Entering the day with nine-shot lead and clear of the championship cut by 31-shots, Florida had a final round of 3-under 285 for a 54-hole score of 28-under 836 after a 16-under round two, which was the sixth lowest round by par and lowest at a regional since a 17-under final round in 2018. The final tournament score by par of 28-under is tied for eight lowest all-time and third-lowest at an NCAA Regional in program history. 

The Gators finished 28 strokes ahead of the top-5 cut and won by three shots over No. 1-seed Arizona State. The next three teams to make the cut were Colorado (-4), USF (-2) and South Carolina (E) as Utah placed sixth, one shot away from forcing a playoff with the Gamecocks.  

Kress finished runner-up with a final round of 1-under 71 to produce a 54-hole score of 11-under. He pushed out to a four-shot lead behind three consecutive birdies between holes 4-6 to reach the 13-under and multi-stroke lead he held for the majority of the day. He had two late bogeys on the 16th & 18th to finish at 11-under and tied with South Carolina’s Franike Watts for medalist honors at the time. 

However, Utah’s Braxton Watts would rally and shoot a 4-under bogey-free back nine and made a tap-in birdie on the 18th to win the individual title by a single shot over Kress and Watts. He earns a spot as an individual in next week’s national championship. 

Florida advances its 58th NCAA Championship appearance and fifth straight, which the current streak began in Cle Elum, Washington. Florida has now only missed qualifying twice under head coach J.C. Deacon in 10 total regional appearances as the Gators have reached regionals every season under him and 35 of the 26 all-time men’s golf regionals. The top-3 finish is the 19th all-time and fifth under Deacon.  

UF has made the national championships 20 of the last 23 times as its 58 all-time outings at nationals are tied for fourth most in the nation behind Oklahoma State (76), Texas (69), Arizona State (59) and USC (58).

This is the second title of the postseason after Florida won its 17th SEC Championship in April. The last time UF won both a team conference and regional title in the same season was 2011 as this is the fourth time both have been done in a season in program history – 1989 & 1992. 

The victory is the seventh regional title in program history and second under Deacon with the first being in 2018 to total five team titles this season and the third consecutive. It is the 32nd tournament title under Deacon in 11 seasons. This is the third straight season of four-plus wins under him and the seventh season of multiple wins, including the last five consecutive.

In the last four years with Deacon, Florida has won the NCAA National Team Championship, four NCAA Championships appearances, two SEC Team Championships, three SEC Final Appearances, NCAA Individual Championship, SEC Individual Championship, NCAA Regional Team Championship,19 tournament titles and 13 individual titles.

Playing in his first career regionals, redshirt-sophomore Luke Poulter finished two strokes back of the individual leaders at 10-under 206, for a career-low tournament score and T4 outing. He recorded all three rounds of under par to total five of six postseason rounds even or under, including a 3-0 match play record at the SEC Championship.

Continuing his streak of top-23 finishes in the postseason, sophomore Jack Turner finished tied for 12th at 2-under par this week. He has ended under par in four of the five postseason tournaments for a cumulative total of 10-under.

Bouncing back from an 8-over 80 yesterday, senior Ian Gilligan turned in a final round of 2-under 70 to finish T37 while freshman Zack Swanwick rounded out the lineup in T27. 

Post Round Quotes – Head Coach J.C. Deacon

On winning regionals…

“This is really special. Especially with Arizona state here and Matt Thurmond (head coach) with their program, they are as good as anyone out there. So for us to run with those guys and come out on top is really rewarding. I am happy for our guys. They’ve worked so hard all year and they are starting to see a lot of benefits from that. Two postseason wins in a row, and rolling into the national championship, you can’t ask for more than that.”

 

On reaching National Championships five years in a row…

“We have really special culture and tradition at Florida right now. The expectations are as high as they’re they’ve ever been, and these guys all embrace that. That’s why they come here, to be a part of something special. To try be the absolute best, and playing well this week, we got a chance to win. So we are going to enjoy the win for the five minutes then right back to focusing on how we can win a championship next week.”

 

On Matthew Kress this week and journey here.

“To say I’m proud of Matthew Kress, doesn’t do it justice. Whatever’s in his way, he works through it. He was in a really tough spot in January, wasn’t playing well. Was out of the lineup, in the individual spot, and not happy. I wasn’t happy. Nobody was happy. But he just keeps waking up early every morning and going to bed early every night thinking about how he’s going to get better, and he’s certainly gotten better.”

 

On message to guys going into next week’s National Championship…

“I don’t want to sound arrogant here, but I don’t think we played our absolute best. Obviously, Matthew Kress and Luke Poulter played great, but for some of the guys, I believe they are probably not going to be completely pleased with a few aspects of their game. So we got a week to get some things right and like we’ve done all year, we’re just going to going to work hard and polish up all areas of our game. We got to play at La Costa last year so that’s a nice advantage that we’ve had some guys see the course. We have a lot work to do. This was a stop on the journey. This was not the destination to win regionals, we want to win the national championship, and we know we got a lot of work ahead of us.”

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