Sophomore Paula Francisco finished runner-up as Florida advances to the final postseason tournament for the first time since 2019.
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The No. 21 Florida women’s golf team qualified for the NCAA National Championships after finishing T3 at the NCAA Charlottesville Regional on Wednesday at Birdwood Golf Course.
Sophomore Paula Francisco finished runner-up with a 54-hole score of 4-under 209, a career-low tournament score, one shot behind medalist Marie Madsen of N.C. State, who earned a spot individually at the championships next week.
Francisco led through the first two rounds and opened her second start in regionals with a career-low 4-under 67, her second of the postseason after the same mark in round one of the SEC Championship. She was tied for a tournament-best this week with 12 birdies and one eagle. The finish is the best by a Gator at an NCAA Regional since 2017 when Kelly Grassel won medalist honors in Columbus.
Florida had a final team round of 293 (+9) for a three-round score of 864 (+12) to finish tied for 3rd with host Virginia. South Carolina (-2) won the regional followed by Ole Miss (+9) and in the fifth and final championship advancing spot UCLA (+17).
UF earned the trip to the final tournament of the season behind an all underclassmen lineup of three sophomores and two freshmen while overcoming some heart breakers at regionals over the last four years, including missing by a shot in back-to-back seasons (2021 & 2022) and leading at the turn last year.
The NCAA National Championships will take place at Omni La Costa from May 16-21. Florida advances to the championships for the first time since 2019 and 29th time in program history since the inaugural NCAA-sanctioned golf tournament in 1982, entering its 43rd year – no tournament in 2020 due to COVID-19. It is the seventh time under head coach Emily Glaser Florida has reached nationals.
When Florida teed off the final 18-holes at Birdwood Golf Course, they were eight shots inside the championship cut as N.C. State, who finished sixth and battled to crack the top-5 today.
The Gators got off to a great start with two birdies on hole one from Addison Klonowski and Karoline Tuttle. A redshirt-freshman, Klonowski, made back-to-back birdies and added her third in the first four holes. She had a clutch final round of 2-under 69 with a birdie on the 18th to finish T13, her ninth top-25 of the season and 12th under par round – both team-highs.
Once all five in the lineup were two holes or more completed, Florida was tied for second with Ole Miss and UCLA at +3 and six shots inside the cut, the closest they would be from falling out the rest of the day.
At holes 4-7 finished, Florida began to sit clear from danger and was 10 shots clear as Francisco and South Carolina’s Louise Rydqvist were both tied for the lead at 4-under thru 4 holes with UCLA’s Angela Liu a shot back as the trio was in the final grouping today.
Kolonwski was the first Gator to make turn at 2-under with UF sitting 3rd and nine strokes clear of cut while Francisco made birdie on the 8th to put Florida into 2nd and 11 shots clear of cut the Wolfpack. The birdie also regained the solo lead at the turn.
As the Gators began to conclude the back-nine, they had 26 holes left to score and were 10 shots comfortably inside the cut-line as Inès Archer went bogey-free on the front and started the turn with a birdie. The sophomore had a final round of 72 (+1) while she celebrated her birthday.
Francisco had a big par save to complete a beautiful up-and-down after hitting her tee shot into the greenside bunker on the par3 11th, which kept her tied for the lead and Florida double digit advantage of the cut.
Recording one of three total eagles this week, Francisco notched it on the par5 12th that played 524 yards. It gave her a two-shot lead at the moment and the team lead increased to 14 shots. She then added her 12th birdie of the week on the 14th and held a one-shot lead with three to play as N.C. State’s Madsen made back-to-back birdies on five and six to get into one shot as the Wolfpack teed off the back nine to start.
However, Francisco would lose the lead after consecutive bogeys on the 15th and 16th. She had a birdie putt on the 17th to tie Madsen but just pushed it to the right to finish with a final round of 72 (+1).
The final counting score was from Karoline Tuttle with a 80 (+9) and the non-counting score via Jessica Guiser at 81 (+10).
Post Round Quotes – Head Coach Emily Glaser
On qualifying with this group and overcoming last few seasons at regionals…
“Thrilled for them, they are a great team. They work hard, so you really want to root for players and teams like that. It’s never an easy day today so it does feel good to breath a sigh of relief and just see them fight hard the way to the end and have it pay off for them.”
On having a young group be successful in the postseason…
“We talked at the beginning of the year that were never going to use (that we are young) as an excuse to underperform or not do something the right way and they really bought into that. The idea of we may be a young team but at the end of the day no one really cares so you have to step up and do your job. They really bought into that, it’s really one of things I’m probably most proud of them for the whole year.”
On message to team after the round…
“I just told him them I was really proud of him. I know they fought hard all day and it’s not an easy day so to see them get out there and be gritty, go for it and fight, that’s what you want to see. I sort of try to draw the correlation between why we talk about those things being important all year long because when you get in moments like this or in high pressure situations at SECs, Regionals or Nationals, you want to have those skills you’ve been working on all year. We try to connect the dots with them on that and why we preach that all the time.”
On Paula Francisco’s play this week…
“Paula is an amazing talent, and I’ve been walking with her for a while now, and really feel like I’m getting to know her game. It’s just really fun to be out there with someone who is physically gifted, but also just has a great time when she’s playing and pours her heart and soul into it. She works really hard outside at home and even outside of the golf course in the gym. I’m thrilled for her. I think we’ve only scratched the surface of what we are going to see out of here.”
Florida Leaderboard
Place
Name
Rd. 1
Rd. 2
Rd. 3
Score
Par
2
Paula Francisco<https://floridagators.com/sports/womens-golf/roster/paula-francisco/17008>
67
70
72
209
-4
T13
Addison Klonowski<https://floridagators.com/sports/womens-golf/roster/addison-klonowski/17009>
74
73
69
216
+3
T18
Inès Archer<https://floridagators.com/sports/womens-golf/roster/ins-archer/17007>
72
73
72
217
+4
T32
Jessica Guiser<https://floridagators.com/sports/womens-golf/roster/jessica-guiser/17015>
71
72
81
224
+11
T43
Karoline Tuttle<https://floridagators.com/sports/womens-golf/roster/karoline-tuttle/17011>
73
75
80
228
+15
Team Leaderboard
Place
School
Rd. 1
Rd. 2
Rd. 3
Score
Par
1
South Carolina
277
286
287
850
-2
2
Ole Miss
282
290
289
861
+9
T3
Florida
283
288
293
864
+12
T3
Virginia
286
288
290
864
+12
5
UCLA
281
288
300
869
+17
Top-5 National Championship Cut
6
NC State
289
290
297
876
+24
7
UCF
298
293
291
882
+30
8
BYU
293
296
299
888
+36
9
Princeton
298
293
301
892
+40
10
Charleston
302
299
296
897
+45
11
Richmond
313
308
305
926
+74
12
Radford
304
309
320
933
+81
