Gators Finish Second in Season Opener
Jack Turner placed T4 and Ian Gilligan T8 to lead Florida at the Sahalee Players Championship.
SEATTLE, Wash. – For the second consecutive round the Florida men’s golf team owned the low round in the field en route to a second-place finish in the season opener at the Sahalee Players Championship on Sunday.
The Gators climbed multiple spots (4 today, 5 yesterday) in back-to-back rounds to finish with a team score of 868 (+4) behind a final round of 285 (-3) to finish runner-up. Florida’s rounds of 283 and 285 marked the second and fourth lowest by a team outside of Arizona State’s 282 and 284, who won the tournament at 7-under.
After a breakout freshman season that earned All-American honors, Jack Turner led the lineup with a T4 performance. Since his collegiate debut last fall, he has placed T23 or better with five top-5s in nine starts. He shot a final round of 71 (-1) to end only two shots back of medalist honors with a 54-hole score of 214 (-2).
Ian Gilligan tied for the low individual round on the final day with a 69 (-3) to finish T8. He made eagle on hole two, a par-5 of 509 yards and had 54-hole score of 216 (E).
Rounding out a strong collegiate debut, Rylan Shim ended tied for 23rd. The redshirt-freshman was joined by true freshman Zack Swanwick in their first collegiate outings as Swanwick shot his low round of the tournament with a 72 (E) to place T39.
Parker Bell also had a 72 (E) score in the final set of 18 holes as he finished T36 followed by Matthew Kress at T55.
The Gators head to Olympia Fields for the Fighting Illini Collegiate from Sept. 20-22.
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