A North Florida squad full of new faces wins McDowell Invite

Plenty of new faces make up the North Florida roster this season, considering that five seniors departed from a team that advanced to the NCAA Championship last spring. The new-look Ospreys proved themselves on Tuesday, however, by edging home team Alabama-Birmingham at the Graeme McDowell Invitational.

North Florida and UAB tied in Tuesday’s final round at Gresytone G&CC in Birmingham, Ala., with 2-under 286 totals. North Florida had a slim one-shot lead to start the day, however, and it turned out to be the difference.

Interestingly, North Florida didn’t land a single golfer inside the top 10 in Birmingham. All four counters, however, were inside the top 17 and all five starters were in the top 22.

"Today was a great team win,” North Florida head coach Scott Schroeder said. “We had no player in the top 10, so winning the tournament is a great example of guys playing well at different times. We now get to take a break before finishing off the fall at the end of October."

Sophomore Cody Carroll was even in the final round to finish with a 2-under 214 total and lead the team with a T-11 finish.

That also left him seven shots behind Western Kentucky’s Linus Lo, who won the individual title with a 9-under total made up of three consecutive rounds of 69.

Behind UAB in second, Arkansas State was a close third at 10 under, and South Carolina was 1 over in solo fourth.