CHARLESTON, S.C. — The Georgia women’s golf team fired a 1-under 287 on Tuesday’s (September 15th) final round of the Cougar Classic to inch up to second place on the team leader board at Yeamans Hall Club.
The Bulldogs were the only team among the 20 schools in the field to break par on Tuesday.
“We wanted to win but to finish second in a field of 20 teams and beat some really good schools is a very solid performance,” head coach Josh Brewer said. “We were a couple of putts away from maybe putting some pressure on Arkansas today. All five, 1-5, are playing really well for us right now.”
Arkansas captured the team title after finishing at 7-under 857, while Florida’s Taylor Tomlinson and Clemson’s Alice Hewson shared medalist honors at 6-under 212.
The Bulldogs shot even-par 864 and also finished at even-par as a team in last week’s Cardinal Kickoff at the Atlanta Athletic Club. Georgia posted six par-or-better tournament scores in 35 seasons and 413 tourneys before this fall but has now done so in back-to-back events.
Bulldogs were also prominent fixtures on the individual leaderboard.
Freshman Jillian Hollis closed with a 1-under 71 and finished tied for third at 4-under 212. She equaled the seventh-best relation-to-par tournament mark in program history. In addition, freshman Bailey Tardy tied for seventh at 1-under 215, senior Manuela Carbajo Ré and freshman Rinko Mitsunaga both tied for 17th at 220 and junior Harang Lee tied for 24th at 221.
On Tuesday, Hollis, Lee and Tardy all signed for 1-under 71s. Georgia also counted a 74, the score posted by both Carbajo Ré and Mitsunaga.
Nearly as impressive as the Bulldogs’ even-par score were the rounds they dropped over the three days. Georgia discarded two 74s and a 76 in Charleston.
“In studying the top teams historically like Duke and USC and Arizona State, one of the things that set them apart was that fifth score,” Brewer said. “Having that fifth drop score consistently be a good round is very important. People can play as if they know all five are going to put up what would be a good counting score. I feel good about where we are as a team right now in that regard. If we can continue that trend, it’s going to be a very fun year.”