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The Phil Mickelson Award, given to the country’s top freshman male golfer, almost always finds its way into the hands of a highly recruited player from a blueblood program. Recent names include Ricky Castillo and Sam Horsfield of the Florida Gators, Justin Thomas of the Alabama Crimson Tide and Patrick Cantlay of the UCLA Bruins – the kind of can’t-miss prospects from brand-name schools that arrived on campus knowing they could win immediately.
Nick Gabrelcik was not widely recruited, nor does he hail from a program the average golf fan would associate with churning out PGA Tour players. He started 2019 outside the top 3,000 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, and he was outside the top 600 as recently as last fall.
However, when Gabrelcik started his college career in January for the University of North Florida Ospreys, an ASun Conference school in Jacksonville, he looked every bit like a five-star recruit destined to play on Walker Cup teams and enjoy professional success. The 19-year-old won three times and finished within the top-six seven times this past semester, earning just about every piece of hardware imaginable: the Phil Mickelson Award, ASun Player of the Year and Freshman of the Year, All-Southeast Region and, the most head-turning of all, first-team All-American honors.
It’s all a part of a larger run that began midway through 2019 and continued into 2020 when he won the New Year’s Invitational, an amateur event in St. Petersburg, Florida. Gabrelcik has only finished outside the top 10 in three of his past 25 tournaments at all levels, rising to No. 47 in the amateur rankings and inside the top five of most college golf rankings. If he continues at this pace throughout the summer and into his sophomore year, his name is destined to be thrown into the same sentence as Cantlay, Thomas, Maverick McNealy, Collin Morikawa and other outstanding collegiate players of the past decade.
“I can compete with the best and I am considered one of the best now. I don’t see a reason why I shouldn’t stay here.”
Nick Gabrelcik
This came as a complete surprise to those following the college game closely. Was it a complete surprise to Gabrelcik or did he know something everyone else didn’t?
“It’s a little bit of both,” Gabrelcik said. “I’ve always felt like my World Amateur Golf Ranking has been a little bit higher than I thought I should be. I always thought that once I got into bigger events, that I would move up.
“But I didn’t expect to move up this quickly. I’m happy I am and people are starting to recognize me a little bit more.”
Gabrelcik’s story starts with being the son of hard-working middle-class parents, Don and Annette, in his hometown of Trinity, Florida, which is a 20-minute drive from Innisbrook Resort, a course he has frequented in his youth both as a player and watching PGA Tour players at the Valspar Championship. He began playing golf at age 8 when his brother Donnie picked up the game. Donnie, who is five years older and a mentor of sorts for Gabrelcik, went to the PGA Golf Management program at Florida Gulf Coast University and is now an assistant pro at Innisbrook.
Aided by the competition with his brother, the slim 6-foot-2 Gabrelcik developed natural ballstriking skills and slightly longer than average length off the tee. He taught himself with no formal instruction until his senior year at J.W. Mitchell High School.
“I really credit my mental toughness to my brother,” Gabrelcik said. “He’s prepared me for moments when things don’t go my way.”
Despite describing himself as an average player during most of high school – “I never really shined in junior golf at that point in my career,” is how Gabrelcik puts it – he committed to North Florida the summer after his freshman year of high school. Among the reasons for choosing the Ospreys, Gabrelcik noted his relationship with coach Scott Schroeder, familiarity with teammates, the school’s underappreciated golf tradition and the campus being only a 3½-hour drive from his home.
UNF has made 11 consecutive NCAA Regional appearances under Schroeder and reached the NCAA Championship five times in that span to go along with six ASun Conference Championship titles. In a past life the Ospreys won the 1991 and 1993 NAIA National Championship before their Division I days. They’ve had a Walker Cup participant (Kevin Phelan of GB&I in 2013) and a NCAA Championship Individual qualifier (Travis Trace in 2017), so it’s fair to say this is a program that deserves more respect and attention nationally, even if it’s not an Oklahoma State or Georgia in the food chain.
Still, Gabrelcik’s commitment could have been rescinded after an outstanding summer between his junior and senior years of high school. He beat three respectable college players on his way to winning the Florida State Amateur Match Play Championship – a moment he calls a key turning point – while also finishing low-am in the Florida Open and capturing multiple junior events.
Both Gabrelcik’s parents attended the University of Florida, so the Gators, hometown South Florida Bulls and nearby Florida State Seminoles may be kicking themselves knowing what Gabrelcik has accomplished thus far. His stock rose quickly late in high school and he had no intention of going anywhere but UNF. Schroeder called his recruitment one of the easier he can remember, saying Gabrelcik was “all in” from day one.
“That summer is when my game really turned for the better,” Gabrelcik noted. “But once I committed to UNF, I never really heard from anyone else. … I wanted to go there. Don’t look at it like it’s not the biggest school and we don’t have a football team. The coaches here, the athletic department, everyone helps you become a better golfer.”
The self-described aggressive and fearless player spent much of quarantine during the pandemic focusing on his one glaring weakness: putting. That work proved critical in his breakout college season, especially during a win at The Hayt where Gabrelcik outplayed Florida State senior John Pak, the eventual Haskins and Hogan Award winner and No. 1 finisher in the PGA Tour University rankings, and Clemson’s Turk Pettit, the eventual NCAA individual champion.
Gabrelcik played with the two college golf titans all three days and would have won in a runaway if not for a triple bogey on the 13th hole of his final round. Instead, he settled for a two-stroke victory.
“That win put me to No. 1 in the GolfStat rankings, so I can always say I was No. 1 college player at one point,” Gabrelcik said. “I can compete with the best and I am considered one of the best now. I don’t see a reason why I shouldn’t stay here.”
Schroeder had the best seat in the house for Gabrelcik’s historic run, which ended unceremoniously when the Ospreys finished one spot out of advancing through the NCAA Noblesville Regional.
“Normally guys who come in have a week where you say, ‘That’s just part of being a freshman,’ but he didn’t really have that week,” Schroeder said. “When I saw him win the Sea Best Invitational, I walked all 54 holes with him and I kept saying to myself, ‘This kid is a little different than everyone else.’ He hits some shots where you are like, ‘This is stuff that elite players do.’ ”
If there is one thing that stands out about Gabrelcik’s personality, it’s a quiet confidence. He’s a kid of few words, answering questions politely but quickly. There is full faith in everything he does, but it’s not cocky or brash.
“He’s not going to tell you how good he is, he’s just going to go do it,” Schroeder said.
When asked if he sees his star pupil experiencing a sophomore slump, Schroeder commented that Gabrelcik does too many things at a high level to go through long-term droughts. He medaled at U.S. Open local qualifying and is playing in sectionals at the Bear’s Club today to begin a busy summer in which he could be introducing himself at some of the elite amateur events in the country.
Remember the name. He may have arrived out of the blue, but there’s nothing to indicate he will leave the spotlight as his college career progresses.
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