Jack Turner adds to his first-year honors of All-Regional and SEC All-Freshman.
NORMAN, Okla. – Florida men’s golfer Jack Turner was awarded for his stellar freshman season by being selected to the Golf Coaches Association of America (GCAA) All-Freshman Team on Thursday.
He is the Gators’ first selection since Ricky Castillo in 2020. Turner also earned honors of PING All-Region, SEC All-Freshman Team and was a two-time SEC Freshman Golfer of the Week.
Turner played in 10 tournaments and 27 total rounds, appearing the lineup for each postseason event; NCAA Championship, NCAA Regionals and SEC Championship. He finished top-23 in all three events with his best tied for runner-up at the SECs.
Recently at the NCAA National Championship, Turner tied for the team-best T23 finish. He becomes the sixth Florida freshman to finish top-23 at the NCAAs since 2001, joining ranks of Billy Horschel, Sam Horsfield, Matt Every and Camilo Villegas. Turner was steady through all four rounds to produce a 72-hole score of 3-over 291. He was tied for third in the field with an average of 3.98 (-1) on par4s and a mark of 4.88 (-2) on par5s.
The finish of T2 was tied for second-best by a Florida true freshman since Camilo Villegas in 2001. He shot a bogey-free 5-under 65 round two, one shot back of the SEC Championship record. Turner also went 1-0 in match play in the conference tournament with a 1Up victory over Vanderbilt’s Cole Sherwood after winning the last three consecutive holes.
The Orlando, Fla. native owned a team-best 71.0 stroke average, placing him 12th all-time single-season stroke average and third-best by a freshman since 1981. Turner led the Gators in par or better tournament scores (6), average relation to par for 18 (-0.79) and 54 (-2.37) and tied for a team-high five top-10 finishes.
After making the lineup in the season opener and finishing T78, he placed T23 or better in the remaining nine events with three top-3 finishes. In his 27 rounds played, 16 were for par or better as he made 116 birdies and five eagles, including one eagle in his opening round of the NCAA National Championship at Omni La Costa.
At the NCAA West Lafayette Regional, he regrouped from a 4-over 76 round one with final rounds of 2-under 70 and 3-under 69 to finish T18 and 1-under 215. Turner placed under par at SECs as well with a 6-under 204.
2024 GCAA All-Freshman Team
Ryder Cowan – Oklahoma
Wenyi Ding – Arizona State
Jackson Koviun – Auburn (Phil Mickelson Outstanding Freshman Award)
Max Herendeen – Illinois
Jack Turner – Florida
