LINEUP

No. 1 – Addison Klonowski

No. 2 – Paula Francisco

No. 3 – Inès Archer 

No. 4 – Jessica Guiser

No. 5 – Karoline Tuttle

Individual – Elaine Widjaja

TEE OFF

The Florida women’s golf team concludes the regular season at the Chattanooga Classic this weekend at the Honors Course. 

THE FIELD (NCAA Rankings as of March 19)

Chattanooga, (48) Campbell, Cincinnati, Colorado State, (22) Duke, Eastern Michigan, (27) Florida, Georgia, Michigan, (10) North Carolina, Old Dominion, South Florida, (13) Virginia, Wisconsin, Xavier & Vandy Indy

ABOUT THE COURSE

The Honors Course is a Pete Dye design and has been considered one of the best private courses in the country almost from the first tee shot in 1983. It’s in suburban Ooltewah, Tenn., and has hosted two NCAA Men’s Golf Championships (1996, 2010), 1991 U.S. Amateur, 1994 Curtis Cup as well as a slew of USGA, SGA & TGA amateur events. The 2026 Women’s AM and 2031 Men’s Am are on the docket as well. In fact, the club dedicated itself to ONLY hosting amateur tournaments

LAST TIME OUT

The Gators flashed their youth in a sweep of the 53rd Gators Invitational as freshman Jessica Guiser won her first collegiate event as Florida claimed its fourth victory of the season with a final tournament score of +9, defeating No. 11 Virginia (+11) and No. 14 Ole Miss (+13). Six UF golfers finished in top-23 led by Guiser’s first collegiate victory at 4-under 206.

The last time Florida swept both the team and individual titles at the home tournament was in 2021. The win by Guiser marks the second Florida freshman to win the Gators Invitational in program history joining Riko Higashio (1996), becoming the 11th UF golfer to earn medalist honors at the home tournament and just fourth underclassmen: Annabell Fuller (2021) and Sandral Gal (2006).

Guiser entered the day one shot out the lead after the first two rounds of 68 (-2) and 69 (-1). After starting with back-to-back bogeys in the final round, the freshman went 3-under with three birdies in her last five holes for a final round of 69 (-1) to defeat Pimpisa Sisutham of UCF by a shot, who finished runner-up and had won the event the last two seasons.   

The Orange and Blue teed off the final 18-holes, one shot back of No. 14 Ole Miss. Florida grabbed the lead through 3-5 holes and never trailed the rest of the way battling through pouring rain the late morning, and owning a lead as many as four shots. UF’s lead dropped to one shot with holes 11-13 and had to battle through the second wave of rain that started in the afternoon. Clutch pars throughout the lineup in Inès Archer, Karoline Tuttle and Siuue Wu between holes 16-18 along with Addison Klonowski’s birdie on 17 helped maintain the Gators’ lead and hold on for a two shot victory over the Cavaliers. 

The Florida lineup featured five underclassmen in two sophomores (Paula Francisco and Archer), a redshirt-sophomore making her season debut (Tuttle), a redshirt-freshman (Klonowski) and true freshman (S. Wu). The young Gators defeated a UVA lineup consisting of two graduate students, two seniors and sophomore in addition to an Ole Miss five of a senior, junior, sophomore and two freshmen.  

Florida won the event for the 27th time in program history in the tournament’s 53rd occurrence, dating back to 1973. The Gators won the tournament for the ninth time in the last 10 seasons. Across the last two seasons, Florida has won seven events while marking back-to-back seasons of three-plus victories for the first time since 2015-16 & 2016-17. The last time UF won four events in a season was the 2016-17 season when they won the SEC Championship and NCAA Regional titles.

FALL RECAP

Florida closed out the first leg of the season with back-to-back victories, including defending its team title at The Ally. The Gators shot a final round of 6-under to end 15-under for a six shot victory over host Mississippi State. The victory is also the 33rd all-time under head coach Emily Glaser; 34th total as she was an assistant coach for a season in 2011-12. 

Redshirt-freshman Addison Klonowski led UF with a stroke average of 71.0 and finished T18 or better in all three stroke play events. She also had a team-high six rounds and two tournaments under par. 

Seven Gators had a T20 finish or better in the fall season with freshman Elaine Widjaja and Klonowski finishing top-25 in all three three stroke play tournaments. 

BIG 3, YEAR 2

The true freshmen trio of Inès Archer, Paula Fransico and Sophie Stevens all put together strong seasons to begin their collegiate careers. 

All earned SEC Freshman Golfer of the Week honors as Archer earned a spot on the All-SEC Freshman Team. Florida’s freshman trio totaled 23 (out of 55) appearances in the lineup, including both postseason events (SEC Championship & NCAA Regionals) where the group combined for 15 rounds played with Archer posting a team-best finish of T20 at SECs. They also totaled seven top-10s and 13 top-25s finishes.

NEW FACES IN THE ORANGE & BLUE

The Gators welcomed four five new Gators in Jessica Guiser (Hartland, Wisc.), Elaine Widjaja (Semarang, Indonesia), Isa Wu (Hong Kong) and Siuue Wu (Hong Kong) along with assistant coach Ashley Sease.

A SEASON AGO

The 2023-24 season, the Gators highlighted the beginning of the season with three consecutive tournament victories to end the fall season. Florida started the stretch off with a six-shot win at the Glass City Invitational, eight-shot victory in the Tar Heel Invitational and capped off by an 11-shot win in the fall finale, The Ally. 

The three wins brought it to 31 tournament wins all-time under head coach Emily Glaser; 32nd total as she was an assistant coach for a season in 2011-12. Florida last won three events in a season in 2015-16 and is the fifth occurrence under Glaser. It marks the most team titles since the 2019-20 season when the Gators last won by double-digits at the Allstate Sugar Bowl by 13.

As a team, the Gators placed top-7 in all nine regular-season tournaments with three wins, seven top-5 and six top-3 finishes. UF also ended with a 2-1 match play record with ranked victories over No. 20 Pepperdine (4-1) and No. 4 UCLA (3-2) at the Therese Hession Regional Challenge.

THE TURN

Florida begins the first leg of the postseason at the SEC Championship on April 14 at Pelican Golf Club in Belleair, Fla.