ATHENS, Ga. — Assuming the UGA Golf Course dries out enough to host a tournament and not a swim meet, the Georgia women’s golf team will host the 53rd Annual Liz Murphey Collegiate Classic on Tuesday and Wednesday. It is both a key home tournament for the Bulldogs, as well as a chance to celebrate and remember one of the most important people in the history of Georgia athletics.
“For me, it’s my first Liz Murphey event, and so I learned about her history,” said Chantal El Chaib, a graduate transfer from Sacred Heart. “I think it’s really special and it’s an honor to play this event.”
Murphey’s history extends well beyond the golf course. She joined the University of Georgia faculty in 1967 as an assistant physical education professor and golf coach. When Georgia decided to add women’s golf as an intercollegiate sport in 1978, the perfect coach was already on campus. She coached two individual national champions in Terri Moody and Cindy Schreyer and led Georgia to numerous top-10 finishes at national championships.
Along with being an excellent coach — she was a charter member of the Women’s Golf Coaches Association Hall of Fame — Murphey served for many years as the assistant athletic director for women’s sports and senior woman administrator.
Under Murphey’s and athletic director Vince Dooley‘s leadership in the 1980s and ’90s, Georgia built national powerhouse programs in gymnastics, women’s swimming, women’s basketball and women’s tennis. Georgia sports won four women’s team national championships during her tenure, and many more followed her retirement in 1996.
The Liz Murphey Collegiate Classic began in 1973 as the Georgia Invitational and then was renamed the Women’s Southern Intercollegiates from 1977-94. In 1995, the event was named for the woman who put Georgia women’s golf on the map.
Georgia is in its first season under coach Erika Brennan and heads into the Liz Murphey Collegiate Classic coming off a sixth-place finish at the Chattanooga Classic in late March. That was on The Honors Course, which has hosted numerous big events, including the 2010 men’s NCAA Championships. The UGA Golf Course may not play quite as hard as The Honors typically does, but because of all the rain, Georgia’s home course will likely play longer than its 6,217 yards.
In January, Georgia hosted the Lady Bulldog Invitational, an individual one-day stroke-play event, and El Chaib and Morgan Smith tied for second with rounds of 69 while Brovold Sanne placed ninth with a 72. El Chaib, who tied for first at the White Sands Invitational in the Bahamas in October, leads Georgia with 12 par-or-better rounds in the 2024-25 season, followed by Smith with eight and Kate Song with five.
Song said the Bulldogs “have grown a lot” since the last time Georgia competed on its home course.
“We’ve played a lot of challenging courses and I think that has helped expand our game and given us a lot of experience,” the senior said. “I think that will help prepare us for playing on our home course this time.”
This year’s Classic is also the Bulldogs’ final tournament before the SEC Championships next week at Pelican Golf Club in Belleair, Fla. The Bulldogs are hoping that a strong showing this week will lead to another one next week.
“We’re motivated, we’re confident, and that will help going into the postseason,” El Chaib said.
“Whatever we do now, it’s going to funnel into SECs and also the postseason, hopefully,” Song added. “We’re playing for Liz, we’re playing for us, and we’re also playing for the postseason, as well.”