Newcomers Ian Gilligan and Jack Turner were both named PING All-American Honorable Mentions.
NORMAN, Okla. – Florida men’s golfers Ian Gilligan and Jack Turner earned PING All-American Honorable Mention honors on Wednesday.
The newcomer duo collected accolades of PING All-Region and All-SEC. Gilligan earns his second all-american honor with Turner his first as he was recently tabbed the GCAA All-Freshman Team (one of five selections).
It marks consecutive seasons with multiple all-american selections for Florida and five times under head J.C. Deacon.
After transferring from Long Beach State prior to the season, Gilligan was in the lineup for all 14 tournaments and 37 rounds while playing in the No. 1 spot for the last seven events. The junior was named to the All-SEC Second Team and two-time SEC Golfer of the Week, and earned GCAA/SWING U Golfer of the Month for February. He was also named to Team USA for the 2024 Arnold Palmer Cup.
He won his first tournament as a Gator and fifth collegiate at the Southern Highlands Collegiate this spring, earning him an exemption into the PGA Tour’s Shriners Open. In his SEC Championship debut, Gilligan won his quarterfinal matchup in 20 holes vs. Gordon Sargeant of Vanderbilt.
A native of Reno, N.V., Gilligan began the spring portion with finishes of 2-3-1 and a stretch of 12 consecutive rounds of par or better, including six straight in the 60s. In his first Gators Invitational start, he tied the program record for round (by score) with a 62. His stroke average of 71.3 ranked second on the team as he also tied for the team-leading three top-5, five top-10, and led with 10 top-25 finishes. In 37 rounds this season, 34 have counted, 21 for par or better, 10 in the 60’s, team-highs with 137 birdies and six eagles.
Turner played in 10 tournaments and 27 total rounds, appearing the lineup for each postseason event; NCAA Championship, NCAA Regionals and SEC Championship. He finished top-23 in all three events with his best tied for runner-up at the SECs. The Orlando, Fla. native owned a team-best 71.0 stroke average, placing him 12th all-time single-season stroke average and third-best by a freshman since 1981. Turner led the Gators in par or better tournament scores (6), average relation to par for 18 (-0.79) and 54 (-2.37) and tied for a team-high five top-10 finishes.
Recently at the NCAA National Championship, Turner tied for the team-best T23 finish. He becomes the sixth Florida freshman to finish top-23 at the NCAAs since 2001, joining ranks of Billy Horschel, Sam Horsfield, Matt Every and Camilo Villegas. Turner was steady through all four rounds to produce a 72-hole score of 3-over 291. He was tied for third in the field with an average of 3.98 (-1) on par4s and a mark of 4.88 (-2) on par5s.
The finish of T2 was tied for second-best by a Florida true freshman since Camilo Villegas in 2001. He shot a bogey-free 5-under 65 round two, one shot back of the SEC Championship record. Turner also went 1-0 in match play in the conference tournament with a 1Up victory over Vanderbilt’s Cole Sherwood after winning the last three consecutive holes.
After making the lineup in the season opener and finishing T78, he placed T23 or better in the remaining nine events with three top-3 finishes. In his 27 rounds played, 16 were for par or better as he made 116 birdies and five eagles, including one eagle in his opening round of the NCAA National Championship at Omni La Costa. At the NCAA West Lafayette Regional, he regrouped from a 4-over 76 round one with final rounds of 2-under 70 and 3-under 69 to finish T18 and 1-under 215. Turner placed under par at SECs as well with a 6-under 204.
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