{"id":178047,"date":"2026-03-04T17:31:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T17:31:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/178047\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T17:31:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T17:31:07","slug":"no-7-florida-host-gators-invitational-this-weekend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/178047\/","title":{"rendered":"No. 7 Florida host Gators Invitational this Weekend"},"content":{"rendered":"

TOURNAMENT INFORMATION
Dates:\u00a0Friday, March 6 – Sunday, March 8
Location:\u00a0Mark Bostick Golf Course – Gainesville, Fla.\u00a0
Host:\u00a0University of Florida
Course Par\/Yardage:\u00a0Par 70 \/ 6,002 yards
Format: 18 holes each day
Tee Times:\u00a08:30 a.m.\u00a0on Friday & Saturday, and 9 a.m. on Sunday\u00a0
Live Scoring: Clippd<\/a>
Social Media:\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Instagram<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Facebook<\/a><\/p>\n

LINEUP
No. 1 –\u00a0Megan Propeck<\/a>
No. 2 –\u00a0Paula Francisco<\/a>
No. 3 –\u00a0Siuue Wu<\/a>
No. 4 –\u00a0Katelyn Huber<\/a>
No. 5 –\u00a0Addison Klonowski<\/a>
Individual –\u00a0In\u00e8s Archer<\/a>
Individual –\u00a0Elaine Widjaja<\/a>
Individual –\u00a0Sophie Stevens<\/a><\/p>\n

TEE OFF
The No. 7 Florida women’s golf team hosts the 54th Gators Invitational this weekend at Mark Bostick Golf Course.\u00a0<\/p>\n

SPECTATOR\/FAN INFO
Admission is free all weekend for the tournament at Mark Bostick Golf Course. Additional parking on Friday and Saturday will be at\u00a0CampusView Church and on Sunday at the UF Law School.<\/p>\n

TOURNAMENT HISTORY
The Gators home tournament celebrates its 54th occurrence as the event began in 1973 and was hosted twice both in the fall and spring in Gainesville. Florida has won the event 27\u00a0times in program history and nine of the\u00a0last 10 seasons.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Last year, Florida swept both the team and individual titles for the first time since 2021. The win from\u00a0Jessica Guiser<\/a>\u00a0marked the second Florida freshman to win the Gators Invitational in program history joining Riko Higashio (1996) as Guiser also became the 11th UF golfer to earn medalist honors at the home tournament and just fourth\u00a0underclassmen:\u00a0Annabell Fuller<\/a>\u00a0(2021) and\u00a0Sandral Gal (2006).<\/p>\n

THE FIELD
Campbell, Clemson, Georgia Southern, FAU, FIU, FGCU, No. 7 Florida, Miami, No. 49 Michigan, No. 14 North Carolina, No. 27 Oklahoma, South Alabama, USF and No. 40 Virginia<\/p>\n

LAST TIME OUT
Florida finished the third tournament\u00a0of the spring at the Moon Golf Invitational\u00a0in 6th place at Suntree Country Club. The finish outside the top-5 in a regular season event was the first since 2024 and only the second time since the 2023-24 season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The top finish by a Gator was both\u00a0\u00a0Paula Francisco<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0\u00a0Megan Propeck<\/a>\u00a0in T20 at +3. The top-25 finishes marked the sixth this season for both, tying the team-high set by Huber. Francisco has logged outings of 2nd-T15-T20 to start the spring.\u00a0<\/p>\n

FALL RECAP
Florida closed the fall with back-to-back wins at the OU Intercollegiate and The Ally while finishing 3rd and runner-up in the other two fall outings. Florida’s win in the fall finale at The Ally was its third straight at the event and marked the 11th win and 21st\u00a0top-3 outing since the 2022-23 season. The tournament title was also the 38th all-time under head coach\u00a0Emily Glaser<\/a>; 39th total as she was an assistant coach for a season in 2011-12. It is the third straight season with multiple wins and nine overall under Glaser in 14 seasons.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Individually, transfer\u00a0\u00a0Megan Propeck<\/a>\u00a0won her first collegiate event at the OU Intercollegiate by four shots and final round of 67 (-3). She leads the team in stroke average (71.4), top-10s (3), top-25s (4), and under par tournaments (3).\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

THE SILENT ASSASSIN
Playing in first collegiate season,\u00a0\u00a0Addison Klonowski<\/a>\u00a0was key factor in the Gators’ success last season.<\/p>\n

Klonowski had the top finish (T24, -2) by a Gator freshman at the National Championship in 20 years.\u00a0The redshirt-freshman joined the Gators in the spring of last season and redshirted before becoming a mainstay in the lineup in her first season of collegiate golf en route to earning SEC All-Freshman Team honors. Klonowski also secured both match-clinching points in the SEC Championship Quarterfinals (3&2 vs. LSU) and Semifinals (1Up vs. Arkansas). She was in the lineup for all 12 tournaments, including the No. 1 spot on three occasions and led the lineup in top-25 finishes (10) and under par rounds (13).<\/p>\n

