A dramatic late-day surge pushed Jenny Bae and the No. 18-ranked Georgia women’s golf team to the top of the leaderboards at the NCAA Columbus Regional on Tuesday. Perhaps more importantly, the Bulldogs put themselves in prime position to advance to the NCAA Championships.

Bae fired a 4-under 68 and the Bulldogs posted an even-par 288, the low individual and team rounds, respectively, of the second round at the Ohio State University’s Scarlet Course.  

Entering Wednesday’s final round, Georgia is at 1-over 577, seven shots ahead of Michigan in second. Bae’s 5-under 139 tally is a stroke better than Michigan’s Monet Chun. Bulldog freshman Isabella Holpfer, who posted a second-straight 2-under 70 on Tuesday, is in third place, three shots back. 

The Bulldogs played steady golf most of the day before putting their foot on the gas late in the day. Georgia played the final three holes at 6-under as a team. After spending most of the day in second, third of fourth on the leaderboard, the Bulldogs not only vaulted to the top spot but gained relatively significant distance on the field.

“The finish we had to day is exactly what you hope for,” head coach Josh Brewer said. “You hope for it but you also know how hard they’ve worked for it to come true. I’m so proud of how we hung around before that because it was brutal out there for a good bit of the day. From about No. 6 through No. 13 it was incredibly windy. We fought and gave ourselves a chance to have that type of finish.”

No. 16 was especially friendly, with all four Bulldogs with counting scores notching birdies on the 327-yard, par-4.

“That hole (No. 16) set up nicely for us,” Brewer said. “We were able to hit driver and then flip wedges in. We took advantage of our strength. It was great to see.”

Bae was 2-over through No. 11 but birdied six of her final seven holes, including a string of five straight from Nos. 12-16. 

“I’ve felt like that a couple of times before, but it has been a while,” Bae said. “It sort of feels like you could fly almost. At the end, I was so happy I actually did it. When you’re playing and it’s mid-round, you really don’t think about making all those birdies. Honestly, I’ve been asking myself what happened. I was sort of struggling on my first nine holes. At the turn I decided I needed to get my stuff together and play aggressively.”

“It was a very special 90 minutes of golf,” Brewer said. “It shows the firepower she has. You wish every golfer would get to have that feeling at some point. Jenny has been playing really well the last several weeks so it’s not surprising that she was able to finish like she did today.”

Georgia’s effort was even more impressive when put into context of the second round scores. Monday’s first-round average was 75.67 among the 96 golfers in the field. On Tuesday, that tally ballooned by nearly two strokes per golfer to 77.54. The Bulldogs’ even-par effort was seven shots better than any other team on Tuesday.

Along with Bae’s 68 and Holpfer’s 70, Georgia also counted a pair of 75s from Caterina Don and Candice Mahé. Overall, Mahé is tied for 11th at 146, Don is tied for 34th at 151 and Jo Hua Hung is tied for 68th at 157.

Holpfer was the only Bulldog to make a birdie over the first 11 holes. She posted red numbers at No. 2, No. 4 and No. 6, while bogeying No. 5 and No. 8 to turn at 1-under. Holpfer moved back to 2-under with a birdie at No. 12. Following a bogey at No. 14, she birdied No. 16 before closing with a pair of pars.

“Isabella having it under par gave us hope that everyone could get there if we hit a few good shots and stayed patient,” Brewer said. 

Don played a pivotal role in Georgia’s late-day run. After a double-bogey at No. 15 she found herself 5-over on the day. Don rallied with birdies at No. 16 and No. 18 to trim the Bulldogs’ team score by two strokes.

Trailing the Bulldogs and currently on top of the cut are Michigan at 584, No. 2 Duke at 585, No. 15 Kent State at 589, No. 7 Arizona State at 592 and Kentucky at 593. With 10 strokes of the Wildcats are No. 11 Virginia at 595, No. 24 Vanderbilt at 597, Oklahoma at 598 and Clemson at 602.

Georgia will be paired with Michigan and Duke on Wednesday, teeing off from No. 1 in waves between 10:50-11:30 a.m. ET. Live scoring is available via golfstat.com.

NCAA Columbus Regional

OSU Scarlet Course

Columbus, Ohio

Par 72, 6335 Yards

Tuesday’s Second-Round Standings

Team Leaderboard

Georgia                        289-288=577

Michigan                       288-296=584

Duke                           287-298=585

Kent State                     291-298=589

Arizona State                  291-301=592

Kentucky                       298-295=593

Virginia                       296-299=595

Oklahoma                       286-312=597

Vanderbilt                     297-300=598

Clemson                        299-303=602

Campbell                       298-306=604

Illinois                       297-310=607

Coastal Carolina               298-313=611

Washington                     296-316=612

New Mexico                     310-310=620

Nebraska                       307-313=620

Youngstown State               322-318=640

Evansville                     323-335=658

Individual Leaderboard

Jenny Bae, Georgia               71-68=139

Monet Chun, Michigan             70-70=130

Isabella Holpfer, Georgia        72-70=142

Caley McGinty, Kent St.          70-73=143

Maria Villanueva, Kentucky       73-71=144

Celina Sattelkau, Vanderbilt     72-72=144

Beth Lillie, Virginia            72-72=144

Gina Kim, Duke                   70-74=144

Hailey Borja, Michigan           69-75=144

Linn Grant, Arizona St.          71-74=145

Additional Georgia Score

T11. Candice Mahé                71-75=146

T34. Caterina Don                76-75=151

T68. Jo Hua Hung                 75-82=157