Gators Women’s Golf Sits in Fourth Place at SEC Championships
The Florida Gators women’s golf team picked up right where it left off on Friday with a -2 round at Pelican Golf Club in Belleair on the second day of the SEC Championships.
Junior Paula Francisco was again the star of the show Saturday for UF after logging her eighth straight round under par and 15th of the season that included bogey-free back nine.
The Madrid native is now tied for fourth, as she looks to become the 10th Gator to win the SEC Individual Championship and first since Maria Torres in 2016. Francisco is just three strokes behind leader Mary Miller of Ole Miss.
“I think that the great thing about Paula’s continued progression is that she’s going to play her way into the mix of things often,” UF coach Emily Glaser said. “I think she now has the discipline to know that she’s got to go out there and just play her game and kind of see what happens.”
But, Florida could not catch up to first-place Texas and second-place Oklahoma, who rank first and second after a -8 round and -7 round, respectively, as UF sits in fourth place just one stroke behind Vanderbilt.
Florida freshman and Gainesville native Katelyn Huber skyrocketed to No. 23 overall after a -1 round that was highlighted by an eagle on hole seven. She sits right next to teammates Megan Propeck and Elaine Widjaja.
Propeck, a graduate transfer from Virginia, finished +1 in round two to sit even on the weekend. Meanwhile, Widjaja finished even for the second straight day with three birdies.
Sophomore Siuue Wu started off strong with an eagle and birdie on the front nine, but a double-bogey on hole 12 and two bogeys on the final three holes dropped her to +2 on the weekend and to No. 35 individually.
“We got to worry about ourselves tomorrow and focus on playing free and shooting a good round of golf. You can’t play defense out there, and so we can’t control what anyone else does, good or bad,” Glaser said. “We just got to focus on ourselves and do the things that have helped us have success up until this point, and let the rest take care of itself.”
Florida is on pace to finish under-par for 54-holes in stroke play, which would be only the fourth time in program history. The -2 round marked back-to-back under par at the SEC Championship since round one (-4) and two (-5) in 2019.
Sunday’s final round will be a battle for the eight match-play spots, as only seven strokes separate teams in second to 10th place, including a three-way tie for that eighth and final advancing position.
Florida will look to advance to match play for the sixth time in its SEC Tournament history.
Category: Gator Sports, Gators Women's Golf
