Florida won its fourth event at the Augusta Haskins Award Invite behind Fred Biondi’s second solo victory of the season.
AUGUSTA, Ga. – The No. 12 Florida men’s golf team finished the regular season like they started it, winning the team title as Fred Biondi also captured his fourth collegiate victory and second of the year on Sunday.
The Gators won the Augusta Haskins Award Invite by 12 shots shooting 39-under. The tournament score is second all-time by par passing Florida’s score of -37 at the 2006 NCAA Regional and only three away from the all-time mark of -42 set in the 2018 NCAA Regional.
At the end of round two, which was wrapped up this morning, Florida led the field by five shots and made the move to secure the lead as all five golfers shot under par. In round three the Gators repeated with no rounds over as the highest round on the weekend was a 74 (+2).
No. 6 Illinois battled with the Gators for the hardware in the final round and cut the advantage to five shots, but a pair of UF birdies before the turn and a strong finish held off the Illini for the fourth team title of the season.
Fred Biondi finished with a score of 201 (-15) as the victory earned him an exemption into the PGA Tour’s 2023 3M Open Championship. The 15-under is tied for second all-time by par in program history with Camillo Villegas. Biondi also owns the 4th and 10th lowest scores by par in Florida history. He is the second Gator to secure an exemption into a PGA event this season joining Yuxin Lin, who won the Southern Highlands for a spot in the Shriners Open. This is the second straight season Biondi has won two individual titles. The win also is the fifth medalist honor for the Gators this season, the most since the 2010-11 season when there were six.
Biondi started the final round two strokes out of the lead. He shot a bogey-free 67 (-7) in round three as his back-to-back birdies on 8 and 9 tied him for the solo lead. The senior then made four birdies on the back, highlighted by three in a row that gave him sole ownership of the lead.
A stroke separating each other was Ricky Castillo (-10) in 5th and Yuxin Lin (-9) in 6th. The duo along with Biondi recorded their team-leading 15th under par rounds as Castillo and Lin each shot a final round of 70 (-2). Castillo made 16 birdies to total his team-leading 112, marking his third consecutive season of 100-plus birdies.
All five Gators placed in the top-25 and finished under par for the weekend. John DuBois was 3-under in T16 and Redshirt-freshman Matthew Kress placed T23 at 1-under in his third appearance in the lineup.
The team win also marked the 19th under head coach J.C. Deacon and the eighth in the last three seasons as he is now third all-time in program history in victories passing Lynn Blevins. This is the sixth season with multiple wins with Deacon at the helm as the most under him was six in 2016-17. Since 1965, Florida has won 164 team tournament titles and 100 medalist honors.
The Orange and Blue begin postseason play at the SEC Championship on April 19 at Sea Island in St. Simons Island, Ga. Last year, Florida finished runner-up and made it to the match play finals for the first time in program history.
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