Gators Make It a Championship Week to Remember

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Senior Fred Biondi, just three days removed from winning the NCAA individual title, provided the clinching point Wednesday night to secure the Florida Gators the team crown at the 2023 NCAA Championships at Grayhawk Golf Club. 

But Biondi, whose par on the 18th hole locked up the program’s fifth national title, was quick to point out in the post-match euphoria that the spotlight did not deserve to be on him. 

“Winning as a team means so much more. It’s awesome that we did this together,” Biondi said. “It’s not just me closing it out, it’s every single person back home, back in the gym, the people back home cheering, the coaches on this staff, just everyone involved. It’s their championship, too.” 

And everybody on hand soaked in the program’s first title in 23 years, especially Coach J.C. Deacon, assistant and UF alum Dudley Hart and Biondi’s four teammates, who collectively stared down yet another high-intensity match-play challenge — their third in two days — before finishing off a 3-1 victory over Georgia Tech. 

About an hour earlier, the fifth-seeded Yellow Jackets seemingly had command of their overall match against the No. 2 seed, leading three of the four individual matchups still in contention before the Gators made their move. It wasn’t a comeback along the lines of Tuesday night’s rally from a 2-0 deficit against Florida State in the semifinals, but it showed a lot of moxie.

“These guys don’t give up,” said Deacon, who was hired in 2014 to replace Hall-of-Famer Buddy Alexander after 27 seasons and in his ninth year led the Gators to both the Southeastern Conference and NCAA crowns. “Their tough sons-of-guns and I’m proud to be their coach.”

Senior Yuxin Lin posted Florida’s first point with a par putt on No. 15 to finish a lopsided 4&3 victory against Cristo Lamprecht. At that point, however, Tech led one match by a stroke and the three other matches were tied. 

It wasn’t that long before the Yellow Jackets seemingly grabbed momentum across the course, with leads in three of the four matches still out with the entire field through at least 12 holes. 

Then things changed. 

The Jackets were poised to make it it 1-1 when Bartley Forrester stood over a three-foot putt on 17 that would have closed his match against redshirt freshman walk-on Matt Kress, who lost the first hole of the day and played from behind their entire match. Forrester, though, watched his “gimme” do a…