After Texas snagged two points early, Florida won the final the three remaining matches behind Ian Gilligan’s match-clinching victory as the Gators will face the Virginia Cavaliers at 4:15 p.m. ET today for a trip to the National Championship Finals.
CARLSBAD, Calif. – The Florida men’s golf team rallied and defeated No. 6-seed Texas 3-2 in the NCAA Championship Quarterfinals to advance to the NCAA Championship Semifinals vs. No. 7-seed Virginia this afternoon at 4:15 p.m. ET at Omni La Costa. The match will serve as a rematch of the 2023 NCAA Championship Quarterfinals when UF won 3-2 en route to winning the National Championship.
Florida reaches the semifinals for the second time in three seasons and program history since the match play era began in 2009. With the victory over the Longhorns, the Gators are 2-1 in match play since 2002 and 14-4 in postseason match play under head coach J.C. Deacon.
Virginia upset No. 2 Auburn and the reigning National Championships 3-2 this morning. On the other side of the bracket, Oklahoma State defeated Oklahoma 3.5-1.5 while Ole Miss won in extra holes over top-seed Arizona State 3-2. The winner of the semifinals matchups will earn a spot in the National Championship Finals scheduled for Wednesday at 5:25 p.m. live on Golf Channel with the broadcast beginning at 6 p.m.
The Gators battled back at the start of the turn as the Longhorns led the majority of the first nine, including lead in four of the five matches as all five were through at least four holes at the moment. Texas also went up 2-0 and needed one of three lone matches remaining for the match-clinching point behind Luke Potter’s 4&3 victory over Jack Turner and Tommy Morrison’s 1Up win over Luke Poulter in the leadoff match, Poulter’s first loss in his collegiate match play career in six total matches.
Florida’s rally was started by freshman Zack Swanwick, who shined with an undefeated (3-0) match play record at the SEC Championship. After one down through nine, he went on to win five of the next eight holes and bounced back from losses on five and six, which tied the match with back-to-back wins on seven and eight for a 2&1 victory and his fourth in postseason match play.
The only player with NCAA National Championship match play experience, Matthew Kress tied the match with a 3&1 win. He only lost two holes and never trailed while winning six and tying eight. It was his fifth postseason match play victory and first at the NCAAs.
Earning the match-clinching point, senior Ian Gilligan snagged in his final collegiate tournament. He became a member of the Korn Ferry Tour after finishing No. 4 in the final PGA Tour U Rankings yesterday, he rallied from two-down with eight to play. He squared the match winning consecutive holes on two and three. The match with his opponent Christiaan Mass remained tied for the next four holes as both were 1-under in that stretch.
Gilligan pushed ahead over Maas by taking the par3 eighth behind a par and then had two putts for par to for the clincher and send Florida to the National Championship Semifinals this afternoon.
Post Round Quotes – Head Coach J.C. Deacon
On Ian Gilligan experiencing this moment…
“An impossible match against such a great player in Christian Maas. It was all square with four to go, and Gilligan hit all the shots. Those are as good as shots as I’ve seen him hit all year, he striped every single one of them. That’s who he (Gilligan) is. He’s clutch. He loves these moments and relishes it.”
On going up against Virginia…
“Virginia has been really impressive this week. We played with them the first two rounds, and they had a terrible start, and they’ve just fought back so hard. So we know that we got our hands full. We got lucky that Jack Turner and Luke Poulter got beat since they will want to get those points back. We’re in a good spot, we have to keep doing our thing.”
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