CHARLESTON, S.C. — Jo Hua Hung tied for eighth individually, and Jenny Bae and Caroline Craig both tied for 10th in the Georgia women’s golf team’s season-opening tournament, the Cougar Classic, on Tuesday. The Bulldogs wrapped up the two-day, 54-hole event at Yeamans Hall Club in ninth place on the team leaderboard at 4-over 856.
“It’s nice to have three top-10 finishers and for Jenny and Caroline to break their best single round scores for us,” head coach Josh Brewer said. “There were a lot of positives to take from the past two days. We all know we have the depth to compete with any team in the country. We’ve just got to get the right people playing their best at the right time.”
Hung notched her third-straight par-or-better round to open the season, carding a 1-under 70 to finish at 5-under 208.
Craig, who was competing as an individual and therefore not eligible to contribute to the Bulldogs’ team score, shot the low loop among Georgia’s six golfers in the field on Tuesday. Craig fired a career-best 5-under 66 to finish the tournament at 4-under overall.
That came a day after Bae bettered her career-low round with a 6-under 65 in the second round.
“It’s what you want as a coach,” Brewer said. “You want to have that feeling like we can put anyone on your roster out there and they can compete. What we have to concentrate on is finding the people who will step up and make the most of that opportunity when they’re representing our team. We’ve been able to find that combination the last two years. I would just like find it a little sooner this year.”
In addition to Hung’s 70, Georgia also counted a pair of 73s from LoraLie Cowart and Céleste Dao and a 74, the tally posted by both Bae and Caterina Don on Tuesday.
Overall, Dao tied for 56th at 220, Cowart tied for 59th at 221 and Don tied for 64th at 222.
Ole Miss shot 13-under to claim the team title by a stroke over Clemson. Rounding out the top-10 teams were Charleston at 849, Florida State at 850, Miami and Michigan State at 852, Tennessee at 853, UCF at 854, the Bulldogs at 856 and N.C. State and Wisconsin at 861.
Georgia will return to action next weekend when they travel to Franklin, Tenn., to compete in the Mason Rudolph Championship. The 54-hole tournament will be contested on Friday-Sunday at the Vanderbilt Legends Club.
“We have plenty of things to work on to get ready for the Mason Rudolph next week,” Brewer said.”