The No. 4 University of Florida men’s golf team dropped in the final day of the NCAA East Regional Saturday hosted at the Settindown Creek Golf Club by Georgia Tech.  Florida made a strong comeback to be in fourth after round two but slipped to T9 after shooting 21-over to finish 899 (+35).

The Clemson Tigers took an early lead and held it despite a rally by Georgia Tech in round two.  The Tigers held on to first place, but will have to share the championship honors with the Yellow Jackets with both shooting 12-over 876.  Clemson’s D.J. Trahan won the individual title with his 6-under 210. 

UF opened the weekend with a tough opening round and they closed it in the same manner.  The Gators tallied 11 double bogies or worse on the day.  On the bright side, they also shot 13 birdies and two top-20 finishes.  The best UF finisher was senior Camilo Benedetti (Medellin, Colombia) whose 4-over 220 scored him a tie for 13^th.  No. 1 Camilo Villegas (Medellin, Colombia) tied for 18^th carding 75-71-75—221 (+5).

Junior Jordan Code (Tampa, Fla.) tied for 66^th with his 12-over 228.  Tied for 73^rd was junior Dalton Melnyk (Jacksonville, Fla.)  who shot 14-over 230.  Junior transfer Ari Savolainen (Helsinki, Finland) shot a final round turned in a final round 84 to finish tied for 115^th place with 24-over 240. 

“We had a poor first round, but I was proud of how these guys bounced back,” Florida head coach Buddy Alexander said.  “I have no idea what happened today.  We have been very consistent all year not finishing outside sixth.  We started shooting badly and we couldn’t turn it around.  We got lucky that we finished with some good scores and got lucky to make the cut.  We dodged a huge bullet today and hopefully we will get it together for the championships.”

The Gators did make the ten team cut and will advance to the NCAA Championships hosted at the Ohio State Scarlett on May 29-June 1.  UF won the national title at the 2001 NCAA Championships hosted at Duke University. 

NCAA East Regional

Settindown Golf Course

May 16-18, 2002

Team Standings

1.     Clemson        286-291-299—876 (+12)

        Georgia Tech        291-287-298—298 (+12)

3.     North Carolina        295-286-296—877 (+13)

4.     Augusta State        299-297-289—885 (+21)

5.     Virginia-Common.        306-286-296—888 (+24)

6.     Georgia Southern        299-298-294—891 (+27)

7.     Auburn        299-298-296—893 (+29)

8.     Georgia        300-290-300—896 (+32)

9.     Florida        300-290-309—899 (+35)

        UAB        301-301-297—899 (+35)

Florida Scores

T13         Camilo Benedetti                75-69-76—220 (+4)

T18         Camilo Villegas  75-71-75—221 (+5)

T66         Jordan Code       74-74-80—228 (+12)

T73         Dalton Melnyk  76-76-78—230 (+14)

T115       Ari Savolainen                77-79-84—240 (+24)