ATHENS, GEORGIA. — May 10, 2017, the No. 8-ranked Georgia women’s golf team finished seventh in the NCAA Athens Regional on Wednesday, leaving the Bulldogs three shots and one place on the team leaderboard shy of advancing to the NCAA Championships.
“It’s definitely a frustrating way to end the season,” head coach Josh Brewer said. “We’re not going to let three three rounds define us, though. It will in the record books, but this core group has won nine times over the past two years. Unfortunately, it wasn’t our week. We’ve got to learn from it as a program and each get better.”
Georgia closed the tournament with a 9-over 297 and finished at 25-over 889. North Carolina earned the sixth and final spot in the NCAA Championships field by shooting 886.
Jillian Hollis led the Bulldogs, both on Wednesday and overall. Hollis closed with an even-par 72 and finished tied for 12th on the individual leaderboard at 1-over 217. Georgia also counted a 74 from Bailey Tardy, a 75 from Harang Lee and a 76 from Rinko Mitsunaga in the final round, while dropping Mary Ellen Shuman’s 77.
Overall, Tardy tied for 19th at 220, Mitsunaga tied for 37th at 225, Lee tied for 50th at 227 and Shuman tied for 229.
Georgia played solid golf throughout the lineup all three days; however, the Bulldogs posted just two par-or-better individual rounds during the Regional. All told, 13 of Georgia’s 15 individual scores fell between 73-77.
No. 3 Alabama won the team title at 7-under 857, while Wake Forest’s Jennifer Kupcho was the medalist at 10-under 206.
Georgia finishes the 2016-17 season with five tournament wins. The Bulldogs swept the team and individual titles at both the Cardinal Kickoff and the Liz Murphey Collegiate Classic. In addition, Georgia took top team honors at the Windy City Collegiate.