February 22, 2025 • by Dan Davies
FSU men off to winning start in Spring as women make it a memorable double at Moon Golf Invitational... Freshman Eila Galitsky shines for Gamecocks... Gilligan moves to #2 on PGA Tour U as Gators win at home... Oregon shatter records and move to #3 in rankings... Louisiana tops podium in Border Olympics
Luke Clanton closed with rounds of 66 and 67 to win the fifth tournament of his collegiate career and lead the Noles to their first victory of the season at the Watersound Invitational. The WAGR #1 ranked player shot 10-under (206) for 54 holes at Sharks Tooth in Panama City Beach to finish three clear of the Alabama pair Jones Free and Jonathan Griz.
If Clanton, who has just signed with Nike, makes the cut at this week’s Cognizant Classic, he will earn his PGA Tour card by meeting the 20-point threshold on the accelerated program.
Before he joins the tour, Clanton has his sights set on winning a National Championship with Florida State. His team was ranked 33 going into the tournament but defeated six teams ranked above them. Tyler Weaver and Michael Mays finished in 6th, helping FSU to a nine-shot victory over Alabama and 13 from UCLA.
FSU Director of Golf Trey Jones lost three All-Americans at the end of last season and on the latest episode of College Golf Podcast he talked of his 2025 line-up beginning to find its “identity”. Watch this space.
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Coach Amy Bond’s team delivered a memorable double for FSU when the #7 Seminoles defeated Wake Forest by three strokes to claim a program-record third consecutive team win at the prestigious Moon Golf Invitational and move up a spot in the rankings.
The Seminoles won the Landfall Tradition in the fall and the Collegiate Invitational at the Guadalajara Country Club to open the spring. At Suntree Country Club, they went wire-to-wire to nail the 22nd tournament win of Coach Bond’s tenure.
WAGR #1 Lottie Woad finished tied with Eila Galitsky, the South Carolina freshman, at the top of the individual leaderboard after 54 holes, with Galitsky claiming her first individual win in a playoff. FSU’s in-form Mirabel Ting finished T6.
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Eila Galitsky, playing in only her second collegiate tournament after enrolling at South Carolina in January, holed a 35-foot putt to defeat Lottie Woad on the first playoff hole to win the individual title at the Moon Golf Invitational and move up to #23 in the rankings.
Galistsky was only 16 when she won the 2023 Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific at Singapore Island Country Club before finishing as low amateur at that year’s Chevron Championship.
Last year, she won on the Thailand LPGA Tour and finished eighth in her second appearance at the Augusta National Women’s Amateur. A few weeks ago, the big-hitting teenager showed that she fears no-one, defeating Woad in the singles at the Patty Hankin Trophy in the United Arab Emirates.
Can the exciting Thai-Canadian freshman supercharge Kalen Anderson’s Gamecocks?
Florida senior Ian Gilligan won his sixth collegiate title at the Gators Invitational, prevailing in a two-hole playoff against Charlotte’s Justin Matthews. Gilligan shot rounds of 66, 67 and 69 (-8) to move to second on the PGA Tour U rankings behind David Ford of North Carolina.
The Gators won their home event for the sixth year in a row, beating Oklahoma State by a shot and climbing to #10 in the rankings.
In his last four tournament starts, Gilligan has finished first at the Gators Invitational, T2 at the Southwestern Invitational, 1st at the Australian Master of the Amateurs and T16 in the Shriners Children's Open on the PGA Tour.
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The Oregon women’s team showed they mean business this Spring with a dominant 23-shot win at the Alice & John Wallace Classic at Monterey Country Club. University of Southern California, who have four wins already this season, finished in a distant second. Oregon leapfrogged the Trojans to move to #3 in the rankings.
Freshman Suvichaya Vinijchaitham was the individual medalist with teammates Kiara Romero finishing T2 with USC’s Catherine Park, and Karen Tsuru in fourth. Vinijchaitham’s 12-under 201 is the second-lowest 54-hole total in Oregon program history, while Romero (203) and Tsuru (204) both made it into the lowest five scores ever recorded by Ducks players.
Five rounds of the 16 Vinijchaitham has has played in her collegiate career have resulted in scores in the 60s. Her closing 64 (-7) tied for the second-lowest individual round in program history, matching her final round of the Therese Hession Regional Challenge earlier this month.
The Ducks also set a new record for a 54-hole total score to par (34-under 818), closing with 18-under-par 266. This bettered the previous mark by six strokes, which, as the Oregon website reported, was also set at the recent Therese Hession Regional Challenge.
“This is a really difficult game so to be that dominant three days in a row is really impressive, especially with all underclassmen in the lineup,” said Head Coach Derek Radley, who celebrated the ninth win of his Oregon career.
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Louisiana won the Border Olympics in Texas with a 54-hole total of 855 (+3) to win by six strokes over New Mexico State. Leading after 36 holes, the Ragin’ Cajuns fired a joint best-of-the-week team score of one under par to ease clear of their rivals. Houston, the highest ranked team in the field, finished third.
New Mexico’s Ethan Klose won the individual title, moving up over 600 places in the rankings in the process. Klose finished at five under par, one shot clear of Hunter Thomson of Michigan.
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