Gators in Hunt Following Day One of SunTrust Gator Invitational

Saturday, February 18

Gainesville, FL

All Day

Florida Gators

Suntrust Gator Invitational

Jorge Garcia finished the day even-par and in a tie for third in the individual standings at the Gator SunTrust Invitational.. (Photo: Britt Moore/For UAA Communications)

Gators in Hunt Following Day One of SunTrust Gator Invitational

Saturday, February 18, 2017 | Men's Golf

UF sophomore Jorge Garcia opens final round in third place in individual standings.

By: Turner F. Street

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Florida's men's golf team shot rounds of 289 (+9) and 284 (+4) during the first two rounds of the SunTrust Gator Invitational on Saturday at the Mark Bostick Golf Course in UF's lone home event of the season.

Overall, UF sits third after finishing 13-over for the day as the course proved a tough test with no teams finishing even-par or better.

Sophomores Jorge Garcia and Sam Horsfield finished the day in the top-10. Garcia shot a one-under 69 in the first round and a one-over 71 in the second round to finish at even-par for the day, placing him in third. After a two-under first round, Horsfield fired a three-over 73, finishing at one-over and in seventh.

Senior AJ Crouch, aided by his first round 69 (-1), also ended the day in the top-10 by finishing Saturday at two-over and in a tie for eighth.

Head Coach J.C. Deacon
On his team's performance during the first day:
"The course was definitely set up difficult on purpose. I don't think our discipline was where it needed to be; we weren't patient enough, we weren't disciplined enough to take on the conditions the way they were. If we want to win the championships that we've set our sights on, we're going to have to be more patient and more disciplined. We learned a good lesson today and we've got to come out and execute better tomorrow."

On what his team has to do in the final round to come away with the victory:
"We just have to be smarter. The guys know the golf course better than anyone else and they've got to miss their shots in the right spots and be patient enough if they get over part to not try and force things because if you force things on really difficult conditions, that's when it gets exponentially worse and that's what happened to us today. It wasn't all that bad. I thought we tried really hard and that our attitudes were great, but mental decisions and execution just wasn't there."

Rd. 1/2 Florida Scores
Team:

Place	Team	Score	Round 1	Round 2	Total
1	Arkansas	+6	288	278	566
2	Missouri	+11	292	279	571
3	FLORIDA	+13	289	284	573
4	Jacksonville	+16	289	287	576
5	Florida State	+18	288	290	578
6	UNF	+20	292	288	580
7	Georgia Southern	+22	290	292	582
T8	UCF	+23	296	287	583
T8	USF	+23	299	284	583
T*	Liberty	+23	288	295	583
T11	Wake Forest	+24	295	290	585
T11	North Texas	+25	291	294	585
T13	College of Charleston	+33	300	293	593
T13	UAB	+33	293	300	593
15	Troy	+49	303	306	609

Players:

Place	Player	Score	Round 1	Round 2	Total
T3.	Jorge Garcia	E	69	71	140
7.	Sam Horsfield	+1	68	73	141
T8.	AJ Crouch*	+2	69	73	142
T19.	Alejandro Tosti	+5	76	69	145
T19.	Andy Zhang*	+5	72	72	145
T19.	Ryan Celano*	+5	73	73	145
T45.	Gordon Neale	+8	76	72	148
T45.	Ryan Orr	+8	76	72	148

* = Playing as an individual

Full Leaderboard

Follow the Gators: The Orange and Blue will tee off the third round in Gainesville, Fla., Sunday at 9:30 a.m. Live scoring is available at Golfstat.com.

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