Spring Break
Women's golf team readies for NCAA play
Issue date: 5/18/09 Section: Sports
The Georgia women's golf team finds itself in a familiar locale with a different looking projection this week at the Caves Valley Golf Club in Owings Mill, Md.
For the 21st time in the 28 edition of the NCAA Championships, the Bulldogs have earned a spot in the field. Georgia has gone on to secure a top-10 finish on the team leaderboard in 16 of those appearances, including nine in the last 11 years.
To extend that ledger, however, UGA will have to play its best golf of the spring.
Georgia is ranked No. 14 in both the Golf World coaches' poll and the Golfstat rankings and are No. 15 in the Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Index. The Bulldogs advanced to the NCAAs by securing the eighth and final spot from the East Regional...but only after a couple of anxious hours watching from the clubhouse.
Georgia entered the East's final round at Florida's Mark Bostick Golf Course in eighth place but slipped to 10th when the teams in the morning wave finished play just after 3 p.m. The Bulldogs were forced to wait and hope two teams teeing off in the afternoon would fall behind them on the leaderboard. That finally happened when No. 7 Auburn struggled down the stretch.
"At least we were finished instead of having to shoot a score," head coach Kelley Hester said. "That's definitely more difficult. It was a positive to be in the clubhouse."
Another positive is the fact that Regional results go out the window when the NCAAs begin on Tuesday morning.
"It's a total reset when we get to nationals," Hester said. "I think we may have benefited a little bit from this process. This shows how every shot is important.
"We still haven't had that tournament this year where everyone played really solid," Hester said. "I think we have that in us. This would be a great week for that to be the
case."
In the first and second rounds, the Bulldogs will be paired with the eighth place finishers from the Central and West Regionals, Chattanooga and Pepperdine, respectively. That trio will tee off from No. 10 beginning at 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday and will open on No. 1 starting at 12:50 on Wednesday. The third and fourth round tee times will be determined by the team standings, with the bottom dozen teams playing in the morning and the top 12
squads hitting the course in the afternoon.
For the 21st time in the 28 edition of the NCAA Championships, the Bulldogs have earned a spot in the field. Georgia has gone on to secure a top-10 finish on the team leaderboard in 16 of those appearances, including nine in the last 11 years.
To extend that ledger, however, UGA will have to play its best golf of the spring.
Georgia is ranked No. 14 in both the Golf World coaches' poll and the Golfstat rankings and are No. 15 in the Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Index. The Bulldogs advanced to the NCAAs by securing the eighth and final spot from the East Regional...but only after a couple of anxious hours watching from the clubhouse.
Georgia entered the East's final round at Florida's Mark Bostick Golf Course in eighth place but slipped to 10th when the teams in the morning wave finished play just after 3 p.m. The Bulldogs were forced to wait and hope two teams teeing off in the afternoon would fall behind them on the leaderboard. That finally happened when No. 7 Auburn struggled down the stretch.
"At least we were finished instead of having to shoot a score," head coach Kelley Hester said. "That's definitely more difficult. It was a positive to be in the clubhouse."
Another positive is the fact that Regional results go out the window when the NCAAs begin on Tuesday morning.
"It's a total reset when we get to nationals," Hester said. "I think we may have benefited a little bit from this process. This shows how every shot is important.
"We still haven't had that tournament this year where everyone played really solid," Hester said. "I think we have that in us. This would be a great week for that to be the
case."
In the first and second rounds, the Bulldogs will be paired with the eighth place finishers from the Central and West Regionals, Chattanooga and Pepperdine, respectively. That trio will tee off from No. 10 beginning at 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday and will open on No. 1 starting at 12:50 on Wednesday. The third and fourth round tee times will be determined by the team standings, with the bottom dozen teams playing in the morning and the top 12
squads hitting the course in the afternoon.
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craig estep
posted 5/18/09 @ 12:21 PM EST
Take nothing away for the girls feat, but i have seen nothinmg about the mens team coming in second place and advancing to the ncaa's from a tough region. (Continued…)
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