UF-FSU flavor in golf tourney

The second round of the South Beach International Amateur is being played at Miami Beach and Normandy Shores golf courses on Miami Beach, but more appropriate sites might be Gainesville and Tallahassee.

Philip Barbaree (68-69—137) of LSU leads the event heading into Tuesday’s third round, but there are a pack of University of Florida and FSU players lurking high on the leaderboard.

Josh Lee, a junior at FSU, is tied for second with Sarosh Adi at one shot back. Andy Zhang, who has committed to attend Florida, is tied for fourth two shots behind the leader, as are Jorge Garcia and Sam Horsfield, two members of UF’s talented freshman class.

So, for this week, the FSU-Florida rivalry lives on — not on a football field, but in a much more gentlemanly and refined manner on the golf courses of Miami Beach.

Lee, a junior at FSU, pondered the schools’ rivalry.

“It’s a lot different than football,” he said of his Gator opponents. “We know each other pretty well, but that doesn’t keep us from doing some trash-talking.”

Horsfield pointed out that in the fall all the UF freshmen played in at least one tournament and that included Horsfield and Garcia playing in all the team’s events.

After the just-completed fall season, FSU is ranked fourth in Golfweek magazine’s national Division I rankings with Florida, top-heavy with all those freshmen, checking in at 11.

“Hopefully, that will change,” Horsfield said of the rankings.

The final two rounds of the South Beach Invitational, open to the public for free, will be played Tuesday and Wednesday with both rounds at Miami Beach Golf Club.

Other tournaments

▪ Dixie Amateur: Hannes Ronnebald of Texas Tech holds a one-stroke lead over Bryson Nimmer heading into Tuesday’s final round at Heron Bay Golf Club. Ronnebald has had rounds of 71-69-73—213, and Nimmer has posted 67-73-74—214. Tied for third were Ryan Troyer and Fredrik Nihlen at 215.

▪ Orange Bowl Doral-Publix Junior Classic: The first round of the boys’ and girls’ 16-18 and 14-15 divisions were played at Trump National Doral. Sam Ohno of Ponte Vedra Beach shot a 74 to lead the boys’ 16-18 category by one shot, and Pablo Alonso of Spain shot 75 to hold a two-stroke advantage in boys’ 14-15. In the girls’ 16-18, Stephanie Astrup of Denmark and Albane Valenzuela of Switzerland each recorded 75s to tie for the lead. In girls’ 14-15, Veronica Joels of Las Vegas shot a 73 for a two-shot advantage.

Women’s basketball

Nova Southeastern forward Kayla Wright earned Sunshine State Conference Offensive Player of the Week honors after leading the Sharks to three wins in four days. Wright was a force in the post last week, beginning in Thursday’s six-point win over Shaw. That day, she fell just two points shy of the women’s all-time record for points in a game, scoring 34 on 17-of-21 shooting. During the Shark Holiday Classic on aturday, Wright led the team with 17 points as NSU defeated Miles by 53. In that game, she shot 6 of 10 and was 5 of 5 from the free-throw line.

This story was originally published December 21, 2015 at 9:33 PM with the headline "UF-FSU flavor in golf tourney."