Ian Gilligan leads the Gators Invitational behind his program tying 62 (-8) this afternoon.
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Gators golfer Ian Gilligan tied the program round record by score with a 62 as Florida leads heading into the final round of the Gators Invitational.
The Gators have two teams competing this week as Florida A sits at 22-under through 36 holes with Florida B two shots back at 20-under and North Florida the next closest team at 11-under. An 18-under round two from Florida A set the second lowest team round by par in program history, just one shot away from tying the record set in 2006 at the SEC Championship.
Gilligan’s bogey-free round of 62 (-8) tied the program record that was set by Camilo Villegas in 2003 at the Atlanta Intercollegiate. The round was one away from Gilligan’s career-low he set last year at Long Beach State in the John A. Burns Intercollegiate. He enters the final 18 holes with a one-shot lead.
The final round is scheduled for a 7:30 a.m. modified shotgun start tomorrow at Mark Bostick Course.
Round 1
Parker Bell highlighted the first set of 18 holes with a career-low 65 (-5), which tied for the sixth-lowest round by a Gator sophomore. He was bogey-free until his 16th hole of the day. He carded six birdies and ended as the round one leader by two shots.
He was joined by three other members of Florida B to shoot under par with Jack Turner (68, -2), Ryan Hart (68, -2) and Luke Poulter (69, -1). The group finished with a round score of 270 (-10) and led nearly all of the round and carried a three-shot lead over UNF (273, -7) and Florida A (276, -4).
A late charge on holes 17-18 from the Gators A team jumped them into third place at the end of the round. Matthew Kress had a birdie-birdie finish for an opening round of 67 (-3). Right after him Ian Gilligan made eagle on 17 (par-4, 336 yards) for a 1-under 69 and Tyler Wilkes, playing in the No. 1 spot, rounded out with a birdie on 17 for a round of even par 70 along with Joe Pagdin.
Round 2
Florida A began its surge to the team leader in round two. Gilligan paced the attack with four consecutive birdies out of the gates on holes 1-4. He finished the front nine bogey-free 5-under. All five Gators shot par or better in the first nine holes with Pagdin going 2-under and Quentin Debove 1-under to push in front of Florida B by two strokes and never looking back.
The second round of the day also featured multiple Gators battling in and out of first place with Gilligan finishing as the day one leader at 9-under. Four other Gators wrapped up day one in the top-10; Hart (T3), Kress (T5), Turner (T5), Pagdin (9). Eight of the 12 Gators competing are in the top-25.
Florida’s A squad all fired rounds of par or better with Pagdin (65, -5) and Kress (67, -3) tying their career-lows for round. The only not counting score was Wilkes’ 70 (E).
The Gators B team also turned in rounds of 60, led by Hart’s career-low 5-under 65. Turner set a new season-best with a 4-under 66 as John DuBois bounced back from +4 in the opening round with a 1-under 69 in round two. The group shot back-to-back rounds of 270 (-10), for the second lowest round in the field.
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