ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. – For the second straight day at the SEC Championship nearly the full 16-team field shot under par by multiple shots as the Florida men’s golf team is 20-under through 36-holes in fourth-place. The Gators shot 9-under in round two and are eight shots inside the top-8 match play on Thursday. Tomorrow’s final round is scheduled for 9:15 a.m. off hole one. 
 
Florida owned a clean team score card for the first nine holes, going 7-under and bogey-free across 36 counting holes. Of counting scores, the Gators played 40th straight holes of bogey-free golf. Across the 40 holes, the team made nine birdies and 31 pars.
 
Tomorrow’s final round of stroke play will crown the SEC Individual Champion and determine the top-8 teams that advance to match play. The Gators are eight strokes inside the cut line and look to reach match play for the fifth straight season and the seventh time in nine total opportunities since the format was added in 2017. This year’s match play cut score is on pace to be the lowest all-time by a great margin as the lowest was last season at 6-under. Previous years are: -2 (2024), +1 (2023), +4 (2022), +16 (2019, 2021), +11 (2018) and +12 (2017).
 
Match play begins on Saturday with quarterfinals and semifinals action with live coverage at 3 p.m. on SECN+ with the finals slated for Sunday at 8 a.m. on SEC Network.
 
All four scores that factored today were under par for back-to-back days. The team low round was the seventh straight and 18th overall in 29 rounds this season. Florida is on pace to shoot its program best in 54-hole score (828) and par (-16) at the SEC Championship. Their current score is 540 (-20) and UF needs to shoot a minimum of 287 (+7) to break the record. Yesterday’s opening round of 269 (-11) was the school’s lowest by par and score in program history at the SECs.
 
The two low scores for the Orange and Blue were from Luke Poulter and Parker Sands, who each had a 3-under 67. Sands moves to 4-under through two rounds in first career appearance at the conference tournament. The sophomore has shot under par in seven of his last eight rounds. Poulter’s round was his career-low at the SEC Championship as he climbed up 21-spots.
 
Tied for sixth, Jack Turner posted a 68 (-2) for his seventh under par round in eight total at Sea Island Golf Club. The junior is 8-under through two rounds and has only carded three bogeys overall. He trails four strokes from solo leader Jackson Koivun (-12) of Auburn, who looks the capture his third straight conference individual title.
 
Turning in his consecutive round of 1-under 69 was sophomore Zack Swanwick.

Post Round Quotes – Head Coach J.C. Deacon

On Parker Sands and his growth these past two years…

“He’s really becoming a reliable player for us and I’m proud of his development because he had to earn it, and that’s honestly where real confidence comes from. He has never had an easy path into the lineup and has had to beat a lot of players, but most importantly, he’s had to get a lot better in all parts of his game. It’s pretty impressive what he’s doing for his first SEC championship.”

On having Alums Fred Biondi and Ricky Castillo coming out to support…

“Honestly, it means the world to me. When the program means enough that you got national champions coming back to be a part of it and support the ones who are coming after them. Having them out here today meant a lot to our players, Dudley Hart and I. It’s always great to see them, and certainly some great memories of all the all the incredible things they accomplished in their time here.”

On tomorrow’s final round and battle for match play spot with low scores…

“Well first of all we got to worry about ourselves and focus on our process, play our game the way we want to play. But at the same time, we got to keep the pedal down, and try to win this thing. That’s the big thing. We want to get that number one seed and be in a really good spot going into match play. I know the goal is just to make it and get in there, but as the higher seed you can get in this conference the better because there are some elite teams at the top there. Our guys will come out hungry. There is no one in the spot where they got to really protect tomorrow. We just have to go about our business, play our game and hopefully make a couple more putts.”

Florida Player Scoreboard

T6. Jack Turner – 64-68 = 132 (-8)

T21. Parker Sands – 69-67 = 136 (-4)

T31. Zack Swanwick – 69-69 = 138 (-2)

T31. Luke Poulter – 71-67 = 138 (-2)

T37. Matthew Kress – 67-72 = 139 (-1)

Team Leaderboard

1. Auburn (-27)

2. Texas (-22)

3. Ole Miss (-21)

4. Florida (-20)

5. Oklahoma (-17)

T6. Mississippi State (-16)

T6. Texas A&M (-16)

8. South Carolina (-12)

9. Vanderbilt (-11)

T10. Arkansas (-9)

T10. Alabama (-9)

T10. Tennessee (-9)

13. Georgia (-7)

14. LSU (E)

15. Missouri (+5)

16. Kentucky (+15)