Ooltewah, TN - The University of Florida men’s golf teed off at the
NCAA Championship on Tuesday with a team score of 287 (-1). The Gators were near the top of the leaderboard all afternoon and ended the day in a tie for seventh, just four strokes shy of first place.

“We got off to pretty solid start in that we were one under and four
strokes back,” said head coach Buddy Alexander. “But we got sloppy in
the final holes today. I don’t mind sloppy when it comes to execution
and losing a shot or two but we made some bad decisions at the end of
the round with club selection. It’s too bad because otherwise it
could’ve been a good day for us. Every shot is vital and it’s going
to be close down the stretch.”

The team was led by freshman Phillip Choi (Orlando, Fla.), making his
NCAA Championship debut. Choi, who teed off from the No. 5 position in
the lineup, carded a three-under 69 on day one to tie for third. Choi
began his round with a birdie before making a bogey and birdie on his
third and fourth. Two more birdies put him at three-under entering the
turn and a bogey and birdie on his back nine kept him there to finish
the day.

Seniors Tim McKenney (Scottsdale, Ariz.) is currently tied for 36th
after carding an even-par 72 on Tuesday. He carded two birdies and two
bogeys on the day.

Senior Tyson Alexander (Gainesville, Fla.), redshirt junior Andres
Echavarria (Medellin, Colombia) and junior Bank Vongvanij (Bradenton,
Fla.) all tied for 52nd place with a first-round score of 73 (+1).

Oklahoma State and Florida State are currently tied for first place
after both teams carded a 283 (-5) on Tuesday. Jesper Kennegard of
Arizona State and Henrik Norlander of Augusta State are tied for the
lead individually with first-round scores of 68 (-4).

The Gators will tee off in the same pairings, alongside Georgia Tech and
UNLV, for Wednesday’s second round, except they will play in the morning
session, with tee times beginning at 8:35 a.m. ET. Visit
www.GatorZone.com or www.golfstat.com for live scoring and updated
results.

Team Results After Round 1
Place Team Score
T1 Oklahoma State 283 (-5)
T1 Florida State 283 (-5)
3 Oregon 284 (-4)
4 Texas A&M 285 (-3)
T5 Arizona State 286 (-2)
T5 Clemson 286 (-2)
T7 FLORIDA 287 (-1)
T7 Augusta State 287 (-1)
9 Washington 289 (+1)
T10 Georgia Tech 290 (+2)
T10 Texas 290 (+2)
T12 Kent State 292 (+4)
T12 Stanford 292 (+4)
T12 UNF 292 (+4)
15 California 293 (+5)
T16 UNLV 294 (+6)
T16 Baylor 294 (+6)
T16 San Diego 294 (+6)
T16 UCLA 294 (+6)
T20 Southern Cal 295 (+7)
T20 Oregon State 295 (+7)
22 Duke 296 (+8)
T23 Georgia Southern 297 (+9)
T23 Tennessee 297 (+9)
25 Virginia 300 (+12)
26 Penn State 301 (+13)
T27 TCU 302 (+14)
T27 Texas Tech 302 (+14)
29 LSU 303 (+15)
30 Illinois 304 (+16)

Individual Results After Round 1
Place Team Score
T1 Jesper Kennegard (Arizona State) 68 (-4)
T1 Henrik Norlander (Augusta State) 68 (-4)
T3 Phillip Choi (Florida) 69 (-3)
T3 Alex Ching (San Diego) 69 (-3)
T3 Luke Hopkins (Clemson) 69 (-3)
T3 Seath Lauer (Florida State) 69 (-3)
T3 Lance Lopez (Texas) 69 (-3)
T3 Ryan O’Rear (Baylor) 69 (-3)
T3 Wes Roach (Duke) 69 (-3)
T3 Peter Uihlein (Oklahoma State) 69 (-3)
T3 Pontus Widegren (UCLA) 69 (-3)
T3 Eugene Wong (Oregon) 69 (-3)

Florida Results After Round 1
Place Team Score
T3 Phillip Choi 69 (-3)
T36 Tim McKenney 72 (E)
T52 Tyson Alexander 73 (+1)
T52 Bank Vongvanij 73 (+1)
T52 Andres Echavarria 73 (+1)