FRANKLIN, Tenn. — Georgia women’s golf coach Josh Brewer turned 40 on Thursday. On Saturday September 19th, his Bulldogs gave him a belated present – a school-record performance.
Georgia fired a 13-under 275 in the second round of the Mason Rudolph Championship at Vanderbilt Legends Club. That bettered the Bulldogs’ one-day all-time record of 11-under 277 established in the first round of the 2010 Fall Preview in College Station, Texas.
“I’m kind of speechless,” Brewer said. “We had all five players under par today.”
Freshman Rinko Mitsunaga led the way with a 5-under 67, which also represents Georgia’s low individual round of the season. The Bulldogs also counted a pair of 3-under 69s from Harang Lee and Bailey Tardy and a 2-under 70 by Jillian Hollis, while dropping Manuela Carbajo Ré’s 1-under 71.
Last season, the Bulldogs posted 14 par-or-better individual scores in 104 rounds of golf. Georgia already has 15 such efforts in 35 rounds this season.
The Bulldogs surged to the top of the team leaderboard at 15-under 561, a shot better than Alabama and three strokes better than Northwestern. There is an 11-shot gap between those three teams and LSU, Auburn and Virginia, who are tied for fourth at 575.
Individually, Lee is tied for fourth at 5-under 139, four shots behind the pace of Alabama’s Lakareber Abe. Hollis is seventh at 4-under 140, Mitsunaga and Tardy are tied for eighth at 3-under 141 and Carbajo Ré is tied for 29th at 1-over 145.
Mitsunaga entered the day as the only Bulldog this fall not to post a par-or-better score in Georgia’s first six rounds this fall. She took care of that qualifier in impressive fashion. The freshman from Roswell, Ga., got to 4-under quickly, with birdies at No. 3, No. 4, No. 6 and No. 8. Her only non-par on the back side was a birdie at No. 14.
The school record was an 11-under in the opening round of the 2010-11 season. That day, Emilie Burger led the Bulldogs with a 67, followed by two 69s from freshman Amelia Hill and Kendall Wright and a 72 by Marta Silva Zamora. Silva Zamora went on to earn National Player of the Year honors at the conclusion of that season.