Knowles' Runner-Up Finish Leads Men's Golf to 4th Place at Gator Invitational

Sunday, February 18

Gainesville, Fla. (Mark Bostick GC)

All Day

University of North Florida

SunTrust Gator Invitational

Philip Knowles poses in front of scoreboard after finishing runner-up at Gator Invitational 2018

Knowles' Runner-Up Finish Leads Men's Golf to 4th Place at Gator Invitational

2/18/2018 5:01:00 PM | Men's Golf

By: North Florida Athletics

EVENT: SunTrust Gator Invitational
DATE: Sunday, Feb. 18
LOCATION: Mark Bostick Golf Cource (Gainesville, Fla.)
COURSE INFO: Par 70 / 6,701 yards
UNF RESULT: 4th of 16 teams
TOP OSPREY: Philip Knowles (T2 | 67-70-66)
Final Results (pdf)
Live Scoring: Golfstat

The Leaderboard: Junior Philip Knowles finished runner-up after matching his career low and sparked the No. 32-ranked North Florida men's golf team's climb to a fourth place finish at the SunTrust Gator Invitational on Sunday afternoon.

FIRST TEE
- Philip Knowles finished his strong weekend, shooting a career low matching round of 66 (-4) en route to his second-place finish of 7-under 203
- Fellow junior Travis Trace also collected a Top 20 showing, finishing 19th at 1-under 209 following his final round 71
- Andrew Alligood, another Osprey junior, carded a final round 74 and finished T22nd at 211 (+1)
- Redshirt junior Jordan Batchelor rebounded with his best round of the tournament on Sunday, posting a 68 for a T40 finish at 216
- Sophomore Michael Mattiace rounded out the UNF lineup in a tie for 68th (223) including a final round 72
- Competing as an individual, freshman Michael Saccente finished T40 (216) after his round of 75 on Sunday

TEAM SCOREBOARD
#5 Vanderbilt (822), #6 Florida (831), #25 South Florida (835), #32 North Florida (837), UCF (838), Liberty (842), #27 Missouri (846), Georgia Southern (847), #14 Arkansas (847), Jacksonville (850), UAB (859), Coastal Carolina (861), Lipscomb (868), College of Charleston (871), Mississippi State (872), Troy (902)

INSIDE THE SCORECARD
- Knowles earned his eighth straight Top 25 finish and fifth Top 10 performance of the season | Recorded a pair of under-par rounds for the week upping his season total to 10 and career total to 40
- Jordan Batchelor climbed 30 spots on the final individual leaderboard after his under-par round on Sunday
- Trace finished under-par for his second consecutive tournament
- UNF recorded 166 pars led by 36 from Saccente and 35 each for Knowles and Alligood
- The Ospreys collected 48 birdies, which ranks second in the field, and were led by 14 from Knowles
- North Florida ranked third in the field for Par 4 Scoring (+9) with Knowles leading the way at 3-under (2nd in the field) | UNF netted a 12-under score on the Par 5s
- Missouri's Hayden Buckley took home the individual medalist crown with a 54-hole total of 8-under 202

UNF RESULTS

4	North Florida	278	282	277	837 (-3)
T2	Phillip Knowles	67	70	66	203 (-7)
19	Travis Trace	67	71	71	209 (-1)
T22	Andrew Alligood	69	68	74	211 (+1)
T40	Michael Saccente (Ind.)	72	69	75	216 (+6)
T40	Jordan Batchelor	75	73	68	216 (+6)
T68	Michael Mattiace	77	74	72	223 (+13)

QUOTEWORTHY:
"It was a really good week for Philip, as he came really close to getting another win. He just missed a few putts on the last few holes down the stretch. The team had a solid finish and should be one that we can learn from. We still had a few too many balls missed in bad spots, but it was much better than our last event." -- Head coach Scott Schroeder

UP NEXT
North Florida will take a couple weeks off from competition before returning to the links at the General Hackler Championship in Myrtle Beach, S.C., on Mar. 10-11.