Phoenix, Ariz. — The Georgia women’s golf team continued its steady improvement in the final round of the PING/ASU Invitational on Sunday. The Bulldogs posted a 298, their low score of the 54-hole event, to finish at 898 and in 12th place on the team leaderboard.
Freshmen Harmie Constantino and Jo-Hua Hung led Georgia on Sunday with a pair of 2-over 74s. The Bulldogs also counted a pair of 75s signed for by junior Kelsey Kurnett and senior Rinko Mitsunaga, while dropping freshman Jenny Bae’s 78.
“It’s almost like groundhog day,” head coach Josh Brewer said. “We’re right there. It’s not like we’re missing something that doesn’t give a chance.”
Overall, Hung tied for 39th at 222, Bae tied for 46th at 224, Constantino tied for 53rd at 226, Mitsunaga tied for 62nd at 229 and Kurnett tied for 76th at 236. Gabriela Coello, who competed as an individual, also tied for 62nd.
No. 1 Southern Cal closed with a 9-under 279 to capture the team title by a shot over No. 16 Arizona State. Bethany Wu from UCLA, Stephanie Lau from Northwestern and Andrea Lee from Stanford shared medalist honors after finishing at 7-under 209, the same score Georgia’s Jillian Hollis shot en route to winning last year’s ASU event.
Georgia will return to action in a week and a half when the Bulldogs host the 47th annual Liz Murphey Collegiate Classic at the UGA Golf Course on April 11-13.
“Now we get a chance to come home and compete on our home course and build some momentum going into the postseason,” Brewer said. “In our sport, it you have a good month at the right time of they year you can wash away the difficulties of the grind over the previous seven months. We’ve had the reverse of that in the past where we’ve had a great regular season and the postseason didn’t treat us like we wanted. If we can get hot for a five-week stretch, we can do a lot of great things. We know we have the talent to do that.”
The Liz Murphey has been shifted to a Thursday-Saturday format this year, with 18 holes of stroke play set for April 11 followed by bracketed match play competition on April 12-13. The 12-team field features a quartet currently in golfstat’s top-25 – No. 8 Arkansas, No. 9 Florida, No. 11 South Carolina and No. 22 Alabama.
“It’s the one time we get to play our home course and our players family and friends came come out and see them play at home in person,” Brewer said. “It’s also a chance to honor a lady that everyone who has played our sport needs to thank on a daily basis. We all owe Coach Murphey for what she stood for and fought for with women’s athletics. For all of those reasons, we look forward to playing at home in about 10 days and defending our home turf.”