The University of Florida Men’s Golf team moved one step closer to securing a place in the NCAA Championship by carding a second round score of 282 (-6) at the West Regional Tournament on Friday. The Gators dropped into a tie for second place behind tournament host Arizona.

The Gator duo of senior Matt Every (Daytona Beach, Fla.) and freshman Billy Horschel (Grant, Fla.) stayed near the top of the leader board by shooting identical scores of 70 (-2). Every had a clean round with three birdies and one bogey to collect his fifth consecutive round at par-or-under. Horschel also had three birdies and picked up his fourth consecutive round with a score at par-or-under. Both will enter Saturday’s final round tied for fifth place.  

Senior Brett Stegmaier (Madison, Conn.) also collected his fifth consecutive round at par-or-under with a 71 (-1) during the second round. Freshman Toby Ragland (Jacksonville, Fla.) also went one-under for the day by carding a 71 (-1). Ragland had a flawless back-nine with two birdies. Senior James Vargas (Miami, Fla.) carded a 74 (+2) and finds himself tied for 31st going into the final round.

“I don’t think there is any question we are playing our best golf at the end of the year here and I don’t think it’s a fluke,” Alexander said. “This team has just gotten that much better through out the course of the year.” 

Florida fell out of the lead after Arizona shot a 273 (-15) on their home course. N.C. State also carded 273 (-15) to pull into a tie for second with the Gators at the Omni Tucson National Golf Club.

“I don’t think we expected some of the teams to play as well as they did today, but this was a pretty good wake up call,” Florida head coach Buddy Alexander said. “It wasn’t any sort of emergency situation, but we didn’t make some of birdie putts that could have kept us in the lead.”

The Gators will try to snap a streak of three consecutive runner-up finishes during the final round on Saturday. The top 10 teams from the West Regional Tournament will advance to the NCAA Championship in Bend, Ore. later this month. 

“I’ve said all along that we didn’t play poorly in finishing second,” Alexander said. “Our play at the conference tournament was outstanding. We lost to some good teams and looked solid doing it. Arizona is playing on their home course and it’s a huge advantage for them. We shot 15-under yesterday and we’re capable of doing it again.

The final round of the West Regional Tournament will begin at 7 a.m. (PDT). For tee-times and live scoring updates visit www.golfstat.com

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Florida Results