While a lot of attention is being put into the basketball programs, the UNF golf team is gaining national recognition at the same time.
During this school year, the UNF golf team has held esteemed positions on the Golfweek/Sagarin ranking scale, including a top spot for sophomore golfer Sean Dale. After their first tournament, the Wolf Run Intercollegiate in Indiana, Dale was considered the No. 1-ranked golfer in the country, with the UNF team falling not too far behind with the No. 11 spot after finishing second out of the 17 teams that competed.
Even though the UNF golf team finished seventh out of 14 Feb. 14, the final day of their last tournament the Gator Fall Invitational, Dale still rests in the top 25 ranking on the Golfweek/Sagarin scale while UNF holds the 29th spot.
UNF head golf coach Scott Schroeder must be training his players and practicing really hard to earn such high rankings on the national scale, but with all the focus on the head men’s basketball coach Matthew Driscoll, his work seems to be going unnoticed.
“There is no doubt [Driscoll] works harder than anybody at this place,” Moon said about the progress of the athletic program one-year after his arrival as athletic director. “What the other [coaches] have to realize is that’s what it takes to win at the Division I level. You can’t sit on your butt in your office. You can’t sit on your butt at home and think you’re going to get good recruits and that your team is going to get better. … He works all hours day and night.”
It’s definitely apparent that Driscoll has been working really hard to bring the basketball team up to Division I style, especially with its new status in the Atlantic Sun Conference championship. But he’s not the only coach working hard in UNF Athletics.
During their fall season tournaments, the Ospreys were able to steadily move up the rankings. At the beginning of the season, the team started at No. 19 before moving up to No. 15 and then four more spots to No. 11. Dale also debuted at No. 2 before he was able to capture the No. 1 slot.
All season long the Ospreys have almost always finished in the top half of the ranking above their competition. In addition to the Wolf Run Intercollegiate, UNF placed high in fifth out of 15 at the Gary Koch Intercollegiate and in the David Toms Intercollegiate where the team tied for second out of 14.
The sun must have gotten to the UNF golf team when they placed 10th out of 15 in the Brickyard Collegiate Championship, but other than that, the Ospreys have consistently placed high above their competition.
Their rankings were also a little low in the Gator Fall Invitational, but Schroeder isn’t losing sight of their next tournament, the John Hayt Collegiate Invitational, close to home in Ponte Vedra Beach at Sawgrass Country Club from Feb. 28 to March 2.
“We had our lowest round of the weekend, but it played much easier, and that was not good enough,” Schroeder said after the Gator Fall Invitational. “We lost to LSU and Duke by a shot, which are two teams we need to be competitive with. We know we can play better, and that has to be the main focus between now and the John Hayt.”
Last year the UNF golf team placed 11th out of 15 teams in the John Hayt Collegiate Invitational, but I’m sure with the way the UNF golfers are moving up as a team this season, they are bound to do even better.
“The collegiate aspect of golf is a little more team oriented,” said Brian Carroll, a UNF sports management professor and the director broadcasting and programming for the PGA Tour. “An advantage that [the UNF golf team] could have is fans giving them support and having a good knowledge of the course.”
