SEC Champions: Men’s Golf Wins 17th Conference Title
Freshman Zack Swanwick capped off his stellar and undefeated match play week (3-0) with the match-clinching point for a 4-1 victory over Texas A&M.
ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. -The Florida men’s golf team is back on top of the Southeastern Conference, defeating Texas A&M 4-1 in the conference finals for the program’s 17th SEC Championship on Sunday at Sea Island Golf Club.
Head Coach J.C. Deacon led the Gators to its second Southeastern Conference Championship in the last three seasons and 17th in program history, No. 2 among all league men’s golf programs. The victory is fourth this season and the 31st tournament title under Deacon in 11 seasons. This is the third straight season of four-plus wins under him and the seventh season of multiple wins, including the last five consecutive.
In the last four years with Deacon, Florida has won the NCAA National Championship, two SEC Championships, NCAA Individual Championship, SEC Individual Championship, 16 tournaments titles and 13 individual titles.
The Gators won its 10th match play outing in the SEC Championship, ranking second-most in the conference behind Vanderbilt’s 13. In postseason match play, Florida is 12-4 all-time and 9-4 in the SEC.
Florida reached SEC Match Play Finals for the third time overall and in the last four years (2022 & 2023) by defeating the No. 6 ranked Oklahoma Sooners 3-2 in the quarterfinals and the No. 1 seed, No. 2 ranked and the reigning SEC and National Champion Auburn Tigers, 3.5-1.5 in the semifinals yesterday. The win against the Aggies moves the all-time series record to 3-0 in the conference tournament.
The Gator Golf programs have both reached the finals twice in the last four seasons. Florida is the only league school to have both its programs reach the finals two-plus times and do it in the same season, this year.
Florida continues the postseason journey at NCAA Regionals, May 12-14 and will find out their selection live on Golf Channel at 1 p.m. ET on Wednesday, April 30. With the conference title victory, Florida looks to secure one of the six No. 1 seeds as the regional sites include:
* Amherst, Virginia Poplar – Grove Golf Course
* Auburn, Alabama – Auburn University Club
* Bremerton, Washington – Gold Mountain Golf Club
* Reno, Nevada– Montreux Golf and Country Club
* Tallahassee, Florida – Seminole Legacy Golf Club
* Urbana, Illinois – Atkins Golf Club
Playing in the lead match in all three rounds, Luke Poulter continued his stellar play with taking the first two holes of the finals match. When all five matches were officially underway, the score was tied 2-2-1 as Poulter (1Up thru 3) and Matthew Kress (1Up thru 4) led for the Gators.
Florida grabbed its first lead of the match, 3-2 behind Zack Swanwick winning back-to-back holes on five and six, flipping his match to go 1Up. The two matches in front of the freshman were Poulter 2Up thru 8 and Kress 3Up thru 7 as A&M was only 1Up in the final two matches.
Kress, who went 3-0 in the SEC tournament his redshirt-freshman season, started to run away with the match by taking four holes in a five hole stretch across 4-8 to go 4Up.
Following Kress’ surge and Poulter’s steady two-hole advantage, Swanwick and his opponent Wheaton Ennis exchanged the lead three times before Swanwick made the turn 1Up after winning the par3 eighth.
When all five matches had finished the front nine, the score was tied 2-2-1 with Florida leading the first two matches, Texas A&M controlling the next two with 1Up leads and the anchor match tied.
Kress grabbed the first point of the match with a 5&4 victory after halving the 14th, the same hole where he completed his undefeated mark at the 2023 SEC Championship as he did not lose a hole today.
Florida earned its second point right after the Kress victory as Poulter cruised to a 4&3 win to finish 3-0 in conference championship match play debut. He led the whole match and only lost two holes.
After a 2-0 lead, the remaining three matches were all split: Gators 1Up thru 11, Texas A&M 1Up thru 12 and the middle match tied thru 13.
A hole later, Turner tied his match with a birdie on the 13th resulting in both him and Swanwick tied (thru 14) and Gilligan 1Up thru 12.
Swanwick continued to be clutch. Down one with three to play, the freshman made back-to-back birdies on 16 and 17 with the second from the fringe with a crowd behind him.
With a 1Up advantage and one hole to play, Swanwick and Ennis both hit their second shots on the green on the 18th with Ennis closer to the cup. Swanwick went first and knocked his putt close enough for Ennis to concede for par, forcing the Aggie to make the birdie putt and send it to extra holes. He missed the putt just right, resulting in the hole halved and Swanwick winning 1Up to complete an undefeated weekend (3-0) and his second match-clinching point this week, as his first was vs. Oklahoma in the quarterfinals.
The final score reads 4-1 as the Aggies earned a point on a 2Up win due to Phichaksn Maichon leading Turner thru 16 when the match was clinched and Gilligan also a 2Up victory while he was up two holes with four to play as he finished 3-0 this week and a career 4-0 mark in conference tournament match play.
Notes:
* Florida men’s golf wins its 17th SEC title – No. 2 among all league men’s golf programs.
* The win is Gators Athletics’ 266th overall SEC title – which leads all league programs by more than 100 titles.
* This is the 47th consecutive season Florida has won a SEC title – the longest current streak among the league programs.
* Florida won two league titles – in different conferences – in the last two days. Today, Florida wins the SEC men’s golf title and yesterday, Florida lacrosse secured the Big 12 regular-season title with a 5-0 league record after closing regular-season action with a 17-5 win over Arizona State.
* In their SEC Championship debuts, both Luke Poulter and Zack Swanwick went undefeated (3-0) in match play
* Senior Ian Gilligan also went 3-0 this week and 4-0 all-time in SEC Championship match play.
SEC Championship Finals Pairings: No. 5 Florida 4, No. 3 Texas A&M 1
Luke Poulter 4&3 vs. Jamie Montojo
Matthew Kress 5&4 vs. Aaron Pounds
Zack Swanwick 1Up vs. Wheaton Ennis
Phichaksn Maichon 2Up vs. Jack Turner
Ian Gilligan 2Up vs. Michael Heidelbaugh
Post Round Quotes
Head Coach J.C. Deacon
What made this group special this week…
“We just kept getting better. We had a stumble in day two (of stroke play) there and then round three was incredible, one of two teams that were under par that day and then they just got better each match. Today, we played unbelievable golf. Hats off to Bryan Kortman (Texas A&M Head Coach) and Matt Fast (Texas A&M Assistant Coach) their program is unbelievable. We seem to play them every time that we are here. They (Aggies) played great today but we just happen to be a little better.
“I am so happy for these guys. They love each other and they work so incredibly hard. They earned this (SEC Championship).”
How do you build upon this and look to win a National Championship…
“We will let them enjoy it today, but I know these guys have the highest of goals and like Dudley Hart (Associate Head Coach) says, nothing changes. Play great or play bad, you get back to work and these guys will do it.”
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