UF WOMEN’S GOLF CLAIMS SUNTRUST GATOR INVITATIONAL TITLE

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – For the second-straight season and the 20^th time in the tournament’s 45 year history, the University of Florida has captured the SunTrust Gator Women’s Golf Invitational title. UF posted a tournament-record seven-over (847).

To secure the victory, Florida posted a two-over (282) in the final round.

In the final home tournament of her career, Maria Torres set numerous records and became the first Gator to win the Gator Invitational individual title in nine years.

It was the senior’s second win of the season, her first since the Florida Challenge on Jan. 30, as she tied the lowest round in event history with a career-best four-under (66) in Sunday’s final round.

Overall on the weekend, Torres recorded a Gator Invitational and collegiate-best score of five-under (205).

Meanwhile, Marta Perez and Taylor Tomlinson each finished in the top-10, as they finished tied for fourth (three-over, 213) and tied for ninth (six-over, 216), respectively.

Competing as an individual, Karolina Vlckova also finished in third place at one-over (211).

This marks the seventh time the Gators have won their lone home tournament in the last 12 years.

Head Coach Emily Glaser:

On what the key was for the team…
“We’ve been playing well, but the big difference maker was that we managed our emotions very well this week, we call it the things that we can control. This is the most at-ease I’ve seen our team before teeing it up in a home event. Because it only happens once a year, it’s easy to think this is a huge deal and you really start to get ahead of yourself. I didn’t really see us do that this weekend, so I would attribute that to our success.”

On if she sensed that Maria Torres would play so well…
“She has been playing well. I think she’s had roughly top-10s in the last couple of events that we’ve played in and those events were strong fields, so it says something about how she’s been playing. We’ve talked a little bit about here winning, she wants to win more. Winning in golf is sometimes totally out of your control, you can play very well and still get beaten, so we talked about controlling the things that we can control and she did a good job of that this week. In that back nine today (she) really put the hammer down.”

On if she stresses the importance of the home tournament…
“You want to play well in the postseason and then you like to play well at home, too. 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.”

Final Florida Scores:

Team:

Players:

* Denotes they were competing as an individual

Follow the Gators: The Orange and Blue will be back in action on March 20 in Kiawah Island, S.C. for the Briar’s Creek Invitational.
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