UF MGOLF: Gators Complete First Round in Arkansas

Florida is set to tee it up in the second round of the Blessings Collegiate Invitational at 1 p.m. ET tomorrow.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The Florida men’s golf team, flashing four new faces in the 5-deep lineup, struggled to find its rhythm on Monday and currently sits in ninth place at the inaugural Blessings Collegiate Invitational.

Sophomore Ricky Castillo is the lone returner from last year’s roster to appear in the lineup. He was joined by freshmen Joe Pagdin and Tyler Wilkes, junior transfer Giovanni Manzoni, and graduate transfer Carlos Bustos.

The Gators finished the first round a collective 12 over par with Pagdin and Manzoni leading the way after posting an even scorecard.

Florida will head back out on the course at 1 p.m. ET tomorrow.

Head Coach JC Deacon’s Take
On today’s scorecard…
“To be honest, our rough start today was expected. We haven’t had much time to prepare and this golf course is going to punish you if you’re out of position. We were not at our best and our score shows it.”

On the positives from today…
“There are two huge positives: 1) We still have 36 holes left to love up the board and 2) We faced a format we’ve never had before (all playing together) and I thought we did a great job handling that. The guys fought for every shot until the last putt went in.”

On tomorrow’s expectations…
“I know how talented this team is and we will get it going. Just need a little momentum to start the day tomorrow and we will get right back in contention.”

Results
Team Leaderboard
Pos.

Team

Score

Tennessee

280 (-8)

Kentucky

288 (E)

Texas A&M

288 (E)

LSU

291 (+3)

Alabama