(Photo by Sean Taylor)
[su_spacer size=”40″] The weather was much of the story on Friday. Tee times were pushed back to 10 a.m. CT and altered to a shotgun start to ensure the day’s round could be completed. Golfers played their first nine holes in an intermittent shower before a heavier and more steady rainfall set in during the afternoon. By the time play was completed, most of the fairways were thoroughly drenched and contained significant puddles.
[su_spacer size=”40″] “Usually, you wouldn’t play in this,” head coach Josh Brewer said. “If we weren’t trying to get 54 holes in for our championship, we wouldn’t do it. Hats off to the golf course staff for getting it ready for today.”
[su_spacer size=”40″] Manuela Carbajo Ré and Harang Lee posted 2-over 74s to pace Georgia, while the Bulldogs also counted Rocio Sanchez Lobato’s 77 and Sammi Lee’s 81.
[su_spacer size=”40″] “(Manuela and Harang) played solid, especially considering the weather and the water in the fairways,” Brewer said. “They hung in there. Really the whole team did. It was a team effort. The conditions were borderline unplayable, but we had to to get a championship in. I’m proud of those two, but I’m proud of all five of them. Because they fought today, we’ve got a chance to move up the leaderboard the next two days.”
[su_spacer size=”40″] Though Carbajo Ré and Lee signed for the same score, their routes to those tallies was distinctly different.
[su_spacer size=”40″] Lee began on No. 12 and opened with a trio of pars followed by a pair of birdies to find herself at 2-under through five.
[su_spacer size=”40″] “They just went in so I was like ‘Let’s go,'” Lee said. “I was motivated and I was trying to have a great round. I made some mistake, but it ended up as an OK score at the end of the day.”
[su_spacer size=”40″] Conversely, Carbajo Ré, who started at No. 11, was 3-over through four holes before playing the rest of her loop at 1-under.
[su_spacer size=”40″] “It looks like I just took a shower,” Carbajo Ré joked. “I think it stopped raining on one hole for about eight minutes but that was it. It was hard to concentrate when you were putting because some times water would drip from your hat and onto the ball. That, to me, was the hardest part. Also, it’s hard to keep everything clean and make sure it wasn’t slippery. It was an extra added to your routine.”
[su_spacer size=”40″] No. 13 Texas A&M, No. 14 Tennessee and No. 17 Vanderbilt all shot 293 to share the early lead in the team competition. The Commodores’ Jenny Hahn shot 5-under 67 and leads the individual field by three strokes ahead of the quartet of South Carolina’s Justine Dreher, LSU’s Caroline Nistrup, A&M’s Bianca Fabrizio and Florida’s Taylor Tomlinson.
[su_spacer size=”40″] For Georgia, Carbajo Ré and Harang Lee are tied for 17th, Sanchez Lobato is tied for 36th, Sammi Lee is tied for 60th and Sylive Brick, who shot 86, is 70th.