Bulls Tie for Fourth at Florida Gators Invitational
By TOM ZEBOLD
USF Senior Writer
GAINESVILLE, Fla., FEB. 17, 2019 – Led by freshman
Albin Bergstrom, USF men's golf finished its first spring team tournament in a tie for fourth place at the Florida Gators Invitational on Sunday.
USF tied with No. 19 North Florida at 6-over, seven shots away from event winner and third-ranked Vanderbilt at Mark Bostick Golf Course (par 70, 6,701 yards). The Bulls were tied for the lead after Saturday's opening round and posted their fourth top-five finish in five events this season.
Bergstrom placed second in the 86-player field with a 6-under 204, one shot behind medalist and 17
th-ranked Will Gordon of Vanderbilt. Bergstrom (Ljunghusen, Sweden) shot under par in all three rounds (67-68-69) to secure his third straight top-five finish. The rising star carded the second-most birdies in the field (14) and shot par or better on 46 total holes at the tournament that featured seven top-50 teams.
Junior
Kyle Flexsenhar registered his second top-10 finish of the season by tying for seventh place at 2-under (68-72-68). The Lake Mary, Fla., native collected five of his 12 total birdies in the final round.
Freshman
Massimo Mbetse (Bradenton, Fla.) produced the USF lineup's third-best score of the final round with a 72. The performance helped the Bulls improve on their second round score by three shots.
Playing as an individual, freshman
Amadeo Figus (Port St. Lucie, Fla.) finished his fifth tournament of the season in impressive fashion with a 1-under 69.
USF Lineup Scores
Quotable
Head coach Steve Bradley's thoughts on the Bulls' final-round showing at the Florida Gators Invitational:
"Based off being in contention a couple times in the fall, I thought that we would handle ourselves a little better than we did today. We had the high round of the top-five teams. The golf course was not easy, but it was not hard. It was gettable and we just made some mental errors, combined with some poor execution. I'm pretty frustrated overall with the finish. Hopefully this gives us some motivation to maybe change what we're doing when we get into this situation again."
Bradley on the team's standout performances:
"Albin played really, really well and had a chance to win at the end. He had a putt on the last hole to tie. Kyle played really solid and it was nice to see Massimo bounce back and put together a little better round after his first two rounds."
Notables
- Freshman Albin Bergstrom secured his third straight top-five finish by placing second at 6-under. Bergstrom has placed in the top 25 in four of his first five tournaments as a Bull.
- Bergstrom ranked second in the field with 14 total birdies.
- USF placed in the top five for the fourth time in five tournaments this season.
- Only event winner and third-ranked Vanderbilt finished the tournament with an under-par team score. The average round score at Mark Bostick Golf Course (par 70) was 72.64.
- Freshman Luke Gifford tied for fifth in the field with 38 total pars.
Up Next
The Bulls will take on the Rebels in the USF vs. Ole Miss Challenge on Monday, Feb. 25 at Belleair Country Club.
About USF Men's Golf
USF men's golf has captured the past four American Athletic Conference Championship titles in wire-to-wire fashion and made six straight trips to NCAA Regionals. The program is led by Steve Bradley, who has earned American Athletic Conference Coach of the Year honors the past four seasons. Follow @USFMGolf on Twitter for the latest information concerning the program.
