Florida Women’s Golf Leads After Gator Invitational First Round
On the heels of a dominant front nine holes that saw four of the five team golfers finish under par, Florida women’s golf is up four strokes on Virginia after Friday’s first round in the Gators Invitational.
Florida women’s golfer Siuue Wu went on a tear during opening play at Mark Bostick Golf Course, shooting 5-under par as she leads all golfers through the first 18 holes.
With only one other team in the field ranked inside the top 25, the Gators hope to continue their dominance at home. Florida has won the event 27 times in program history and nine of the last 10 seasons. Last year, the Gators swept the team and individual titles for the first time since 2021.
UF shot well as a unit with a team 9-under par to finish behind Wu’s 65 (-5), Katelyn Huber’s 67 (-3) and Paula Francisco’s 68 (-2). The Gators occupy three of the top four scores in the tournament.
Teeing off at 8:30 a.m., the Gators began at the top of the leaderboard and remained there for the rest of the day. The team was already 9-under through the first five holes and just had to maintain steady play throughout the round.
That got shaky on the first half of the back nine, however. Eight bogeys, one of them a double by Megan Propeck on Hole 13, caused the Gators’ lead to slip to just two strokes.
Florida steadied the ship and finished strong, though, highlighted by Propeck’s three straight birdies on holes 14-16.
Florida and Virginia battled back and forth throughout the day, as the closest team is third-place North Carolina, whichis seven strokes back of second place.
Propeck and Huber’s volatile back nines were offset by the steady hands of Wu and Francisco, the latter of which only had a single bogey the entire round.
Rounding out the lineup, Addison Klonowski finished 1-over overall and sits T17 with teammate Megan Propeck in the tournament.
Florida’s individual players did not have similar success. Elaine Widjaja finished one under while Ines Archer and Sophie Stevens finished 3-over and 6-over, respectively.
UF returns to action Saturday at 8:30 a.m.
Florida Scores:
1 – Siuue Wu (-5)
2 – Katelyn Huber (-3)
7 – Paula Francisco (-2)
10 – Elaine Widjaja* (-1)
T17 – Addison Klonowski (+1)
T17 – Megan Propeck (+1)
40 – Inès Archer* (+3)
49 – Sophie Stevens* (+4)
*Competing as individuals
Team Scores
1. Florida (-9)
2. Virginia (-7)
3. North Carolina (+2)
4. Georgia Southern (+3)
5. Michigan (+5)
6. Clemson (+7)
7. Miami (+8)
8. Oklahoma (+9)
T9. South Alabama (+11)
T9. Florida Gulf Coast (+11)
11. USF (+12)
12. FAU (+14)
13. Campbell (+15)
14. FIU (+27)
Live Scoring: Clippd
Category: Gators Women's Golf
