UF golf legend Dudley Hart is X-factor in Gators’ national title run

Florida coach JC Deacon first crossed paths with Gator great Dudley Hart at the 1996 Canadian Open.

Watching Hart firsthand as he held off future world No. 1 David Duval by a shot, Deacon, a golf-obsessed Toronto teen, was impressed. He never could have guessed the two would be joined at the hip inside the ropes more than 25 years later.

“I was a fan of his when I was 14-year-old kid,” Deacon recalled Thursday.

Hart was 28 and in his playing prime at the time of his first PGA Tour win. But he managed just one more — at the 2000 Honda Classic — as injuries took their toll.

Two years ago, Hart decided to give up the grind of the professional game and devote his energies toward his alma mater’s success, becoming Deacon’s top assistant.

The two-year collaboration just produced once of the best seasons ever for a storied program.

The Gators won the NCAA and SEC titles in the same year just once prior to Wednesday’s victory in the match-play final over Georgia Tech, a little more two weeks after beating Vanderbilt at the SEC championships. In 1993, Buddy Alexander’s Gators double-dipped just three years after Hart wrapped up a decorated career in Gainesville.

Fred Biondi’s individual title Monday, with Hart by his side down the stretch, completed an unprecedented trifecta at Florida.

After UF’s past postseason stumbles, Hart helped push the 2023 Gators to the finish line.

“[He] was the reason our program went from good to great,” Deacon said. “When he showed up, we started winning a lot, and I don’t think there’s any coincidence with that.”

Hart instilled an extra dose of discipline, structure and short-game prowess he honed as a professional to provide a spark to a talent-stacked squad.

“Ever since Dudley came in, it was a lot more structured, guys were doing the right things,” senior Yuxin Lin said. “That made a difference. We’ve been doing that for awhile, but the results really showed the past two months.

“But it’s from the hard work since Day 1.”

When longtime assistant Mark Leon left in August 2021 to coach FAU, Deacon had to quickly find a capable replacement.

While Leon was Deacon’s close friend and fellow Canadian, Hart was no more than an acquaintance with deep ties to the Gators. Upon his hiring in 2014, Deacon recalled Hart texted to offer help any way he could provide.

Seven years later, Hart entered Deacon’s office, closed the door and offered his full-time services as the head coach’s right-hand man.

“I told him that he was crazy,” Deacon said with a laugh. “It wasn’t just the fun and games, that it was recruiting and some boring stuff along the way, too.”

Hart, though, embraced the toil and drudgery of the job while also setting an example for the Gators, a group including his redshirt freshman son Ryan.

The 54-year-old’s blue Tesla is securely in his parking spot at dawn and often there at dusk.

“Dudley’s the first one to get here and usually the last one to leave,” senior star Ricky Castillo said. “He does that all the time. It’s not just like he does it every once a week, he does it every single day. Just little things like that is what made us better.

“When we see him do stuff like that it makes us want to come out earlier and practice and work harder.”

Extra time on the practice range, attention to detail and additional insight into the golf swing, short game and on-course strategy paid off for the Gators during a postseason pressure cooker.

“This is the result you get when you work that hard,” senior John DuBois of Windermere said. “It doesn’t always end up this way. But when it does it’s a great feeling.”

The Gators overcame the odds more than once to reach their sport’s pinnacle.

Florida beat top-ranked Vanderbilt at SECs on DuBois’ final-hole 20-foot par-save, overcame a final-round, 7-shot deficit at NCAA regionals behind Lin’s clutch 5-under 66 and surged on the back nine during all three match-play rounds at the NCAA championships.

Castillo’s birdie on the 21st hole to beat Florida State in sudden death Tuesday evening ended a two-match marathon to carry the Gators to the finals.

“Dudley’s been playing golf his whole life and so have I and both of us were saying to each other on Tuesday night, my body’s never felt like that,” Deacon said. “I had 36,000 steps on my phone and I’m not walking as much as the guy. They probably had a few more than that.

“They’re making all the swings. They’re dealing with all the pressure.”

Deacon said the Gators might have wilted in the Arizona desert heat if not for the efforts of strength and conditioning coach Markus Fuerst.

“If we’re not physically and mentally fit … there’s no way we’re able to get through that day and be as sharp as we were at the end,” Deacon said. “It’s such a huge team effort.”

Hart is the team’s unsung hero, setting an example at every turn.

“He’ll clean up the facility. He’ll get in the range picker. He will paint baseboards,” Deacon said. “Whatever it takes to make our program better. That’s real leadership right there. Our guys see it.”

Long waits between shots are the norm at NCAAs, allowing doubt to creep in.

“Just jokes … It’s not necessarily all about golf,” Biondi said. “I don’t like thinking about golf the whole time. It’s five hours — you can’t stay focused that long.”

Once it was time to execute, Biondi was dialed in day after day at Scottsdale’s Grayhawk Golf Course.

“He had the perfect week. What more could you say?” Lin said.

For Biondi, Deacon and the Gators, Hart came along at the perfect time.

A four-time All-American and member of the University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame, Hart returned seeking purpose in the game that had given him so much. He soon provided the Gators their X-factor.

“He just gave us that edge,” Deacon said.

Edgar Thompson can be reached at egthompson@orlandosentinel.com. Follow him on Twitter at @osgators.