The University of North Florida Ospreys men’s golf team could make as many birdies as they wanted on Wednesday in the final round of the ASUN Championship.
UNF even made enough to set the conference record for the final round.
But there wasn’t a thing the Ospreys could do about Liberty.
“You can’t play defense in this game,” said UNF coach Scott Schroeder after his team finished second to the Flames by four shots at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail Magnolia Grove Crossings Course in Mobile, Ala. “All four of our guys played really well. We just didn’t get that one phenomenal round.”
Liberty’s Jonathan Yaun won the individual title at 18-under-par 198 with a closing 67 and the Flames broke the ASUN 54-hole scoring record at 53-under-par 811, shattering their own record of 832 set in 2021.
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Yaun broke the 54-hole individual record of 203 held by Stefan Wistorf of UCF in 2003.
Isaac Simmons (70) finished fourth at 15-under and Connor Polender (67) tied for fifth at 14-under to give the Flames enough cushion to win their second ASUN title in three years.
JU posts best ASUN score
JU finished third at 32-under 32, the Dolphins’ best score in the ASUN tournament. Jacksonville won the 2006 tournament at Eagle Creek in Orlando at 845.
UNF, which drew to within two shots late in the round, also broke Liberty’s 2021 record at 49-under 815. Junior Nick Gabrelcik (67) and Jacksonville’s Joseph Sullivan (66) tied for second at 16-under, two shots behind Yaun and Robbie Higgins of the Ospreys (69) tied Polender for fifth.
Sullivan’s score broke the JU ASUN record of 203 held by Michael Sakane (2021).
UNF breaks third-round record
Every UNF player shot in the 60s. Davis Lee (66) finished ninth at 11-under, Lance Yates (69) tied for 14th at 8-under and Cody Carroll (69), tied for 17th at 7-under.
The Ospreys (271) broke the final-round team scoring record of 277 shared by JU (2006), Mercer (2011) and UNF (2015).
It wasn’t enough.
“We’ve always done better than Liberty this year in the tougher courses,” Schroeder said. “We drive it a little straighter. But the fairways on this course are really wide-open. You really can’t drive it out of play. We didn’t make enough birdies on the last nine holes.
UNF trailed by eight shots to start the final round but came out blazing with 17 birdies and only one bogey on the front nine.
Liberty’s players wouldn’t relent.
Liberty set the 18- and 36-hole scoring records on Tuesday, the latter breaking a mark set in 2006 by JU. Yaun and Polender tied the single-round record of 63 set in 1986 by Fletcher graduate Fred Benton when he was at Georgia Southern.
Eric Jansson of Jacksonville State, the 36-hole leader at 14-under 130, broke the record for the first 36 holes shared by JU teammates Russell Knox and Duncan Stewart in 2006.
UNF should make NCAAs
Schroeder said the Ospreys should still make their 13th NCAA tournament in a row, given their top-40 ranking by Golfstat and Golfweek.
“We would have had to play really poorly to not make it,” he said.
The NCAA golf selection show will be on Golf Channel at 1 pm on May 3. The regionals are at Salem, SC, East Lansing, Mich., Las Vegas, Norman, Okla., and Morgan Hill, Calif.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Rally by UNF, Nick Gabrelcik comes up short as Liberty wins ASUN golf