Gators Defeat Reigning SEC & NCAA Champs Auburn, Set for SEC Finals Tomorrow vs. Texas A&M

Last Updated: April 26, 2025By


ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. – The No. 8 Florida men’s golf team defeated No. 1-seed, No. 2 ranked, and reigning SEC and National Champion Auburn Tigers 3.5-1.5 in the SEC Championship Quarterfinals to earn a spot in the match play finals at Sea Island Golf Club.

Florida reaches the SEC Championship Match Play Finals for the third-time in program history since the format was added in 2017. The third trip is tied for the second-most appearances with Auburn in the conference behind Vanderbilt’s five. 

The Orange and Blue will compete for its 17th Southeastern Conference Title and second under head coach J.C. Deacon as its 16 previous championships are tied for second-most in the conference with LSU. 

 

The win improves Florida’s conference tournament match play record to 9-4 and 12-4 all-time in postseason action as the meeting between the No. 5-seed Gators and No. 1-seed Auburn was the first-time in the conference tournament. 

The Gators will meet No. 3-seed Texas A&M in the SEC Championship Finals tomorrow at 8 a.m. live on SEC Network. Florida and the Aggies have meet twice before in 2022 & 2023 in the semifinals with UF winning both times. 

In the last four years, both the Florida men and women golf programs have reached the match play finals – previous was in 2022. 

Florida continued its hot start as Matthew Kress and Zack Swanwick both took their first holes of the match while the first match off Luke Poulter was tied through two holes as the last two matches had not teed off yet.  

Once all five matches were underway, Auburn led 2-1-2 with a pair of 1Up leads and Swanwick 1Up with the final match between Ian Gilligan and Josiah Gilbert tied after the first hole. Quickly Swanwick, who clinched the quarterfinals match in the morning, took the first three holes and was 3Up thru 3.

It was a heavyweight fight between the two conference rivals as both teams traded leads as once all pairings where three or more holes in, each led in a match with the remaining three tied. 

Florida grabbed an early 3-2 lead behind a 10-foot birdie putt on four from Jack Turner to go 1Up as the wind started to pick up for the first time all week at Sea Island with gusts of 18-22 mph. As the first two matches made the turn and the final three were creeping that way, Auburn pushed out in front 3-1-1, leading by multiple holes in two matches. 

The Orange and Blue earned some momentum and put the match 2-1-2 after Poulter went 1Up with a win on 12, Turner making birdie on eight to tie his match and Gilligan winning back-to-back holes on consecutive birdies on seven and eight. 

Auburn responded a few holes later and took a 3-2 lead with Gators were 1-Down in final two matches with one thru 11 and the final thru was 10. But the Gators didn’t back down. Poulter secured the first point for Florida with a 3&2 win after taking three and tying two holes between holes 12-16 to finish 2-0 in his conference tournament debut. 

 

UF shortly pushed ahead 2-0 as the freshman Swanwick continued his incredible conference championship debut and made back-to-back birdies on 13 & 14 for a 6&4 win. The New Zealand native went 2-0 today behind his match-clinching 4&3 win in the quarterfinals vs. Oklahoma.

 

Auburn grabbed its lone match win with a 5&3 win between Kress and Brendan Valdes.

Last year’s SEC runner-up, Turner, was paired up with the reigning back-to-back SEC Individual Champion with one of the most decorated freshman campaigns in the No. 2 amateur in the world, Jackson Koivun. 

Turner found himself 1-Down with six holes to play. The sophomore responded similar to last year when he was 2-Down with three holes to play vs. William Moll of Vanderbilt and flipped it to win 1Up. He hit what could be the shot of the week, an approach on 13 from 195-yards into the green that almost rolled in for eagle. He made the short birdie putt to tie the match and then went 1Up with four to play with a consecutive birdie on 14 to win the hole. 

After the two halved 15, Tuner went 2Up with two to play after winning 16 with a par. On the 17th, Turner hit his tee shot on the back of the green, about 30-to-40-feet from the hole. Koivun landed his first shot inside eight-feet, but would miss his birdie putt, making par and Turner made par tying the hole to secure the match-clinching point 2&1. 

 

The final score goes Florida 3.5, Auburn 1.5 due to Gilligan’s match being tied at the time of the match-clinching point. 

SEC Championship Semifinals: Florida 3.5, Auburn 1.5

Luke Poulter  3&2 vs. Carson Bacha

Brendan Valdes 5&3 vs. Matthew Kress

Zack Swanwick 6&4 vs. Cayden Pope

Jack Turner 2&1vvs. Jackson Koivun

Ian Gilligan TIED vs. Josiah Gilbert  

SEC Championship Finals Pairings: No. 5 Florida vs. No. 3 Texas A&M

8 a.m. | Luke Poulter vs. Jamie Montojo

8:10 a.m. | Matthew Kress vs. Aaron Pounds

8:20 a.m. | Zack Swanwick vs. Wheaton Ennis

8:30 a.m. | Jack Turner vs. Phichaksn Maichon 

8:40 a.m. | Ian Gilligan vs. Michael Heidelbaugh

Post Round Semifinal Quotes:

Jack Turner

On winning against the best player in the country…

“Yeah, obviously it feels great to be here with the team and all the supporters and getting he win today was awesome. He [Jackson Koivun] played unbelievable, so I knew that was going to be tough and he was going to make a lot of putts, make a lot of birdies. But I just hung tight and at the end his putter cooled off a little bit and I was just in the right position at the right time and got it done.”

 

On if he asked to match up against Koivun…

‘No, unfortunately our coaches don’t ask us who we are going to play, but I had a feeling I was going to play someone good. I mean they have five great players so I knew it would take [a lot] to get the win today.”

 

Ian Gilligan

On the nerves of playing in the anchor match…

“Yeah, I think a little bit of nerves to start, but I think I trust the guys so I was pretty confident in the front nine and then kinda, I like to look at the leaderboard a little bit here and there. I saw, I kind of felt like it was down to me and Jack [Turner] and we were both down one so I definitely got a little nervous. Obviously I think nerves for the team is a lot different than individual cause you just feel the weight of all the guys and you just wanna pull through for them so bad. Also just seeing Jack kind of flip his match gave me some like, kind of momentum, but mans it’s so fun to compete with the team. It’s just awesome.”

 

J.C. Deacon

On winning in quarterfinals and semifinals to advance to the SEC Championship…

“I’m so proud of these guys. They work so hard and the deserve this opportunity. And hats off to coach Clinard and coach Williams, they’ve got an unbelievable program and it was going to take our best golf to beat them today. And we’ve just been getting better all year, and today was probably the best day we’ve had, and I’m just so happy for them that they get the opportunity tomorrow and just really proud of them. So awesome stuff boys, love you guys.”

 




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