TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Led by a fifth-place individual finish by Caterina Don, the No. 25-ranked Georgia women’s golf team wrapped up play third on the team leaderboard at the FSU Match Up on Saturday. The Bulldogs carded a 5-under 859 as a team at Seminole Legacy Golf Club.
“This is tournament number five for us as a team this spring in less than 10 weeks,” head coach Josh Brewer said. “That’s a lot of golf. We continue to be near the top of the leaderboard every week so there’s a lot of good. Or course we want to win but at the same time, we feel like we’re continuing to trend in the right direction as we get ready for the most important time of the year.”
Don shot 3-under 69 in the final round wrap up the 54-hole event at 6-under. On the season, the fifth-year senior from Pinerolo, Italy is now a combined 13-under over 28 rounds. Saturday represented her sixth top-10 performance in 10 events during 2023-24.
The Bulldogs also counted LoraLie Cowart’s 74, Napat “Jenny” Lertsadwattana’s 75 and a 76, the score signed for by both Bernice Olivarez Ilas and Natachanok “Drive” Tunwannarux.
Overall, Lertsadwattana tied for 13th at 2-under 214, Cowart tied for 17th at even-par 216, Tunwannarux tied for 24th at 219 and Olivarez Ilas tied for 44th at 226.
A day after the golfers in the field posted a 73.83 average, that number bulged to a 76.21 on Saturday.
“The golf course was set up more demanding,” Brewer said. “I think It was set up pretty easy on day one because we had to play 36. Today was more like a championship course with pin locations and honestly having tee times. There just weren’t quite as many birdies today.”
No. 19 Duke swept the team and individual titles, with Katie Li shooting 12-under to win by three shots and lead the Blue Devils to an 30-under performance. Rounding out the top-10 teams were No. 21 Florida State at 20-under, the Bulldogs at 5-under, Baylor at 3-under, No. 23 SMU at 7-over, Ohio State at 10-over, Alabama at 12-over, Nebraska at 14-over and Kansas and Indiana both at 27-over.
Georgia will conclude a busy March schedule the weekend after next when the Bulldogs host the Liz Murphey Collegiate Classic at the University of Georgia Golf Course on March 29-30. The 52nd annual event will feature 36 holes on Friday and the final round on Saturday. The tournament field features Alabama, No. 10 Auburn, Augusta, Charleston, Emory, No. 15 Florida, Georgia Southern, Illinois, Kansas State, Michigan, Missouri, N.C. State, San Diego State, No. 23 SMU and No. 22 Virginia.
“It’s always fun,” Brewer said. “You travel around and people host you and now we get to host them. We welcome a great field but it would be nice to keep the trophy in Athens and start a little winning streak as we go into the postseason.”
Georgia will then open postseason competition at the SEC Championships on April 12-16 before competing in an NCAA Regional on May 6-8. The Bulldogs will be looking to advance to the NCAA Championships and record a top-20 finish for the fourth consecutive season after placing 18th in 2021, tying for fifth in 2022 and ending up 14th last spring.