Red-hot Zhang leads Gators into NCAA golf championships

GAINESVILLE — UF sophomore Andy Zhang is a winner — finally — and perhaps the nation’s hottest college golfer entering this weekend’s NCAA championships.

Zhang also is the exact same player he was two months ago when he was winless and his college career quickly was winding down.

This consistency and single-mindedness is the secret to the 20-year-old’s success.

“That’s the thing: nothing’s changed,” UF coach J.C. Deacon said. “He just keeps doing the right things over and over and over again for two years, and then you start winning. It’s totally normal to me what’s happened.

“I just thought it would happen sooner, that’s all.”

Everyone did, Zhang included, when he signed with Florida in 2016 as the nation’s top-ranked amateur and the youngest golfer to ever play the U.S. Open. But entering the SEC championships at the end of April, Zhang faced the likelihood he would never win at the college level.

“Leaving college golf without a win, I would regret it a lot,” Zhang said.

Now Zhang, who will turn professional after the NCAAs, can leave UF without regret.

In fact, his time with the Gators could end following an unprecedented stretch with a program that seeks its fifth national team title this week in Stillwater, Okla.

No UF men’s golfer has won individual titles at the SEC Tournament and NCAA regionals before Zhang did during the past four weeks. He now looks to make his hot streak even tougher to match and join Bob Murphy (1966) and Nick Gilliam (2001) as UF’s only NCAA individual championship winners.

Three straight wins is not out of the question for Zhang, based on his talent, recent play and vast experience as a junior golfer on Stillwater’s brutish windswept layout at Karsten Creek Golf Club, host site of the annual PING Invitational.

“Yeah, why not?” Deacon said. “He’s playing so great. He knows this course. He’s played there before. He just has to keep going and doing the same things. You can’t think about winning … and hopefully he gets in a position to win with nine holes to go.

“It’d be good for him and great for us.”

Zhang enters the week as the nation’s 41st-ranked player, but no one in the field won both his conference and regional tournaments. Zhang’s confidence is high, but so is his self-awareness.

Few 20-year-olds understand their golf game to the degree of Zhang, who took up golf in Beijing at age 6 and moved with is family to Reunion at 10, where developed into on the nation’s top juniors. To most, Zhang’s closing 4-under par 66 on April 27 to win the SECs in windy, challenging conditions was flawless. He was the only player with three rounds in the 60s during the NCAA Kissimmee regional two weeks later on his one-time home course in Reunion.

But Zhang sees the imperfections with those command performances, as well as the possibility to improve.

“Two wins, they’re just two wins,” he said.

“They’re great, but what I value in my own game I know it’s not as good as it potentially could be.”

Zhang hopes the best is yet to come for him and the Gators.

UF enters this week seeded sixth, with a lineup five deep capable of reaching the eight-team match play final, where anything can happen.

“I think we’ve been working really hard toward this portion of the season all year,” Zhang said.

“It’s starting to pay off for all of us at the right time. We’re excited.”