ATHENS, Ga. — The No. 6-ranked Georgia women’s golf team dropped a 4-1 decision to No. 2 Southern Cal in the third-place match of the 44th annual Liz Murphey Collegiate Classic (April 3rd, 2016).
The match was closer than the final score would indicate, as three of five lines played out all 18 holes in a trio of 1-up decisions. Harang Lee secured Georgia’s point with a 1-up victory over Amy Lee.
The Bulldogs started slow and trailed on the front nine by two or more holes in four of five matches. Georgia rallied after the turn to close the gap considerably.
“I’m proud of the way they battled,” head coach Josh Brewer said. “When you’re playing schools that have won national championships and are top-3 in the country, you can’t just give them holes. That’s where we have to be a little better starting. Hopefully, we’ll get a chance to redeem ourselves in May because that would mean we’re playing for something really special.”
A format similar to the Liz Murphey using a combination of stroke play and match play will be utilized at the NCAA Championships later this spring in Eugene, Oregon.
Jillian Hollis, who was first on the course for Georgia, was the only Bulldog lead on the front side. She was 2-up through No. 10 before Robynn Ree secured No. 11, No. 12 and No. 15 to grab her first lead of the day. The duo halved their final three holes to supply Ree’s 1-up victory for the Women of Troy.
Georgia’s Lee was 2-down through No. 8 but bounced back to win No. 9, No. 12 and No. 13 to go 1-up. USC’s Lee birdied No. 15 to pull the match back to all-square but then bogeyed No. 16 to put Harang Lee 1-up before the dueling Lees halved No. 17 and No 18.
Bailey Tardy found herself 3-down to Tiffany Chan through No. 10 before capturing No. 12, No. 13 and No. 15 to knot the score. The match remained all-square until Chan sank a 20-foot birdie putt on No. 18 and Tardy missed her effort to halve the match.
In the other matches, Rinko Mitsunaga dropped a 3-and-2 decision to Kyung Kim and Isabella Skinner lost to Gabriella Then, 7-and-5.
“Stroke play on Friday, we played well,” Brewer said. “We started a little slow on Saturday against Purdue and rebounded, and for some reason we started slow in the semifinals and the third-place match. We’ve got to figure that out from a match play standpoint. We’re playing well. We’ve just got tighten a few things up.”
The Liz Murphey wrapped up the Bulldogs’ most productive regular season in several seasons, with four team and three individual titles.
Georgia won team championships at the Cardinal Kickoff and the Windy City Collegiate in the fall and took top honors at the Lady Puerto Rico Classic and the Mountain View Collegiate this spring.
All three Bulldog freshmen earned individual victories. Tardy and Hollis completed sweeps of the team and individual titles at the Windy City Collegiate and Mountain View Collegiate, respectively, and Mitsunaga took medalist honors at the Lady Bulldog Individual Championship.
Georgia will return two action in two weeks when the Bulldogs compete at the SEC Championships in Birmingham, Alabama.