The winning Florida Gators
(Florida Athletics Photo)
GAINESVILLE, FL (March 12, 2017) -- For the seventh time in 12 years and second consecutive year Florida has captured the SunTrust Gator Women's Invite hosted by the Mark Bostick Golf Course. The host Gators have dominated the SunTrust Gator Women's Invite over the years winning the event 20 times over the course of 45 years.
No. 6 Florida was able to post a 7-over tally over the weekend and finish a comfortable eight shots in front of No. 11 Duke (+15). The third place spot went to No. 25 UCF (+23), Campbell (+42) was fourth while Clemson (+44) was fifth.
"You want to play well in the postseason and then you like to play well at home, too," Florida head coach Emily Glaser said. "There are so many people out here this week who support us and with the way scheduling goes these days we travel all over the country so it's hard for a lot of people to come and see us week in and week out. So when everybody is around this week, you can feel that support."
Pacing the Gators at home this week was senior Maria Torres who despite Florida's domination in the event became the first Gator to win the individual title in nine years.
Torres, the 2016 SEC Golfer of the Year, used a big final round to jump to 5-under and capture a two shot victory. During her final round 4-under 66 Torres birdied the 4th, 10th, 11th, 12th and 15th holes. Her only bogey of the round on the 18th didn't prove to be costly.
Two others Marta Perez SanMartin (T4;+3) and Marta Perez SanMartin (T9; +6) were in the top-10 this week for the Gators. Just outside the top-10 came Samantha Wagner (T11;+7) and Kelly Grassel (T11; +7).
Duke and top-ranked World Amateur Golf Rankings Leona Maguire finished second at 3-under, playing as an individual Karolina Vlckova of Florida was third at 1-over while Ashley Holder of UCF and SanMartin of Florida were fourth at 3-over.
-Florida Athletics contributed to this story
ABOUT THE
Florida Gators Women's Invitational
54 hole women's college tournament hosted by the
University of Florida women's team. Team (best four
scores out of five players each day) and individual
competitions.
View Complete Tournament Information