round of 67, and the best finishes (a fourth and tie for fifth) in UF's previous two tournaments. She'll play No. 1 at SECs.
"She brought a really neat, competitive dynamic to our team," Glaser said. "I know she has a great resume and I know that made the others returning kind of take notice and up their games."
The coach sensed as much from the very first tournament of the season — from long distance.
Glaser stayed in Gainesville with her baby — daughter Layne was born Dec. 22 — while the Gators opened the spring season at the Northrup Grumman in Palos Verdes, Calif., a tournament that has eaten the team up in the past. UF finished third there.
Two weeks later, Gators defeated a solid field at the Sugar Bowl Intercollegiate at New Orleans, then returned home for the SunTrust Gator Invitational and won a tournament they were favored to win.
"That told me something about this group," Glaser said. "I've been really pleased that each experience they've had, they've not only had success, but also learned and gotten better. That doesn't always happen when you're having a lot of success. Sometimes it might feel like it's easy or you might take it for granted, but I don't think this group has done that."
Deacon can speak to the subject of learning lessons. Or not learning them.
His team opened the spring ranked fifth in the nation and promptly won the Sea Best Invitational at Ponte Vedra, Fla., at 14-under. The Gators' next tournament was their own SunTrust Invitational, in which they would have tied Vanderbilt for second place had talented sophomore Alejandro Tosti not been disqualified for signing an inaccurate score card.
Lesson learned, right?
"You would think," Deacon said.
Two weeks later, at the Southern Highlands Collegiate at Las Vegas, Tosti again signed an incorrect card. It cost the Gators five strokes.
They finished second in the field ... by four strokes.
"Seething" was how Deacon described his mental state after that, but it went next level when a couple of his top players — Tosti and junior Ryan Orr — had to be disciplined for some off-the-course issues. Neither made the trip to Palm City, Fla., for a loaded 15-team field at the Valspar Collegiate, where the Gators finished dead-last at 54-over.
Deacon had never been so humiliated. But get this.
"It was great," he said. "It was a painful lesson, but I'm glad I went through it. It wasn't the result, it was how we got that result that bothered me so much. The decision and lack of leadership shown; the preparation before the tournament. All those things that we could control, we didn't do."
That was nearly a month ago, but Deacon feels his team — led by freshman and Ben Hogan Award semifinalist Sam Horsfield with his seven top-5s, seven top-10s and team-best 70.30 stroke average — are back and moving in the right direction.
That needs to be the case going up against a conference field armed with third-ranked Georgia, fourth-ranked Vanderbilt, fifth-ranked and defending champ LSU, ninth-ranked Alabama, 12th-ranked South Carolina and 13th-ranked Auburn. UF last won the SEC in 2011.
"We haven't proven we can beat those guys each time," Deacon said. "But we're looking forward to the opportunity."
A couple offices down the hall, women's counterpart Emily Glaser has enjoyed a relatively calm and climbing campaign, having notched more team tournament wins than any program in the country.
Two fairly different tracks, to be sure, yet with their respective Southeastern Conference championships set to tee off Friday, Deacon's and Glaser's Gators appear to be in similar spots.
Ask them.
"I don't think we could be in a better place, and that's the beauty of it," said Deacon, whose squad will be ranked No. 6 when it fires away at the SEC field this weekend at Sea Island Golf Club in St. Simons, Ga. "The adversity, I think, helps you gel as a group. They've screwed up together, done great together and now they want to do it all together."
Glaser, meanwhile, is taking No. 8 UF to Birminghamm, Ala., for the women's competition at Greystone Golf and Country Club. The Gators have not won the league crown since 2008.
"I believe we can win, but I also know what we need to do to make that happen," she said. "As a coach, I really try to talk in process. My goal is to make sure we go up there and stick to the game plans, that we're focused, that we have good energy and do all the little things right."
Florida is one of four SEC women's squads ranked in the top 11, along with Alabama (3rd), Georgia (4th) and Arkansas (11th). This Gators team has won its last four tournaments and six of the previous seven.
Along the way, junior Maria Torres and sophomore Taylor Tomlinson have grown leaps and bounds since a year ago. Glaser said Torres returned last fall more determined and even more outspoken about her goals, while Tomlinson embraced the challenges put to her heading into the summer, with her work ethic carrying through the fall and into the spring. Torres, out of Puerto Rico, has been a flatlined influence, with three top-10 finishes, including a win at the Alamo Invitational, and eight top-25s. She leads the club in stroke average at 72.1. Tomlinson, from Gainesville, also has three top-10s, eight top-25s and tied for the tournament crown at the Florida Challenge.
Freshman Sam Wagner, by way of Orlando, has the team's season-low round of 67, and the best finishes (a fourth and tie for fifth) in UF's previous two tournaments. She'll play No. 1 at SECs.
"She brought a really neat, competitive dynamic to our team," Glaser said. "I know she has a great resume and I know that made the others returning kind of take notice and up their games."
The coach sensed as much from the very first tournament of the season — from long distance.
Glaser stayed in Gainesville with her baby — daughter Layne was born Dec. 22 — while the Gators opened the spring season at the Northrup Grumman in Palos Verdes, Calif., a tournament that has eaten the team up in the past. UF finished third there.
Two weeks later, Gators defeated a solid field at the Sugar Bowl Intercollegiate at New Orleans, then returned home for the SunTrust Gator Invitational and won a tournament they were favored to win.
"That told me something about this group," Glaser said. "I've been really pleased that each experience they've had, they've not only had success, but also learned and gotten better. That doesn't always happen when you're having a lot of success. Sometimes it might feel like it's easy or you might take it for granted, but I don't think this group has done that."
Deacon can speak to the subject of learning lessons. Or not learning them.
His team opened the spring ranked fifth in the nation and promptly won the Sea Best Invitational at Ponte Vedra, Fla., at 14-under. The Gators' next tournament was their own SunTrust Invitational, in which they would have tied Vanderbilt for second place had talented sophomore Alejandro Tosti not been disqualified for signing an inaccurate score card.
Lesson learned, right?
"You would think," Deacon said.
Two weeks later, at the Southern Highlands Collegiate at Las Vegas, Tosti again signed an incorrect card. It cost the Gators five strokes.
They finished second in the field ... by four strokes.
"Seething" was how Deacon described his mental state after that, but it went next level when a couple of his top players — Tosti and junior Ryan Orr — had to be disciplined for some off-the-course issues. Neither made the trip to Palm City, Fla., for a loaded 15-team field at the Valspar Collegiate, where the Gators finished dead-last at 54-over.
Deacon had never been so humiliated. But get this.
"It was great," he said. "It was a painful lesson, but I'm glad I went through it. It wasn't the result, it was how we got that result that bothered me so much. The decision and lack of leadership shown; the preparation before the tournament. All those things that we could control, we didn't do."
That was nearly a month ago, but Deacon feels his team — led by freshman and Ben Hogan Award semifinalist Sam Horsfield with his seven top-5s, seven top-10s and team-best 70.30 stroke average — are back and moving in the right direction.
That needs to be the case going up against a conference field armed with third-ranked Georgia, fourth-ranked Vanderbilt, fifth-ranked and defending champ LSU, ninth-ranked Alabama, 12th-ranked South Carolina and 13th-ranked Auburn. UF last won the SEC in 2011.
"We haven't proven we can beat those guys each time," Deacon said. "But we're looking forward to the opportunity."
Players Mentioned
/ Men's Golf
/ Men's Golf
/ Women's Golf
/ Women's Golf
/ Men's Golf
/ Women's Golf
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