Sophomore Tyson Alexander (Gainesville, Fla.) birdied his first three holes en route to a 1-under 70 to position the No. 9 University of Florida men’s golf team in fourth place at four strokes off the pace at the Hootie At Bulls Bay Invitational on Monday.

The Gators matched their 1-over 285 score from the first round to sit at 2-over 570 through 36 holes. South Carolina maintained its lead with a second-round 286 that put them at 2-under 566 overall. North Carolina State is second at 1-under, and Clemson is third at 1-over. Florida is nine shots better than fifth place Auburn, who is at 11-over.

“Hopefully, we can go out early and post a number that might be good enough to win tomorrow,” UF head coach Buddy Alexander said. “We have played solidly. All 10 scores have been reasonably decent. We haven’t really had anyone post a low round yet, and I think we have a couple of those in us. I would be very surprised if we don’t play very well tomorrow.

Alexander came out firing with birdies on the first three holes of his round. He played the par-3s at 2-under, including a birdie on the seventh hole. Alexander closed his front nine at 2-under and played his final nine holes at 1-over par to sit in a tie for fifth place with four other players.

North Carolina State’s Matt Hill fired a 67 to take a one-shot lead over Wake Forest’s Webb Simpson at 4-under on the individual leaderboard. Eight players are within three strokes of the lead, including Alexander.

Senior Manuel Villegas (Medellin, Colombia) carded an eagle on the par-5 10th hole that highlighted his even-par round of 71. Villegas had three bogeys and rolled in a birdie on the par-3 12th. The senior is a tie for 12th place at 1-over heading into Tuesday’s final round.

Junior Toby Ragland (Jacksonville, Fla.) also tallied a 71 on Monday and is in a tie for 19th place at 2-over. Ragland had four birdies to go along with four bogeys. Junior Billy Horschel (Grant, Fla.) and senior Tyler Brown (Jacksonville, Fla.) are in a tie for 23rd place following rounds of 73 and 75, respectively. Both are at 3-over-par.

The final round of the tournament gets underway at 8 a.m. ET Tuesday. Live scoring can be found at www.Golfstat.com.

Team Scores After Day 2

Individual Top 10 After Day 2

Florida Day 2 Results