Off the course, she earned Academic All-American honors.\u00a0<\/p>\n

NEW FACES IN THE ORANGE & BLUE
The Gators welcomed a pair of new golfers this season in All-American Graduate transfer\u00a0\u00a0Megan Propeck<\/a>\u00a0(Leawood, Kan.) from Virginia and Gainesville native\u00a0\u00a0Katelyn Huber<\/a>\u00a0(P.K. Yonge HS), who both are in the lineup this week.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Florida also welcomed the 2024 Florida State Amateur Champion & Junior Player of the Year in\u00a0Sophia Dyer<\/a>\u00a0(Shorecrest Preparatory) this spring. She is a legacy Gator, brother Blake (2016-20) and dad Kevin (1984-88) were members of\u00a0the men’s golf program\u00a0<\/p>\n

NO MORE BABY GATORS\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0
After rolling out a lineup of all underclassmen, the Gators are an experience team as the group finished won five tournaments, qualified for the NCAA National Championship for the first time in 2019 and finished\u00a0runner-up at the SEC Championship.\u00a0All five from the National Championship lineup return, headlined by\u00a0\u00a0Paula Francisco<\/a>, who was tabbed a preseason All-American by Golf Channel.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The young Gators also collected some preseason recognition\u00a0by being ranked No. 10 via Golf Channel and No. 12 via Golfweek and WGCA Coach’s Poll.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A SEASON AGO
Last season\u00a0a young Gators squad laid the ground work\u00a0behind five tournament victories, a runner-up finish at the SEC Championship, T3 at NCAA Regionals and advancing to the NCAA National Championships for the first time since 2019,\u00a0and finished 17th. Additionally, Florida was the only team in the field of 30 teams at NCAAs, to play an all underclassmen lineup each round and travel a fully freshman-sophomore group.<\/p>\n

Individually, freshman\u00a0\u00a0Jessica Guiser<\/a>\u00a0won the Gators Invitational becoming the second UF freshman to earn medalist honors at the 53rd Gators Invitational while head coach\u00a0Emily Glaser<\/a>\u00a0was tabbed to the WGCA National Coach of the Year Watch List.<\/p>\n

Closing out the successful season on a strong note and momentum into next season, redshirt-freshman\u00a0\u00a0Addison Klonowski<\/a>\u00a0finished T24 with a final round of 2-under for the best finish by a UF freshman golfer at the NCAA National Championships since Tiffany\u00a0Chuddy\u00a0(T16) in 2005.<\/p>\n

The Gators qualified for the National Championships for the first time since 2019 behind sophomore\u00a0\u00a0Paula Francisco’s<\/a>\u00a0runner-up finish with a 54-hole score of 4-under 209 at the Charlottesville Regional, as she was just one shot behind medalist honors. Francisco led through the first two rounds and opened her second start in regionals with a career-low 4-under 67, her second of the postseason after the same mark in round one of the SEC Championship. She was tied for a tournament-best this week with 12 birdies and one eagle. The finish is the best by a Gator at an NCAA Regional since 2017 when Kelly Grassel won medalist honors in Columbus.<\/p>\n

Florida had a final team round of 293 (+9) for a three-round score of 864 (+12) to finish tied for 3rd with host Virginia and earn a trip to the final tournament of the season behind an all underclassmen lineup of three sophomores and two freshmen while overcoming some heart breakers at\u00a0regionals\u00a0over the last four years, including missing by a shot in back-to-back seasons (2021 & 2022) and leading at the turn last year.<\/p>\n

At the SEC Championship, led by a lineup of all underclassmen (three sophomores & two freshmen). The Gators reached the match play finals for the second time in program history since the format was added in 2018 after defeating the No. 2 seed LSU Tigers 5-0 and the No. 6 seed and No. 2 ranked Arkansas Razorbacks 3-2. UF was edged in the finals 3.5-1.5 to the No. 1 seed and veteran (two seniors & graduate student) South Carolina Gamecocks.<\/p>\n

All five in the lineup had key moments in the conference tournament as\u00a0\u00a0Addison Klonowski<\/a>\u00a0highlighted her first appearance with two match-clinching point victories in the quarterfinals and semifinals while firing a final stroke play round of 3-under 67 to help UF advance to match play.\u00a0\u00a0Paula Francisco<\/a>\u00a0placed T11 in stroke play and went 2-0-1 in match play with two big putts on the 18th, one to clinch a point in the semifinals and another to keep Florida’s SEC title hopes alive in the finals.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Florida defended home turf and swept the 53rd Gators Invitational, winning the\u00a0event for the 27th time in program history in the tournament’s 53rd occurrence, dating back to 1973. The Gators won the tournament for the ninth time in the last 10 seasons. Six UF golfers finished in top-23 led by\u00a0Guiser’s\u00a0first collegiate victory at 4-under 206. The last time Florida swept both the team and individual titles at the home tournament was in 2021. The win by\u00a0Guiser\u00a0marks the second Florida freshman to win the Gators Invitational in program history joining RikoHigashio (1996), becoming the 11th UF golfer to earn medalist honors at the home tournament and just fourth\u00a0underclassmen: Annabell Fuller (2021) and\u00a0Sandral Gal (2006).<\/p>\n

In the fall portion of the season, Florida closed out the first leg of the season with back-to-back victories, including defending its team title at The Ally. The Gators shot a final round of 6-under to end 15-under for a six-shot victory over host Mississippi State.<\/p>\n

THE TURN
\u00a0UF finishes the regular-season at the Clemson Invitational (March 27-29) and then opens up postseason play at the SEC Championship in Belleair, Fla. at Pelican Golf Club from April 17-21.\u00a0
\u00a0<\/p>\n