Big Day leads No. 4 Vanderbilt to SunTrust Gator Victory

18 Feb 2018
by AmateurGolf.com Staff
see also: View results for , The Mark Bostick Golf Course, Hayden Buckley Rankings
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Vanderbilt's Will Gordon carded rounds of 66-68-66 to share fourth <br>(Vanderbilt Athletics Photo)

Vanderbilt's Will Gordon carded rounds of 66-68-66 to share fourth
(Vanderbilt Athletics Photo)

GAINSVILLE, FL (February 18, 2018) - Leading after the 36-hole first day of the SunTrust Gator Invitational, No. 4 Vanderbilt pulled away on Sunday to capture their second title of the season and first full field victory of the year.

The Commodores started the final round at University of Florida Golf Course ahead by one but put together the round of the tournament, a 10-under 270 to finish 18-under and comfortably ahead of host and runner-up No. 7 Florida who posted 9-under. In third it was USF at 5-under, North Florida was 3-under in forth while UCF was 2-under in fifth.

Vanderbilt, winners of the East Lake Cup to close out their fall season, placed four players in the top-16 beginning with Will Gordon and John Augenstein in a tie for fourth at 6-under, Theo Humphrey was 4-under in a share of eighth and in a tie for 16th it was the 2-under Patrick Martin.

Gordon had the low round of the week for Vanderbilt posting two rounds of 4-under 66, once in the first round and again on Sunday. In the second round Saturday afternoon he tallied a 2-under 68.

In the medalist race Missouri's Hayden Buckley rallied from four back to take the title. 2-under when the final round began, Buckley matched the low round of the tournament firing a 6-under 64 to surge to 8-under and a one-stroke win.

The Missouri senior, having the best year of his career, started off nicely with a 3rd hole birdie but dropped to 1-over for the day with bogeys on the next two holes. However, those slip ups didn't sit well with Buckley so he did something about it playing the next 13 holes in 7-under with birdies falling on the 7th, 8th, 10th, 12th, 13th, 16th and 17th holes.

For Buckley the win was his third of the season after not having previously won an individual title in his first three years with the Tigers. Buckley had already won the Turning Stone Intercollegiate and Bank of Tennessee Intercollegiate this season.

He also started 2018 off by winning the New Year's Invitational in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Philip Knowles (North Florida) and second round leader Claudio Correa (USF) shared second at 7-under while the Vanderbilt teammates Gordon and Augenstein were fourth.

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