Sophomore Toby
Ragland (Jacksonville, Fla.) fought back from a three-hole
deficit with three to play in his second-round match on Sunday, enabling the
top-seeded University of Florida men’s golf team to win a total-holes
tiebreaker, 30-28, and defeat eighth-seeded Duke by a score of 2-2-1. Earlier
in the day, the Gators defeated 16th-seeded Arizona, 3-2, in their opening-round contest.
Finding himself three holes down to Duke’s Jeff
Edelman after eight holes, Ragland battled through a seven-hole stretch of
all-square golf before making his move on Colonial Country Club’s third hole.
He bested Edelman by one stroke on the third and fourth holes, narrowing the
score to 1-up with one hole to play. Ragland capped the comeback with a
one-stroke win on Colonial’s fifth hole – widely regarded as one of the most difficult
holes in all of golf – to halve the match for the Gators and invoke a
tie-breaking scenario.
“Toby made a nice comeback to get an important half
for us,” Florida
head coach Buddy Alexander said. “He
was able to make pars on the last three holes, which are all very difficult. He
also had a nice win in the morning in a match that we had to have.”
Sophomore Billy
Horschel (Grant, Fla.) never trailed on the day en route
to picking up two wins for the Gators. He defeated Arizona’s Creighton Honeck, 3 and 2, in the
first round, and earned a 3-and-2 win over Duke’s Adam Long in the day’s latter
round. Junior Manuel Villegas (Medellin, Colombia)
also captured two wins on the day, including a 5-and-4 win over Arizona’s Trey Denton that
proved to be UF’s largest margin of victory on Sunday. In the second round,
Villegas posted a 3-and-1 win over the Blue Devils’ Clark Klaasen.
Freshman Tyson
Alexander (Gainesville, Fla.)
played a neck-and-neck second-round match with Duke’s Schachner
before eventually falling short by one hole, while senior Jessie Mudd (Louisville,
Ky.) also came up short
against Duke in the second round. Mudd and junior Tyler Brown (Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.) both dropped their opening-round matches
against Arizona.
“We’ve got Billy and Manny carrying the load for us a
little bit right now, so hopefully they can stay on a roll,” Alexander said. “Tyson
was able to keep him match close enough that we could win the tiebreaker.
Sometimes those things go your way, and we were fortunate today.”
Florida, which ran its all-time record at the Match Play Championship to 10-3
with Sunday’s two wins, will face fourth-seed Oklahoma State
on Monday. The defending-national-champion Cowboys defeated North Carolina State
and Clemson en route to their third-round matchup with UF. Live scoring can be
found at www.golfstat.com or via www.gatorzone.com.
Round One Results
(1) FLORIDA
def. (16) Arizona,
3-2
(2) Georgia
def. (15) Minnesota,
4-1
(3) UCLA def. (14) Auburn, 3-2
(4) Oklahoma
State def. (13) North Carolina State,
4-1
(5) Clemson def. (12) Washington, 2-2-1*
(11) Lamar def. (6) Coastal Carolina, 3-2
(7) Texas A&M
def. (10) Arizona
State, 5-0
(9) Duke def. (8) UNLV, 3-1-1
*Clemson wins
total holes tiebreaker, 29-20
Round Two Results
Winners Bracket
(1) FLORIDA def. (9) Duke, 2-2-1*
(7) Texas
A&M def. (2) Georgia, 3-2
(11) Lamar def. (3) UCLA, 3-2
(4) Oklahoma
State def. (5) Clemson, 5-0
*Florida wins total holes tiebreaker, 30-28
Consolation Bracket
(6) Coastal Carolina
def. (14) Auburn,
4-1
(8) UNLV def. (16) Arizona, 3-2
(10) Arizona
State def. (15) Minnesota, 2-1-2
(12) Washington def.
(13) North Carolina
State, 4-1
Florida’s Round
One Results (def. Arizona,
3-2)
Billy Horschel def. Creighton Honeck, 3 and 2
Manuel Villegas def. Trey Denton,
5 and 4
Toby Ragland def. Nathan Tyler, 3 and 1
Josh Esler def. Jessie
Mudd, 6 and 5
Ben Fox def. Tyler
Brown, 6 and 4
Florida’s Round Two Results (def. Duke, 2-2-1*)
Billy Horschel def. Adam Long, 3 and 2
Manuel Villegas def. Clark Klaasen, 3 and
1
Toby Ragland halved Jeff Edelman
Michael Quagliano def. Jessie Mudd, 4 and 3
Michael Schachner def. Tyson Alexander, 1 up
*Florida wins total holes tiebreaker, 30-28
-UF-
