Tosti Captures SEC Individual Title

Saturday, April 22

St. Simons Island, GA

All Day

Florida Gators

SEC Championship

Tosti became the Gators' first individual champion since 2011.

Tosti Captures SEC Individual Title

Saturday, April 22, 2017 | Men's Golf

By: Turner F. Street

ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. – The Florida's men's golf team had a steady outing in final round of stroke play at the SEC Championship. The Gators shot an even-par 280 to finish the stroke play in fourth place.

With the fourth-place finish, Florida qualified for the new match play portion of the SEC Championship. The Orange and Blue will face off against South Carolina in the first round of match play on Sunday.

Alejandro Tosti put together a clean third round, carding three birdies and no bogeys. The three-under 67 put him in a tie for first at 10-under overall. The junior's stroke total of 200 was best on the team this year and is tied for fifth in program history.

In the subsequent playoff with Vanderbilt's Patrick Martin, Tosti and Martin carded fours on the first hole, but on the second hole Tosti was able to clinch the victory when he notched a four and Martin posted a five. This is the 21^st time that a Gator has won the individual title at the SEC Championship and the first since 2011.

Sophomore Sam Horsfield notched another sub-70 round with his one-under 69. Horsfield's three birdies put his final total at even-par and placed him in a tie for 13^th.
The Gators are back in action tomorrow at the SEC Championship in St. Simons Island, Georgia, for the first round of match play at 7:30 a.m.

Head Coach J.C. Deacon
On Alejandro Tosti and his victory:
"He's just amazing. I'm so proud of his hard work. He's put a lot of time and effort into his game, working on his metal game and maturing and it paid off today, winning the SEC tournament. It's a pretty incredible feat."

On what Tosti's victory does for the team:
"It's huge. It sets a winning tone and gives us a nice jolt of adrenaline to get the match play started. It's another championship for the University of Florida, so it's a great way to start the match play and the guys are really, really excited to start out quest for the team championship."

On what the team needs to do to play well in match play:
"We've been working on match play all year. It's something that we've prepared our guys for from day one and they've played a lot of matches and they're going to be ready to go. It's just going out there and playing our best golf, that's what we need to do. Our guys have experience and they're really looking forward to this, so it's just sticking to the process, playing one shot at a time and making sure South Carolina has to play really, really well if they want to beat us."

Rd. 3 Florida Scores
Team:

Place	Team	Score	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Total
1	Vanderbilt	-11	276	281	272	829
2	Texas A&M	-5	273	282	280	835
3	LSU	-3	278	284	275	837
4	FLORIDA	-2	269	289	280	838
5	South Carolina	+9	279	286	280	845
6	Alabama	+11	272	288	288	847
T7	Ole Miss	+12	282	290	280	852
T7	Missouri	+12	284	279	289	852
T9	Georgia	+16	291	289	276	856
T9	Auburn	+16	278	287	291	856
11	Kentucky	+17	292	289	276	857
12	Arkansas	+19	299	292	268	859
13	Tennessee	+34	301	294	279	874
14	Mississippi State	+37	298	298	281	877

Players:

Place	Player	Score	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Total
T1.*	Alejandro Tosti	-10	64	69	67	200
T13.	Sam Horsfield	E	69	72	69	210
T18.	Gordon Neale	+2	65	74	73	212
T50.	Jorge Garcia	+10	71	78	71	220
63.	Andy Zhang	+16	77	74	75	226

*Won in a playoff

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Follow the Gators: Live scoring is available for this tournament on Golfstat.com.

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