Entering the day in the final spot with a four-shot lead, the Gators shot a final round of 2-under to take 3rd and make the cut by 12 strokes.
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – The defending national champion Florida men’s golf team will return to the NCAA National Championship and defend their title. The Gators secured its ticket with a 3rd place finish at the NCAA West Lafayette Regional on Wednesday.
Play was delayed this morning at Kampen-Cosler Course due to rain and tee times were originally pushed back 90 minutes. Entering the final round the Gators sat in 5th at 2-under with a four-shot lead for the final advancing spot. UF shot a final round of 2-under 286 to produce a 54-hole score of 4-under 860 and make the top-5 championship cut by 12 shots. It marked the 18th top-3 finish all-time in 34 NCAA Regionals appearances.
Florida advanced to its fourth consecutive NCAA Championship and 57th overall. The Gators have only missed qualifying twice under head coach J.C. Deacon in nine regional outings. UF has made the championship in 20 of the last 22 tournaments as its 57 all-time outings at nationals rank fifth most in the nation behind Oklahoma State (75), Texas (68), USC (58) and Arizona State (58).
The NCAA Championship will take place at Omni La Costa (Champions Course) in Carlsbad, Calif. from May 24-29. It will be the first of three years the finals are taking play at Omni La Costa, which will be hosted by the University of Texas.
Deacon and the Gators had a better stay at Kampen-Cosler Course this time around. In 2017, Florida was the No. 1-seed and missed the top-5 championship cut after a final round of 24-over 312. The top-5 seeds all earned tickets to the NCAA Championship with Vanderbilt winning at 24-under followed by host Purdue with 11-under, Florida 4-under, Arizona at 3-under and New Mexico 2-under.
Through the first hour-and-half in the final rounds, teams battled rainy and cold conditions. Florida put together great start and setup for success when the rain stopped, with a combined 1-under on the first hole (#10) and was even-par on counting scores through the first five holes in the rain.
Florida made a charge in the final nine holes after finding itself 1-over at the turn and only a four-shot advantage over Indiana, who had just teed off its round its. The Florida separation began with a trio of birdies from Parker Bell, John DuBois and Ian Gilligan. Then Jack Turner put the Hoosiers and Mississippi State’s comeback efforts out of reach with a birdie on six to go up by 10 shots and into fourth place.
Making his regionals debut, Bell led the lineup with a T8 finish and a score of 4-under 212. He turned in all three rounds of par with back-to-back rounds of 2-under 70s to start. In 54-holes, he made 38 pars, 10 birdies and six bogeys. The sophomore flirted with the individual lead and was tied for the individual led behind a birdie on 14 and was one back of the lead in his final three holes. He finished three back of medalist William Moll of Vanderbilt. In six postseason rounds (SEC Championship and NCAA Regionals), five of Bell’s rounds are for par or better; 68 (-2), 69 (-1), 70 (-2), 70 (-2) and 72 (E). In his first two postseason appearances, he finished T23 at SECs and T8 at regionals.
Leading UF with a final round 3-under 69 was Turner. The freshman went bogey-free on the front nine and capped off his round with a birdie on the final hole. He finished T18 with a tournament score of 1-under 215. The Orlando, Fla. native has gone top-18 in his first career postseason appearances after a T2 finish at the SEC Championship. In five of his postseason rounds, five of them have been for under par; 68 (-2), 65 (-5), 70 (-2) and 69 (-3).
Another clutch round came from 5th-year senior DuBois (T34). After 2-over on his first nine holes and a double bogey on nine, he responded with a bogey-free 3-under and birdie on his final hole for a 1-under 71 final round.
Earning his team-leading 10th top-25 finish was Gilligan with a 1-over 217 and rounding out the lineup was Matthew Kress in T48.
Quotes
Head Coach J.C. Deacon
On Parker Bell and Jack Turner this postseason…
“We’re essentially in the postseason so far being carried by two underclassmen in a freshman in Jack Turner and Parker Bell in his sophomore year, but really it’s his freshman year too because he didn’t get the education that most of our guys get last year. He only played in like three or four events. So it’s really impressive what they’re doing. Both of them have worked extremely hard and are very coachable. They’re putting a lot of the lessons they’ve learned already this year to work and playing with a ton of confidence, and probably the best part about it is they’re best friends and really, really close. They’ve brought a lot of laughs to the team and provided a great atmosphere outside of making us better on the course.”
