PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. — The fourth-seeded Florida State Men’s Golf Team impressed the field on Tuesday, shooting the low round of the day at 9-under and climbing six spots to second place in the second round of the NCAA Men’s Golf Regional held at PGA National Resort.
After starting the day in eighth place, the Seminoles collectively played some of their finest golf of the season. After having FSU’s high round yesterday, senior transfer Dan Bradbury fired a 5-under 67 in the second round which included a back-nine 33 and six total birdies to just one bogey.
Bradbury enters Wednesday’s final round tied for 11th and six shots off the lead of Kieron van Wyk of College of Charleston, who is at 6-under. Bradbury climbed 35 spots on Tuesday.
The round is extra fulfilling for Bradbury after having to miss the ACC Men’s Golf Championship in Panama City a few weeks ago due to illness.
“It was a really impressive round today, and actually the past 27 holes we’ve played exceptionally well,” FSU Head Coach Trey Jones said. “We couldn’t have gotten off to a worse start yesterday, and the fact that they finished the round yesterday like they did gave us an opportunity to go out and play a great round today. And they did that.”
The Seminoles have put themselves in strong position to advance to their second consecutive NCAA Championship. The Top 5 teams in the Palm Beach Regional’s 14-team field will advance to the NCAA Finals.
“This is one of the hardest golf courses that I’ve ever seen,” Jones added. “Fortunately the wind laid down a little bit today early on and let us get something going. Once these guys got some confidence it was really impressive to watch them play and see them gain confidence as they went forward. We came here with a task and that task certainly is not complete at this point. Even if you play a good round or a great round, you’re walking to the next tee and you have to approach it in that manner.”
Vanderbilt leads the field by a good margin at 9-under, followed by FSU (even par), Florida (+2), USF (+6) and College of Charleston (+10). ACC counterpart Notre Dame is in sixth place at 12-over.
Sophomore Brett Roberts was sharp once again, carding a second-round 68 while being FSU’s overall leader at 2-under and in a tie for sixth. With FSU teeing off on the first hole on Tuesday, Roberts joined Bradbury in getting off to a strong start on the front nine with a 33. Roberts added six birdies in the second round with one double bogey.
Redshirt sophomore Cole Anderson has enjoyed a strong performance in South Florida, shooting a 1-under 71 on Tuesday and being in a tie for 11th alongside Bradbury at even par. Anderson had four birdies total. A key sequence came at the start of the back nine when he birdied the 10th hole but then had consecutive bogeys on the 11th and 12th holes. From there, he was steady with six straight pars to finish the round.
Sophomore Frederik Kjettrup jumped seven spots on Tuesday to 26th, shooting a 1-over 73 in the second round. Kjettrup is 4-over for the tournament.
Michael Sakane is tied for 51st at 10-over.
The Seminoles will get their final round going off the first tee with a 7:30 a.m. tee time for Sakane. The round can be tracked on Golfstat.com.
