Calm & Cool: Francisco’s Fresh Approach Has Lifted Gators

Writer Ernest Hemingway became so enthralled by bullfighting that he devoted an entire book to it, “Death in the Afternoon,” in which the late author wrote of the Latin sport as an art form. Gators head coach Emily Glaser can relate. She views a player’s method to scoring on the golf course through an artist’s lens.

Take Francisco, for instance. The talented Spaniard played tennis, beach volleyball, swam and did ballet growing up. She is one of the best athletes on the Gators’ roster and is known for her powerful swing.

Francisco can appreciate the grip-it-and-rip-it mantra made famous by PGA star John Daly in the 1990s. The harder you hit it, the farther the ball goes, and Francisco grew up smashing the ball longer than most of her contemporaries.

“I think that’s kind of my identity on the golf course,” she said. “I think that also comes into my DNA in being Spanish and a little feisty out there, for the good and bad.”

Francisco and her teammates tee off today in the NCAA Championships at the La Casta Resort & Spa’s North Course in Carlsbad, Calif., Florida’s first trip to the event since 2019. Florida advanced by placing third at the Charlottesville (Va.) Regional, highlighted by the best performance of Francisco’s young career.

The 19-year-old Francisco finished runner-up (67-70-72—209) at 4-under par, a shot behind winner Marie Madsen of N.C. State.

“I have never played a tournament with so much on the table and played so well,” Francisco said. “For sure, one of my favorite tournaments.”

As she has done since the last tournament of the fall season, Glaser walked the round with Francisco at Birdwood Golf Course to offer a calm and wise voice whenever trouble lurked.

She was perhaps more pleased by Francisco’s performance than anyone.

“That was kind of a strategic decision on our part to know that she would be a real linchpin for us if we could get it right,” Glaser said. “She has these physical gifts and part of learning how to score is knowing when and how to use them.”

Francisco played what she called “easy golf” in the first round, shooting a 67 with five birdies, 12 pars and only one bogey. In the second round, more easy golf followed when she birdied three of the first four holes to move to 7-under. But she hit a rough patch later in the round when she had two bogies and a double bogey in a four-hole span.

She could feel the blood pressure rising. She could also hear Glaser’s soothing reminders to stay in the moment and be boring if need be.

“I was kind of starting to doubt myself,” she said. “Coach talked me for a second, ‘slow down, focus on next shot.’ I think that was one of the best moments of the tournament. I was able to reset.

“I’m pretty intense out there. It’s for sure something I wanted to work on this year. My mental game has shifted.”

Francisco finished the final seven holes of the second round with six pars and a birdie to stay atop the leader board heading in the final day. Instead of trying to hit magical shots or take unnecessary risks, she cruised into the clubhouse safely in contention.

“There is sort of this art to scoring and art to golf that I feel like she’s been on that journey,” Glaser said. “I thought she just did a good job of staying in the moment. That’s the funny thing about playing golf. The way to play well is sometimes not very glamorous. It’s kind of boring.

“I told her you are going to have a lot of boring golf in your future, but as a pro, we say boring makes money.”

Francisco joined the Gators a season ago and showed the same promise as when Glaser first spotted her at Carnoustie Golf Links in Scotland during the 2022 British Girls Amateur Championship. Francisco didn’t win the tournament, but Glaser instantly wanted to know more about Francisco.

“If I didn’t have a sheet with the kids’ names and rankings, I would have for sure thought she was the best player in the field,” Glaser said.

 

Francisco is an only child and her parents are both professionals in the Madrid area. Her mother works in finance and her father owns a headhunter’s firm. However, with a large extended family, Francisco and her relatives often shared long days on the golf course. She remembers family members telling her about how her mother, Maria, played golf when she was pregnant with Paula.

The game grew on her as she got older and in high school, driven by the goal to play college golf in America, she spent her junior season in an exchange program with the Baylor School in Chattanooga, Tenn. She returned to Spain for her final year of high school and, already in contact with the Gators, she knew where she wanted to go.

Francisco had connections to Florida. She played against former Gators and Spain imports Marta Perez and Marina Escobar growing up.

“There’s kind of a Spanish legacy here,” Francisco said. “I kind of always looked up to them when I was playing junior golf.”

Francisco is making them proud. She enters the NCAA Championships with a team-best 71.7 strokes-per-round average, four top-10 finishes and the best finish by a UF golfer in the regional championship since Kelly Grassel won in 2017.

She is doing with a mixture of homegrown power, budding patience and dash or artistry in the eyes of the coach walking with her.

“A good place to play golf from,” Glaser said. “And numbers don’t lie in golf.”

Francisco didn’t know what to make of her coach’s commitment at first. In fact, she wasn’t sure she liked it at all. But time and performance have provided a fresh perspective.

And a fresh approach on the course.

“I think at first, having Coach put all the trust in you, I didn’t see that as a positive,” Francisco said. “She gives me a lot of peace and trust that sometimes you need being on the golf course for four hours.

“It’s been a game-changer for me.”