On 5th year-senior Joh DuBois clutch again…
“I think we’re really lucky how it all worked out that John DuBois found a way back in the lineup. I know hasn’t been the final year that maybe he had dreamed up, but you know, maybe it’s going to end the way we all want it. This (clutch play) is just what John does. He didn’t play his greatest the first two days, but when all the chips are out there and everything’s on the line, he just always finds a way to play well and help the Florida Gators. He has genuine put together with a mix of individual results and team results one of the greatest careers I think any Florida Gator golfer has ever had.”
On getting back to the NCAA National Championship
“It’s probably our number one goal. When you start the year to make sure you’re playing for that tournament and nothing’s ever guaranteed or promised at regionals. You’re playing with your season on the line from the first tee shot to the last and that’s a big moment. That’s what I’m most proud of it this team, is how hard we’ve worked. It just didn’t start the last month and it wasn’t a cram session. They started back in August. I usually see with a team when the stakes get really high that’s when you play to your work ethic, and we’ve worked really hard this year so I think that’s why we were able to perform so well today under that pressure.
“I’m super happy to be going back, we got a chance to win the national championship, a chance to get some tournament reps on that golf course for our young guys get some experience. There are so many positives that come with it and if we can get some of these older guys to play up to their ability along with Jack and Parker we could be dangerous.”
On getting some revenge at West Lafayette from 2017 appearance…
“The 2017 season was probably the most pivotal moment in my coaching career to this date. We had the second ranked team in the country, a number one seed and we completely fell on our face in a big moment on the final round. Jeremy Foley, who was the athletic director at the time, taught me how to deal with failure and taught me how to use it. I have thought about that day in that tournament probably 1,000 times in the last seven years, but we’ve made a lot of decisions based around that. We’ve tried to learn from it. (Associate Head Coach) Coach Dudley Hart really help add to all those things. You need mental toughness to play well when that much is on the line and especially on a hard golf course. We showed a lot of mental toughness today and that’s probably the part I’m most proud of.”
On teeing off next week at the NCAA Championship as the defending national champions…
“It still hasn’t sunk in that we actually won and the coolest part about it is how forever it is. It will never go away, you’re national champions forever. So Fred Biondi, Yuxin Lin and Ricky Castillo who won’t be with us next week. I won’t ever be able to thank them enough for that experience of that memory and we’ll have it forever but thankful to have two guys (John DuBois and Matthew Kress) in our lineup that did win it last year and know what it takes. We are going lean on their experience like we did last night in the team meeting and see if we can’t go do it again.”
Parker Bell, Sophomore
On first time playing in regionals and the experience…
“Well, I had J.C. (Deacon) with me the whole time and he really helped keep me calm out there. Coming off SECs (SEC Championship), it was pretty disappointing for me because I really felt like let us down against Vanderbilt. I really thought I was the reason that we lost to them and I just I want to do everything I could to not let that happen again at regionals. So when obviously whenever I got home, I worked on things that I needed to get better at and I’m glad that it was able to pay off.”
On getting to your first NCAA Championship and getting to be in the lineup for it…
“It’s what I came here to do, I’m living the dream. I can’t be more excited to get to compete for a national championship with my guys. That was my goal coming into this year. I want to be one of the guys hitting the shots if we made it back. I’m glad that you know in in a week, that’s what I’m going to be able to do.”
On Jack Turner and him playing well and being a key part of this team in the postseason…
“I have to give Jack a lot of credit. I didn’t know him much before college, but he has been so good for me. Just the work ethic he brings has really changed mine. We have become really close this year and I think we push each other to be great.”
On your success this postseason…
“It all just goes back to the preparation. This spring I’ve just tried to put in as much work as I possibly could before these tournaments (SEC Championship and NCAA Regionals) and I didn’t want it to be a lack of preparation before going into the tournament. I thought in the fall I really could have worked harder and this spring I’ve just tried to do everything I could, go all in. If it doesn’t work out, it just doesn’t work out, but I didn’t want it to do it because I didn’t give it all I had.”
On getting head coach J.C. Deacon and the program some revenge from the last time in the NCAA West Lafayette Regional…
“He (J.C. Deacon) mentioned to us that they were a one seed that year and they ended up not making it. Obviously, we wanted to do everything we could to not let that happen again. We all worked as hard as we could leading up to this and I think coach will say he’s thinks this is one of the hardest working groups that we’ve had. Maybe that’s where we’re a little different than that team (2017). That team had all the talent in the world with Alejandro Tosti and Sam Horsfield, but sometimes hard work beats talent when talent fails to work hard. I think that’s the difference with us this year.”
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