GAINESVILLE — For a guy who keeps score for a living, Florida golf coach JC Deacon didn’t have to check the leaderboard to know he was behind.

But after years of falling short at a school where championships are the standard, Deacon’s Gators are on a run that has put them in the mix with the top programs on campus.

UF’s SEC championship on April 27 was its second in three years, continuing a level of success the 41-year-old Deacon didn’t quite comprehend.

Since 2022, the Gators have won 18 tournaments, highlighted by the 2023 national and SEC titles , and captured 13 individual titles.

“Those numbers are staggering; that’s crazy to hear that,” Deacon told the Orlando Sentinel on Thursday. “You keep pushing forward and trying to be great. But that four-year run is what I always dreamed of for this program to be.”

Deacon experienced his share of sleepless nights to get here.

“I have a huge fear of failure,” he said. “I always have.”

The winning culture in Gainesville intensified the angst.

UF hired Deacon in June 2014 on the heels of national title runs in Gators softball and gymnastics, who would each repeat in 2015, along with a Final Four appearance in men’s basketball.

The Toronto native and former UNLV standout soon witnessed baseball, track and field, and women’s tennis win national championships along with volleyball reaching the Final Four. In 2021, men’s tennis won a national title while men’s golf still had yet to reach the NCAA’s eight-team final instituted in 2009.

“It’s relentless success,” Deacon said. “That’s how I always wanted my team to be looked at. That’s how it should be, but it takes a lot.”

At Florida, much is expected.

Disappointment and occasional grousing among members became a rite of spring at Mark Bostick Golf Course, the home to four national and 15 SEC champions prior to Deacon’s hiring. Even a 2017 season full of promise, with three wins and a No. 2 ranking entering February, ran out of steam by the postseason.

“I signed up for that,” Deacon said. “When I took this job, I knew that if you weren’t a top-10 team and you weren’t competing for championships, you were going to be looked at as not getting the job done.”

Deacon’s fortunes slowly began to turn after his program bottomed out in 2019, failing to reach SEC match play or advance out of the NCAA Regionals.

“We weren’t in a great spot,” he said.

Ricky Castillo’s decision to leave Southern California for north Florida began a seismic shift.

Deacon had signed supremely talented players before, such as current professionals Alejandro Tosti and Sam Horsfield. But Castillo, the nation’s No. 1 recruit, coupled singular ability with accountability for all.

“He changed the expectations within the team without the coaches being around,” Deacon recalled. “He’s a winner. He expected to win, and he expected everyone else around him to do what was required to win.”

Castillo, now a PGA Tour rookie, was the linchpin of the ’23 title team.

The culture he helped create remains the same, if not better.

“This is the hardest-working team I’ve ever had, and the one in 2023 was really hard-working and loved the game,” Deacon said. “But these guys have taken it to another level.”

Deacon noticed something special when football Saturdays in Gainesville weren’t as festive, early-morning workouts were more energized and qualifying rounds were intensely competitive.

Due to the team’s depth, veteran Matthew Kress — the one holdover from the ’23 lineup — couldn’t crack the starting five in the fall. But a final-round 66 at February’s Gators Invitational began a steady resurgence this spring, culminating with a 5 & 4 win against Texas A&M’s Aaron Pound in the SEC title match.

The 22-year-old from northern California credits Deacon for the turnaround.

“He’s a huge conference-builder,” Kress said. “He’s never going to tell you have a long way to go. He makes you think you’re centimeter away, even if you might not be. I haven’t had the greatest of seasons, but he’s like, ‘You’re right around the corner. Great golf is coming.’ I’m like, ‘Dude, I just finished like 50th, three tournaments in a row. What are you talking about?’

“And then I come back in the spring and I play pretty good.”

Deacon, who made had a six-year go in his 20s as a professional, can relate to golf’s struggle as both player and coach.

He is also quick to share credit, be it with strength coach Markus Fürst or associate head coach Dudley Hart . Deacon calls the four-time All-American at UF, who arrived in 2023, “a godsend.”

Watching his players celebrate an SEC title last Sunday at Sea Island in St. Simons Island, Ga., Deacon felt increasingly blessed.

“Just sitting back with my wife on Sunday and watching them celebrate. and knowing how big of an accomplishment this was for them, and what it’s going to mean to them down the road, that’s like a feeling you can’t even describe,” he said. “Money cannot buy that — and that’s pretty cool.”