The No. 10/12 Florida Gator men’s golf team makes their N.I.T. debut Friday, and they will face seven other ranked opponents. The two-day tournament consists of 36 holes on Friday (11 a.m. tee time) and 18 on Saturday (tee time TBD).

Set for another battle out west today ⚔️

⛳️: N.I.T.
📍: OMNI Tucson National
🕚: 11 a.m.
📊: https://t.co/74ijoBYVmS#GoGators 🐊 pic.twitter.com/cecGj4eOe5

— Gators Golf (@GatorsGolf) March 17, 2023

The event, held at Omni Tucson National in Tucson, Arizona, is a par 72 playing 7,200 yards.

Florida Lineup

• No. 1 – Ricky Castillo
• No. 2 – Yuxin Lin
• No. 3 – Fred Biondi
• No. 4 – Giovanni Manzoni
• No. 5 – Matthew Kress

Individual – Ryan Hart

Competition

A total of 13 teams are participating in the event. Most teams are from the west, and Florida is the only SEC team in the tournament.

The teams are number 3 Arizona State, number 4 Illinois, number 9 Pepperdine, number 12 Florida, number 13 Oklahoma, number 18 Arizona (host), number 21 Colorado State, number 22 Oklahoma State, New Mexico, San Diego, San Diego State, USC, Wyoming. (rankings from Golfstat)

Previous Event

Florida has not played in two weeks since the Southern Highlands Collegiate, where Yuxin Lin won the tournament with a score of -13 and Fred Biondi had a rough week, shooting +17. Lin looks to keep the momentum rolling while Biondi seeks redemption out west.

Also, Gator sophomore Ryan Hart competed as an individual at the Daytona Spring Beach Invitational March 7. Hart individually won the event with a score of -9 (207). He shot all three rounds under par (69, 68, 70) at the par 72 and edged out the competition by a stroke. Hart will be competing as an individual in Tucson.

Adding some hardware to start the week 🏆#GoGators 🐊 pic.twitter.com/emrxgmR6Sk

— Gators Golf (@GatorsGolf) March 13, 2023