Florida women's golf team put up a dominating show in Tennessee (Florida Gators photo)
The Florida women’s golf team capped off their regular season in style, claiming a dominant nine-shot victory at the Chattanooga Classic held at The Honors Course in Ooltewah, TN. The Gators posted a 16-over 880 with rounds of 300-292-288 to secure their fifth team title of the season.
Originally, the tournament was supposed to wrap up on Sunday, but with bad weather looming, the organizers shifted to a 36-hole finale on Saturday. Florida came into the final day tied for fourth and six shots behind No. 10 North Carolina.
But the Gators responded with a brilliant second-round score of 292 (4-over), the best round of the day, which put them just four shots back heading into the final 18 holes. From there, they pulled away with a solid even-par 288 to close out the win, comfortably finishing ahead of North Carolina (26-over), No. 13 Virginia (25-over), and No. 22 Duke (28-over).
This victory gives Florida eight tournament titles over the last two seasons. In their last three events alone, the Gators have bagged two wins and a runner-up finish. It’s also the first time since the 2015-16 and 2016-17 seasons that Florida has had back-to-back years with three or more victories.
The last time they notched five wins in a single season was during their 2016-17 campaign, which included the SEC Championship and NCAA Regional titles.
On the individual side, Anna Cañado Espinal from Barcelona, Spain, stole the show by capturing her first collegiate title. She shot rounds of 68-76-73 to finish at 1-over and edge out the competition by a stroke. After holding the lead after round one, Espinal had a shaky start in her second round with three bogeys in her first seven holes. But she didn’t let that phase her.
She bounced back by playing the next 11 holes at 2-under, with birdies on No. 12, No. 13, No. 17, and No. 1. A triple-bogey on her final hole (No. 4) meant she finished with a 76, but it was enough to hang onto a one-stroke lead going into the final round. Espinal closed things out with a steady 73 in round three to secure the win.
Four players tied for second place at 3-over, including UNC sophomore Ing Iadpluem from Thailand, Virginia’s Jaclyn LaHa, and Wisconsin seniors Carly Carter and Chloe Chan from Hong Kong.
Florida’s depth was on full display, with four Gators finishing in the top 10. Leading the way was sophomore Inès Archer from France, who carded rounds of 74-77-70 to tie for seventh at 5-over 221.
Right behind her, three Gators — freshman Jessica Guiser, redshirt sophomore Karoline Tuttle, and freshman Elaine Widjaja from Indonesia — all finished tied for 10th at 6-over 222. Guiser recorded rounds of 78-73-71, Tuttle shot 76-72-74, and Widjaja posted scores of 76-71-75 to round out Florida’s impressive performance.
On top of that, Florida dominated statistically, leading the field in Par-3, Par-4, and Par-5 scoring with averages of 3.05, 4.21, and 4.88, respectively.
ABOUT THE
Chattanooga Classic
54-hole women's college tournament hosted by the
University of Tennessee Chattanooga. Team (best four
of five scores each round) and individual competitions.
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