(Photo by John Kelley)
[break] [break] Golfers will tee off from all 18 holes at 9:15 with a shotgun start. Competing schools also include Auburn, Coastal Carolina, Dalton State, Ole Miss, Mercer, Samford, Tennessee, UNC Greesboro and Youngstown State.
[break] [break] All nine golfers on the Georgia roster will compete, with the tourney serving as part of the team’s qualifying for five playing spots in next weekend’s Lady Puerto Rico Classic. The Bulldogs will tee off from front-side, with Harang Lee starting on No. 1, Manuela Carbajo Ré at No. 2, Amira Alexander at No. 3, Rocio Sanchez Lobato at No. 4, Isabella Skinner at No. 5, Mary Ellen Shuman at No. 6, Sammi Lee at No. 7, Sylvie Brick at No. 8 and Isa Silva Zamora at No. 9.
[break] [break] “We go to Puerto Rico in a week and we’ll get a chance to tee it up a little earlier this weekend,” head coach Josh Brewer said. “That’s the reason why we started this tournament three years ago. We’re very excited. It’s been almost four months since we played. This weekend, everyone on our team will get the chance to post scores. It’s a third of our qualifying for Puerto Rico so it’s a very big day. And it gives everyone on our team the chance to win a golf tournament. You can sense the excitement everyone has.”
[break] [break] Skinner, a freshman from Cumming, Ga., was in the lineup for three of four fall events and posted a low round of 1-under 71 at the Powerade Cougar Classic.
[break] [break] “I’m so excited,” Skinner said. “I love competitive golf. It’s one of my favorite parts of this game, being able to do that. We’ve been working really hard. I’ve been working really hard on parts of my game that I saw I struggled with in the fall. I’m excited to to come out in the spring and see if there’s any improvement. I am going to just play the best I can and put my best effort forth and let what ever happens happen. I think it will be fun for all of us to be out there together.”
[break] [break] Sammi Lee and Shuman, sophomores who played twice in the fall (at the Cardinal Kickoff and the Stanford Intercollegiate), are eager to return to the course.
[break] [break] “We haven’t played tournament golf in a while,” Lee said. “We haven’t competed since Stanford in October. I’m excited to compete. That’s what I love the most. We can only take five when we normally travel. To have everyone out on the course should be fun. I’m trying to dumb-down the game and hit the ball when I see it and get up and hit it again. I’m trying to not over think it. Golf is golf. I’m just trying to get the ball into the hole.”
[break] [break] “It’s nice to get back out there,” Shuman said. “It’s been a while since we competed. Even though it’s an individual tournament, it will be nice to get out there and post some scores that count. My full swing has always kind of been my strength, and was where I kind of struggled in the fall so I’ve worked all winter on getting it back to where it needed to be. It’s finally there so I’m eager to see what’s going to happen with that.”
[break] [break] Georgia enters the spring ranked No. 44 and No. 53 in the Golfstat and Golfweek computer rankings, respectively, and hopes to ascend much higher as the season progresses.
[break] [break] “We’re good enough,” Brewer said. “The stats say we’re good enough. We’ve been working on the mental part of the game, little things on the golf course like how you play the par-5s or if you get a ball in trouble, how are you going to give yourself a chance to make par or bogey. If you look at it, we make enough birdies. If we can as a team get everyone to individually correct those one or two little mistakes, we’ll be so much better off. Just like in basketball, you’re going to have some turnovers but try not to just give it away. We’ll how well that happens on Saturday.”