The UCF men’s golf team is set to compete in The Hayt Invitational, a three-day tournament held at Sawgrass Country Club in Ponte Vedra Beach from March 7 to March 9. The Knights are coming off a 12th-place finish at the Gators Invitational in Gainesville and will face a strong field that includes eight nationally ranked teams, such as No. 1 Virginia and No. 2 Auburn.
Sawgrass Country Club, the site of the event, is a par-72 course measuring 6,966 yards. It has historical significance as the former host of the PGA Tour’s Tournament Players Championship from 1977 to 1981.
The tournament format consists of 54 holes of stroke play over three days, with each team counting its four lowest scores per round from a five-man lineup.
Senior Chase Haygood enters this event having matched junior Hans Risvaer for the team’s best scoring average this season at 71.5 through 19 rounds. Haygood recently won first place at the SeaBest Invitational in Jacksonville. Risvaer’s top performance was a fourth-place finish at the Ironwood Classic in Greenville.
Junior Clemente Silva has played all seven tournaments this season and contributed several strong results, including finishing tenth at the SeaBest Invitational, which helped UCF secure fourth place as a team.
The Knights last participated in The Hayt in 2024, where they finished thirteenth overall after starting tied for eighth following the first round. Haygood had UCF’s best individual score that year.
Qualifying for this year’s tournament required players to shoot four under par across four rounds. All five spots on the roster were selected by coaches based on various data points:
Hans Risvaer (Coaches’ Pick)
Chase Haygood (Coaches’ Pick)
Clemente Silva (Coaches’ Pick)
Lucas Dutartre (Coaches’ Pick)
Jakub Hejlek (Coaches’ Pick)
UCF Athletics is part of the Big 12 Conference and aims to enhance student lives academically and athletically while representing both UCF and Orlando on a national level. More information can be found on their official websites: www.ucf.edu and www.ucfknights.com
