Seven-Under Final Nine Moves Gators tied for Second at National Championship
Florida shot its lowest opening round at the tournament in 19 years with 2-under rounds by Luke Poulter and Zack Swanwick.
CARLSBAD, Calif. – The Florida men’s golf team got off to a great start behind a 7-under final nine at the 2025 NCAA National Championship for a 3-under round one to sit tied for second on Friday at Omni La Costa.
Today’s mark of 3-under is the lowest opening round at the National Championship since 2006 (4-under) and tied for the third lowest round all-time at the tournament since then in program history.
The Gators are tied with Florida State and Texas in second as Oklahoma leads the first 18-holes at 8-under. UF was only one of seven teams to shoot under par today as three Florida golfers carded low rounds.
Florida is paired with ACC Champion Virginia and the Seminoles for tomorrow’s second round, which begins at 10:25 a.m. ET. Following 54-holes on Sunday, the top-15 advance to the final round of stroke play on Monday as after 72-holes the top-8 advance to match play.
A 7-under final nine holes boosted UF up the leaderboard and rebounded from a 4-over first nine holes as Luke Poulter and Zack Swanwick both shot team-lows of 2-under 70 in their National Championship debuts. The pair bounced back from rough starts as Poulter made double on his first hole and Swanwick bogey-bogey start.
Swanwick logged a 4-under mark on the front nine with a birdie-birdie start and closed with a birdie on the par4 ninth (426 yards). After a bogey on the par3 16th (162 yards), Poulter went 4-under bogey-free behind back-to-back birdies on 17-18 and the seven-eighth. It was his fifth under par and sixth par or better round out of seven rounds this postseason.
Senior Ian Gilligan was the third Gator to finish in the red with a 1-under 71. Ranked No. 3 in the PGA Tour U rankings, he erased a 3-over start through five holes behind an eagle on the par5 second (622 yards), one of six today among the field.
The final counting round was from Jack Turner at 74 (+2), who had an even-par final nine holes as the non-counting was just a shot back in Matthew Kress with a 75 (+3).
Post Round Quotes – Head Coach J.C. Deacon
On today’s performance…
“Very proud of our resilience today. Conditions were extremely difficult when we started. Greens have firmed up and it was breezy. Our guys hung in there and showed a ton of maturity. We can play better than this, but it was a nice start. We’ll build off it.”
On the three guys shooting under par – Ian Gilligan, Luke Poulter and Zack Swanwick…
“Great to get that round from our freshman Zack Swanwick. He’s really become the five-man you dream of. Emotional reliable and he showed after the bogey-bogey start. He didn’t flinch and shot a great round of 70
“Another solid day for Luke Poulter and nice 70 to open this week. He wasn’t pleased after as his ball striking and knows he could have been much better.
“Ian Gilligan had a tough start as well and hung in there to put up an under-par round for us. Just a ton of resilience and maturity up and down the lineup.”
Florida Leaderboard
Place
Name
Total Score
Total Par
Rd. 1 Score
Rd. 1 Par
T16
Zack Swanwick<https://floridagators.com/sports/mens-golf/roster/zack-swanwick/16892>
70
-2
70
-2
T16
Luke Poulter<https://floridagators.com/sports/mens-golf/roster/luke-poulter/16888>
70
-2
70
-2
T25
Ian Gilligan<https://floridagators.com/sports/mens-golf/roster/ian-gilligan/16884>
71
-1
71
-1
T63
Jack Turner<https://floridagators.com/sports/mens-golf/roster/jack-turner/16890>
74
+2
74
+2
T79
Matthew Kress<https://floridagators.com/sports/mens-golf/roster/matthew-kress/16886>
75
+3
75
+3
Team Leaderboard
POS
Team
Total
RD 1
1
Oklahoma
280
-8
280
-8
T2
Florida
285
-3
285
-3
T2
Texas
285
-3
285
-3
T2
Florida State
285
-3
285
-3
T5
Illinois
286
-2
286
-2
T5
Arizona State
286
-2
286
-2
T5
Auburn
286
-2
286
-2
T8
Colorado
289
+1
289
+1
T8
California
289
+1
289
+1
T8
Brigham Young
289
+1
289
+1
11
Georgia
291
+3
291
+3
T12
Texas Tech
292
+4
292
+4
T12
Troy
292
+4
292
+4
T14
Pepperdine
293
+5
293
+5
T14
Oklahoma State
293
+5
293
+5
T14
Ole Miss
293
+5
293
+5
T14
Georgia Tech
293
+5
293
+5
T14
USF
293
+5
293
+5
T19
San Diego
294
+6
294
+6
T19
Vanderbilt
294
+6
294
+6
21
Augusta
295
+7
295
+7
22
Wake Forest
296
+8
296
+8
T23
Texas A&M
297
+9
297
+9
T23
New Mexico
297
+9
297
+9
T25
UNLV
299
+11
299
+11
T25
Virginia
299
+11
299
+11
27
UCLA
301
+13
301
+13
28
South Carolina
302
+14
302
+14
29
Tennessee
304
+16
304
+16
30
Purdue
307
+19
307
+19
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