UF WGOLF | Florida Youth Sweep Gators Invitational, Guiser Wins First Collegiate Title

Florida Youth Sweep Gators Invitational, Guiser Wins First Collegiate Title
Freshman Jessica Guiser won the tournament at 4-under as the Gators won its fourth tournament of the season.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The Florida women’s golf team flashed their youth in a sweep of the 53rd Gators Invitational as freshman Jessica Guiser won the individual title on Saturday.

The Gators claimed its fourth victory of the season with a final tournament score of +9, defeating No. 11 Virginia (+11) and No. 14 Ole Miss (+13). Six UF golfers finished in top-23 led by Guiser’s first collegiate victory at 4-under 206. The last time Florida swept both the team and individual titles at the home tournament was in 2021.

Guiser entered the day one shot out the lead after the first two rounds of 68 (-2) and 69 (-1). After starting with back-to-back bogeys in the final round, the freshman went 3-under with three birdies in her last five holes for a final round of 69 (-1) to defeat Pimpisa Sisutham of UCF by a shot, who finished runner-up and had won the event the last two seasons.

The Orange and Blue teed off the final 18-holes, one shot back of No. 14 Ole Miss. Florida grabbed the lead through 3-5 holes and never trailed the rest of the way battling through pouring rain the late morning, and owning a lead as many as four shots.

UF’s lead dropped to one shot through 11-13 holes and had to battle through the second wave of rain that started in the afternoon. Clutch pars throughout the lineup in Inès Archer, Karoline Tuttle and Siuue Wu between holes 16-18 along with Addison Klonowski’s birdie on 17 helped maintain the Gators’ lead and hold on for a two-shot victory over the Cavaliers.

The Florida lineup featured five underclassmen in two sophomores (Paula Francisco and Archer), a redshirt-sophomore making her season debut (Tuttle), a redshirt-freshman (Klonowski) and true freshman (S. Wu). The young Gators defeated a UVA lineup consisting of two graduate students, two seniors and sophomore in addition to an Ole Miss five of a senior, junior, sophomore and two freshmen.

Florida won the event for the 27th time in program history in the tournament’s 53rd occurrence, dating back to 1973. The Gators won the tournament for the ninth time in the last 10 seasons. Across the last two seasons, Florida has won seven events while marking back-to-back seasons of three-plus victories for the first time since 2015-16 & 2016-17. The last time UF won four events in a season was the 2016-17 season when they won the SEC Championship and NCAA Regional titles.

The victory is also the 35th all-time under head coach Emily Glaser; 36th total as she was an assistant coach for a season in 2011-12.

Klonowski was the top finisher in the lineup with a 9th place performance for her team-high seventh top-25. She logged a final round of 1-under 69 to end 1-under 211 in her Gators Invitational. The Naples native now has recorded a team-leading 10 rounds and 3 tournaments of par or better.

After redshirting last season due to an injury, Tuttle made her season debut since the 2023 SEC Championship Quarterfinals on April 15 turning in strong 1-over 71 in round three. She finished T10 at 212 (+1) and carded 35 pars and nine birdies in her 54-holes.

Francisco secured her fourth top-20 of the spring and fifth of the season in a T13 outing with a score of 214 (+4). Rounding out the lineup, Siuue Wu tied for 21st at +7 and Archer T23 at +8, who made an important late birdie on 14 to hold off a UVA comeback.

Competing as an individual this week, Sophie Stevens (+9) was one stroke away from the top-25 in T26. Both Sarunchana Rattanasin (60, +18) and Isa Wu (75, +32) also played as individuals in this tournament with Wu marking her collegiate debut.

The regular season concludes at the Chattanooga Invitational (March 28-30) followed by the first leg of the postseason at the SEC Championship (April 14-18) at Pelican Golf Club in Belleair, Fla.

Quotes
Jessica Guiser
On the first-place finish…
“It was amazing, especially here at the University of Florida of course. My whole team being here means the world to me. My coaches and all the supporters who came out to watch us.”

On defending the home turf…
“I think it means so much. I mean this is my first Gator Invitational, so hopefully I can play well in the next upcoming ones. It just means so much going out there and playing and everyone wearing the orange and blue and then wearing it myself I feel so proud.”

On the final round…
“I just tried to stay patient. Especially because I didn’t get off to the best of starts. I bogied two holes pretty early on, so I knew my putting was pretty good the past couple of days. So, I just tried to stay patient, one shot at a time, and knew the ball would eventually go in.”
Head Coach Emily Glaser
On having a well-balanced team…
“We were just talking about that. I think the fact that Jess won this weekend really just kind of shows you the depth that we have, and I feel like we’ve been cultivating that all year. They’re a young group, so you don’t really know what to expect, but certainly know that the level of talent is there. So, really excited to see that. And yeah, just got to keep pushing each other to get better and better.”

On playing in the weather today and how it affects play…
“I think you definitely want to keep going, mostly as a tournament host, because there’s logistical issues with getting people around the golf course and things like that. But all these girls are high level athletes. They’ve played in tough weather before, it’s a little bit of a nuisance, but it’s almost how you handle it mentally.”

On defending the home turf after last year’s loss…
“I think it’s really important and really cool, because we talk about as a group like minus the postseason, there really isn’t an event that we play in that creates this much pressure and these types of nerves, other than playing in your home tournament, in front of your home crowd. All I can liken it to is, imagine if the football team only played once in The swamp all year, there’d be a lot of pressure on that game, right? That’s kind of what it feels like for us. And so, it’s really important that we kind of embrace that, because it’s great preparation for the postseason. So, we talked about that, but then to see them be able to kind of overcome those things, I think, is a really great testament to what a special group they are.”

On beating teams like veteran teams Virginia and Ole Miss…
“The good news is, I think we’re all aware of that. It’s not something that we actively talk about. I think that now that they got a little time under their belt, they’re starting to maybe see themselves in a different light. Looking at it more as about experience than you know necessarily what the grade level is, but there is no doubt that like those teams, have experience on those two rosters, which is one of the reasons why they’re great teams. And so, it was fun to be able to go toe to toe with them this week and hopefully it just keeps opening this group’s eyes to how good they can be.”

On her message to the team at the very end of the tournament…
“I just told them to not take it for granted, because winning is hard in golf. I mean, a lot of times people don’t realize we go every week and we’re playing 14, 15, sometimes more teams. So, you don’t just have to be one opponent, you have to be lots of opponents every week. And so, I just reminded them that winning is very special. It’s not easy in golf, and it’s obviously special to do it at home as well. And then we just talked a little bit about Jess and how happy we are for her, and it’s just a testament. It’s an individual win, but I think it’s part of a group project because they’re all pushing each other to make each other better. And she just, you know, reap the rewards of that this week.”

On Karoline Tuttle getting into the lineup…
“It’s really great. She’s been working hard and has been really close. And I know it’s been frustrating for her at times, and we know she can play. And so, to get her the opportunity and have her capitalize on that I think is great for her. She’s been working hard.”

Florida Leaderboard
Place

Name

Rd. 1

Rd. 2

Rd. 3

Score

Jessica Guiser<https://floridagators.com/sports/womens-golf/roster/jessica-guiser/17015> (I)

204 (-4)

Addison Klonowski<https://floridagators.com/sports/womens-golf/roster/addison-klonowski/17009>

211 (-1)

T10

Karoline Tuttle<https://floridagators.com/sports/womens-golf/roster/karoline-tuttle/17011>