USF Athletics

Bulls Earn Runner-Up Honors at Quail Valley Intercollegiate

October 21, 2019

TEAM SCORES
PLAYER SCORES


By TOM ZEBOLD
USF Senior Writer
 
VERO BEACH, Fla., OCT. 21, 2019 – USF men's golf battled No. 7 Notre Dame all the way up to the final hole at the Quail Valley Intercollegiate on Monday.
 
Head coach Steve Bradley's Bulls earned runner-up honors for the second straight year at Quail Valley Golf Club following a dramatic finish. USF and Notre Dame were tied at 42-under when Palmer Jackson's birdie on No. 18 gave the Irish the victory.
 
All five players in USF's lineup shot par or better in all three rounds of the Bulls' third straight top-five performance. USF headed into the final round two shots off the lead after setting the school's 36-hole scoring record with a 27-under 549.
 
Sophomore Albin Bergstrom tied for second in the 80-player field with a 14-under 202, two shots shy of Jackson's title-winning total. Bergstrom (Ljunghusen, Sweden) registered his third straight top-three finish a day after setting USF's low round vs. par record and matching the lowest round in school history with a 9-under 63 on Sunday morning.
 
Luke Gifford led USF's late charge up the leaderboard Monday with a career-best 66, which marked the sophomore's third bogey-free round of the season. The Boca Raton, Fla., native tied for fifth place with an 11-under 205 after earning co-medalist honors at the Marquette Intercollegiate on Oct. 8.
 
Kyle Flexsenhar also played a key role for the Bulls in the final round, shooting par or better on 17 holes and carding a 3-under 69. The senior from Lake Mary, Fla., secured his first top-25 finish of the season, tying for 14^th place at 8-under.
 
Ryoto Furuya also shot par or better on 17 holes Monday on the way to posting a 2-under 70. The senior from Alpharetta, Ga., finished one shot outside the top 25 at 5-under.
 

USF Lineup Scores
 

2	South Florida	268	281	273	822
T2	Albin Bergstrom (2)	63	71	68	202
T5	Luke Gifford (1)	67	72	66	205
T14	Kyle Flexsenhar (5)	69	70	69	208
T28	Ryoto Furuya (4)	69	72	70	211
T33	Run Youprayong (3)	72	68	72	212

 
 
Quotable
Assistant coach Brad Caldwell on USF's runner-up finish after the Bulls were tied with No. 7 Notre Dame on the final hole:
"It's all positives from this week. There's nothing to hang our heads about at all. It was a little bit of déjà vu. We were in the same situation last year. We made a bogey and ended up losing by a shot. This year, we had a chance to win and Notre Dame just hit a good shot and made a birdie. It's what you work for. It's why you put in the hours in the gym and on the practice tee – to be in those situations. Midway through the round, we were almost dead in the water, falling five or six back of Memphis and Notre Dame. For our guys, something happened, I don't know what it was. They picked it up to another level and every one of our guys played the last seven holes under par. We've been preaching finishing off rounds since day 1, so to see them do that and give us a chance was pretty cool to see. We'll be better next week because we went through this."

Caldwell's thoughts on the entire lineup shooting par or better in all three rounds:
"That's the unique thing about golf, it's an individual game, but we put together team scores each week. If everybody does their job, then the team as a whole is gonna be successful. This week, each player pretty much did their job they were supposed to do and it was awesome. We're playing some really good golf right now, from top to bottom."
 
Notables

• USF earned runner-up honors for the second straight year at the Quail Valley Intercollegiate. The Bulls won the event in 2017.
• All five players in the lineup shot par or better in all three rounds of this year's event.
• Sophomore Albin Bergstrom matched the lowest round in school history (63) and set USF's low round vs. par record (-9) in Sunday's opening round.
• USF set the school's 36-hole scoring record with a 27-under 549 Sunday. The previous record of 26-under 550 was registered at the USF Invitational in 2014.
• Freshman Sam Nicholson, sophomores Massimo Mbetse and Anthony Muttillo, and junior Cole Castro competed in the event as individuals. Nicholson (Atlantic Beach, Fla.) was the top finisher among the group, tying for 38^th at 3-under (74-69-70).

Up Next
USF wraps up its fall season at The Intercollegiate at Innisbrook, which takes place Oct. 28-29 in Palm Harbor, Fla.
 

About USF Men's Golf
USF men's golf captured four consecutive American Athletic Conference Championship titles in wire-to-wire fashion prior to 2019 and has earned seven straight trips to NCAA Regionals. The program is led by Steve Bradley, who has been named American Athletic Conference Coach of the Year four times. Follow @USFMGolf on Twitter for the latest information concerning the program.