Florida tees off round two tomorrow at 8:20 a.m. at Sea Island Golf Club.
ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. – The Florida men’s golf team was led by a pair making their debuts in the SEC Championship on Wednesday. Parker Bell and Jack Turner both shot a team-best 2-under opening rounds as the Gators are tied for sixth with Arkansas at 1-under.
Florida is scheduled to tee off round two at Sea Island Golf Club at 8:20 a.m. tomorrow and will be paired with fourth-place Texas A&M (-4) and fifth-place Tennessee (-3). Vanderbilt is the tournament-leader after a round one of 11-under. Following stroke play on Friday, the top-8 teams will advance to match play.
Bell and Turner are two of three UF golfers making their debuts at the conference tournament, joining transfer Ian Gilligan, who is the No. 1 spot this week. Matthew Kress is playing in his second SECs and Tyler Wilkes his third.
The Gators made the turn at 3-over and responded with a 4-under back nine that was led by Bell (-2) and Turner (-3). Both are tied for 8th through 18 holes.
A freshman, Turner, carded six birdies on the day, tied for second most in the field. He erased a double-bogey on five and bogey on eight with five birdies and four pars with just one bogey to finish under par the rest of the round. It marked his 12th par or better round in his 18th of the season. The Orlando, Fla. native owns a mark of 2.50 (-2) on par3s and 4.50 (-1) on par5s.
Outside of his bogey on the first hole, Bell stayed steady and went bogey-free the next 17 consecutive holes. The sophomore made back-to-back birdies on 16 (par-4, 407) and 17 (par-3 192) to finish with three total. As a team the Gators totaled five birdies on that two-hole stretch and are averaging a tournament best 2.75 (-5) on par3s.
Also bouncing back from early trouble was Gilligan. The junior battled a 3-over through four holes performance and got to even par with his third birdie on 16. He gave Florida its third counting score of a 71 (+1) after a bogey on 18, a hole that only featured two birdies in round one. Gilligan is tied for 35th.
Kress and Wilkes each ended with a 72 (+2) and sit T46. Kress closed out his round with back-to-back birdies on 17 & 18. He was one of two golfers all day to make birdie on 18, a hole that averaged +0.39 and featured 21 bogeys and four doubles in day one. Wilkes opened up with 12 straight pars before his first of two bogeys, coming on 13 and 18.
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