AUGUSTA, Ga. — LoraLie Cowart posted a career-best tournament tally of 5-under 211 en route to finishing as the individual runner up at the Valspar Augusta Invitational on Sunday. The junior from Carrollton, Ga., led Georgia to a sixth place finish in the team field at Forest Hills Golf Club.
“It was a really good tournament for LoraLie,” head coach Josh Brewer said. “She was in the lead with four or five holes to go. You’d like to see her come home with a victory, but this was probably the first time she’s been in that position at Georgia. The more and more you get into the position, the better chance you have to win.”
Cowart’s 5-under effort bettered her 3-under mark at the Cougar Classic last fall and continued a breakout campaign. After compiling a 75.60 stroke average with three par-or-better scores in 42 combined rounds as a sophomore and junior, she owns a 72.52 average with 12 par-or-better tallies in 25 rounds this season.
Cowart tied with Hannah Darling of South Carolina and Natacha Husted of Ole Miss for second, two shots back of Florida State’s Mirabel Ting. In addition for Georgia, Caterina Don tied for 17th at even-par 216, Natachanok “Drive” Tunwannarux tied for 27th at 218, Napat “Jenny” Lertsadwattana tied for 62nd at 226 and Savannah De Bock tied for 81st at 233.
Roughly half of the tournament’s 54 holes were completed on Friday before Saturday’s play was cancelled due to heavy rains. The teams returned to the course on Sunday to complete the second round and then play their final loop.
Following 36 holes, Georgia was fifth at 3-under 573. The Bulldogs closed with a 10-over 298.
No. 14 Ole Miss captured the team title at 8-under 856. The Rebels were three strokes ahead of No. 5 South Carolina and Michigan. No. 12 Auburn was fourth at 865, and rounding out the top 10 teams were No. 21 Florida State at 867, the Bulldogs at 871, No. 16 Clemson at 874, Georgia Southern at 876, No. 2 Wake Forest at 879 and Alabama at 880.
Georgia will return to action next weekend when the Bulldogs travel to Tallahassee, Fla., for the Florida State Match Up. That will be the third of four events in March for Georgia, which will wrap up the month by hosting the 52nd annual Liz Murphey Collegiate Classic on March 29-30 at the University of Georgia Golf Course.
“It was a long week,” Brewer said. “We get two days at home and we’ll take those days to heal up and rest physically and mentally. Then, we’ll get right back at it at Florida State. We’ve probably played as many tournament rounds as anyone in the field other than Florida State. We’ll see if we’re mentally strong enough to go there and get ourselves in position for our first victory of the year.”