The Gators shot 14-under for its fifth straight tournament under par by double digits in a seventh-place finish on Saturday.
TUCSON, Ariz. – The Florida men’s golf team wrapped up its trip out west at the NIT on Saturday, finishing 7th with three Gators in the top-20.
When Florida made the turn, they were 10-plus shots clear of the lead. The Gators (-14) battled on the back nine and shot 5-under today to cut the deficit to low as six strokes on two different occasions, but host Arizona (-24) pushed ahead and won. UF finished 14-under overall for the fifth straight under par double digit performance and seventh under par tournament this season.
The charge at the turn was led by Fred Biondi who was 3-under on the back with a final round of 69 (-3). He bounced back after a bogey on nine with a stretch of par-birdie-birdie-birdie-par-birdie. His final birdie on 15 (par 5, 610) pulled Florida into six back from the lead. He finished 4-under at T16 for his sixth tournament under par.
Matthew Kress recorded his second 3-under 69 this weekend on the final day. He only had one bogey on the day, which came on 17 as he wrapped up his second appearance in the lineup with a birdie on 18 to jump 16 spots and finish T20.
Also tied for 20th was Ricky Castillo. He shot 3-under 213 to tie with Biondi for the team-leading sixth tournament under par. A stroke behind was Ryan Hart in T27 as he was 2-under overall while making his debut in the lineup. Giovanni Manzoni rounded out the lineup at T55.
The Orange and Blue finish the regular season at the Augusta Haskins Award Invitational (April 1-2) then begin play at the SEC Championship on April 19 at Sea Island.
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