Deacon, Gators Bring Championship Hardware Home

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Over the course of the previous 40 minutes, the NCAA Men’s Golf Championship match-play final Wednesday night at Grayhawk in Scottsdale, Ariz., had turned in the University of Florida’s favor. The Gators needed to win just one of the two matches left on the course, with both fifth-year senior Fred Biondi, already with the individual title tucked away, with a 1-up lead on his Georgia Tech opponent and sitting pretty in the center of the 18th fairway and senior Ricky Castillo standing on the 18th tee also enjoying a 1-up advantage in his match. 

That’s when Castillo pulled his Rangefinder out of his bag and through the pseudo-binoculars began giving Deacon play-by-play of Biondi’s second shot about 320 yards away. 

He’s taking the club back. 

Ball’s in the air. 

I think he hit it solid. 

He’s holding his finish. 

It’s on the green. 

Castillo then piped a 3-wood down the middle of the fairway, grabbed his bag and the two began making the walk — almost certainly — to a national championship. 

Deacon thought it was a good time to get nostalgic. 

“This will probably embarrass Ricky. I don’t know why — I guess because I’m an idiot — but I said to him, ‘When you were 11 years old I knew this was going to happen to us,’ ” Deacon said. “We both just started bawling. I’m literally covering my eyes with the camera guys coming over and we’re like, ‘We better get our [stuff] together. We were going to look like idiots if we lose this match and they saw us out here crying.” 

Deacon recalled that moment Thursday night in front the Mark Bostick Golf Course Clubhouse, the facility that serves as Gators headquarters. He told it while cradling the 2023 NCAA championship trophy and probably with every tear drained from his body following the emotional title-claiming charge of less than 24 hours earlier. 

Biondi finished with a routine par that clinched UF’s 3-1 victory and fifth national championship in program history. 

Raise it up @kress_matthew!#GoGators pic.twitter.com/goMr5wuucP

— Gators Golf (@GatorsGolf) June 1, 2023

For what it’s worth, Deacon and Castillo watched from the fairway and cried into each other’s arms, which was pretty much what every other Gator was doing on the 18th green, with a group of about 50 UF fans, mostly from the team’s Gator Golfers Boosters Club, at Bostick late Thursday afternoon to greet their champions with a triumphant homecoming that prompted some repeat emotions. 

Here’s how…