Florida is three shots back from the top-5 cut heading into round two tomorrow.
RALEIGH, N.C. – The duo of Marina Escobar and Maisie Filler led the Florida women’s golf team with 1-under rounds on day one of the Raleigh Regional on Monday.
The Gators (+2) are in 6th and three strokes from fifth place Purdue (-1) and the top-5 54-hole cut scheduled for Wednesday. The top-5 teams will head to the National Championships at Grayhawk from May 19-24. Leading the field through 18 holes is host NC State at 6-under.
Florida erased a bumpy start that featured 5-over of the counting scores thru the stretch of holes 10-12. In the remaining holes on the back, the Gators found some rhythm to combine for 1-under and climbed back up the leader board. The momentum carried to the front for a counting score of 2-under.
Escobar highlighted the opening round with a big birdie putt on nine to close out her day. After a bogey on two, the senior went bogey-free the remaining seven holes with a birdie-par-birdie finish. She is tied for 9th with Filler.
Filler bounced back from an early double on her third hole and was bogey free over the next 14 holes with four birdies. She made the turn with back-to-back birdies on one (par-5, 507) and two (par-3, 181). The Palm Beach native is tied for third in the field with four birdies with Escobar.
The third Gator to not shoot over was Jackie Lucena with a solid 72 (E) Only 28 players in the field sit even or under par after day one. Her birdie-birdie performance on 15 (par-5, 504) and 16 (par-4, 341) helped start the rally for UF. She is a shot back from Escobar and Filler in T19.
Rounding out the lineup is Annabell Fuller (T46) and Taylor Roberts (T60).
Florida is scheduled to tee off round two tomorrow at 8 a.m. paired with four place Arizona (-2) and Purdue.
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