University of North Florida golf coach Scott Schroeder and Liberty University coach Jeff Thomas didn’t intend to play in the same tournament five times this spring.
“It’s just kind of how it worked out,” Thomas said on Sunday while watching his players tee off in the second round of The Hayt, the invitational hosted by UNF at the Sawgrass Country Club. “We just try to get into the best tournaments we can, with the strongest fields, and a lot of times that means UNF will be there.”
The two teams are in contention again after 36 holes in The Hayt, setting up a final round on Monday with cooler weather, a different wind direction and always, the perils of the water- and sand-strewn course as a factor.
The Ospreys, led by freshman sensation Nick Gabrelcik (69-68—137) have a one-shot lead over Clemson at 8-under-par 568. Liberty is a manageable 12 shots behind at 4-over, tied with UCF for fourth, with Florida State (3-under) in between.
Gabrelcik forged a one-shot lead over Turk Pettit of Clemson (70-68) and John Pak of FSU (69-69) in the individual standings with three birdies among his last six holes, including a chip-in at No. 13.
Robbie Higgins of UNF (73-68), Kieran Vincent of Liberty (71-70) and Kyle Cottom of Clemson (68-73) are tied at 3-under.
If Monday’s final round comes to down to UNF and Liberty near the top, no one will be surprised.
So far this spring, the two ASUN rivals have put considerable distance on the rest of the conference. The Flames have two seconds (including a playoff loss to Florida in the Timuquana Collegiate), a fourth and a fifth, and entered this week 18th in the latest Golfweek poll.
The Ospreys won the Sea Best Invitational across A1A from Sawgrass at the TPC Sawgrass Dye’s Valley (Liberty tied for second) and have a second and a fourth. UNF is ranked 24th by Golfweek.
Liberty has finished ahead of UNF in three of the four tournaments in which the two teams have been in the field this spring and since their second-place finish in the 2019 ASUN tournament, the Flames have finished ahead of UNF eight times in nine tournaments.
The key difference between the two teams at the moment is depth. The Ospreys are led by Gabrelcik, who is ranked 10th individually by Golfweek, after winning the Sea Best and posting four top-10s in five starts. But they have only one other individual top-10 finish this spring, by graduate senior Nick Infanti, and junior Grant Sutliff is the team’s second highest-ranked player by Golfweek at No. 233.
Golfweek has Vincent ranked 20th and Alexandre Fuchs 33rd this week. Vincent has four top-10s this season, with a victory at the Seminole Intercollegiate, Fuchs has two and Eugene Chang one (Chang is out this week because of the ASUN’s COVID-19 protocols).
“We’ve got some really good players,” Thomas said. “Kieran and Alex have played well all spring.”
The Ospreys and Flames will next face other when it really counts: the ASUN Championship on April 18-20 at the University of Georgia Golf Course.
It promises to be another pitched two-team battle as in 2019, when the tournament was last held. UNF won its third ASUN title in five years and its fifth in eighth years by 12 shots over the Flames, with the next-nearest team, Jacksonville University, finishing a distant 29 shots behind.
UNF’s Jordan Batchelor and Andrew Alligood captured first and second. Vincent and Gabe Lench tied for third.
It was Liberty’s first appearance in the ASUN tournament after Thomas led the Flames to five Big South titles.
Although Liberty and UNF have knocked heads since January, Thomas wondered if “rivalry” wasn’t too strong a word.
“I guess you could call it that,” he said. “All of our guys know each other. I know Scott pretty well. We have similar teams and we’re going to battle a lot. We recruit a lot of the same guys. But we enjoy playing against them and we’re on very good terms with their program.”
Schroeder said he’s rooting for the rivalry to extend beyond the ASUN tournament.
“Let’s get this extended all the way to the NCAA,” he said. “That will make it that much more fun. We like competing against each other. It makes us both better. It’s not Alabama vs. Auburn. We enjoy it.”
Schroeder said he and Thomas have the same philosophy on picking tournaments: play at tough courses that place an emphasis on driving accuracy and course management.
“We play a similar schedule because we both want our teams to hit it straight and learn to play tough courses,” Schroeder said.
Beyond that, the two are good friends and Schroeder said they sometimes have several phone conversations per week.
“We respect them and they respect us,” he said. “But we want to beat each other. That’s golf.”
There were three shots of note in the first round, including the first albatross in tournament history. Albin Bergstrom of South Florida used a 5-iron from 215 yards out to make a 2 at the par-5 18th hole.
Yaun made an eagle-two at the eighth hole, using a pitching wedge from 111 yards out and Connor Newton of Coastal Carolina had an eagle-two at No. 16, also using a wedge, from 104 yards away.
