(Photo by Sean Taylor)
[su_spacer size=”40″] Georgia fired a 13-under 275 in the second round of the Mason Rudolph Championship at Vanderbilt Legends Club. That bettered the Bulldogs’ one-day all-time record of 11-under 277 established in the first round of the 2010 Fall Preview in College Station, Texas.
[su_spacer size=”40″] “I’m kind of speechless,” Brewer said. “We had all five players under par today.”
[su_spacer size=”40″] Freshman Rinko Mitsunaga led the way with a 5-under 67, which also represents Georgia’s low individual round of the season. The Bulldogs also counted a pair of 3-under 69s from Harang Lee and Bailey Tardy and a 2-under 70 by Jillian Hollis, while dropping Manuela Carbajo Ré’s 1-under 71.
[su_spacer size=”40″] Last season, the Bulldogs posted 14 par-or-better individual scores in 104 rounds of golf. Georgia already has 15 such efforts in 35 rounds this season.
[su_spacer size=”40″] “We’re going to enjoy this day after the past couple of years,” Brewer said. “We knew we had talented players and talked about what we could do if we put it all together. We did that today, but as I sit here, they’re working on a few things we need to do tomorrow to win. They’re excited about today, but they came here to win, not to lead after day two.”
[su_spacer size=”40″] The Bulldogs surged to the top of the team leaderboard at 15-under 561, a shot better than Alabama and three strokes better than Northwestern. There is an 11-shot gap between those three teams and LSU, Auburn and Virginia, who are tied for fourth at 575.
[su_spacer size=”40″] Individually, Lee is tied for fourth at 5-under 139, four shots behind the pace of Alabama’s Lakareber Abe. Hollis is seventh at 4-under 140, Mitsunaga and Tardy are tied for eighth at 3-under 141 and Carbajo Ré is tied for 29th at 1-over 145.
[su_spacer size=”40″] Mitsunaga entered the day as the only Bulldog this fall not to post a par-or-better score in Georgia’s first six rounds this fall. She took care of that qualifier in impressive fashion. The freshman from Roswell, Ga., got to 4-under quickly, with birdies at No. 3, No. 4, No. 6 and No. 8. Her only non-par on the back side was a birdie at No. 14.
[su_spacer size=”40″] “Rinko played a really, really good round of golf,” Brewer said. “She was first to tee off, and she set the tone for the day. Everyone kept feeding back that she was playing well, and that let everyone know there were birdies to be made. She played bogey-free today, and Harang did too. To have two bogey-free rounds is very impressive.”
[su_spacer size=”40″] Mitsunaga’s 5-under tally equaled the third-best relation-to-par round in the Bulldogs’ history. Georgia’s low round this season was 4-under 68, which Tardy, Lee and Hollis all shot earlier this fall.
[su_spacer size=”40″] The school record was an 11-under in the opening round of the 2010-11 season. That day, Emilie Burger led the Bulldogs with a 67, followed by two 69s from freshman Amelia Hill and Kendall Wright and a 72 by Marta Silva Zamora. Silva Zamora went on to earn National Player of the Year honors at the conclusion of that season.
[su_spacer size=”40″] Georgia will be paired with Alabama and Northwestern on Sunday, teeing off from No. 1 between 10:15-10:55 am ET. Live scoring is being updated on a three-hole basis at birdiefire.com.
[su_spacer size=”40″] Mason Rudolph Championship
Vanderbilt Legends Club South Course
Franklin, Tenn.
Par 72; 6276 Yards
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Saturday’s Second-Round Standings
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Team Leaderboard
Georgia 286-275=560
Alabama 282-280=562
Northwestern 283-281=564
LSU 288-287=575
Auburn 287-288=575
Virginia 286-289=575
Louisville 288-292=580
Vanderbilt 296-286=582
Houston 300-283=583
GRU Augusta 294-291=585
Baylor 298-293=591
Middle Tennessee 297-295=592
South Carolina 302-291=593
Michigan State 295-299=594
UCF 293-301=594
Tulane 299-296=595
Yale 310-313=623
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Individual Leaderboard
Lakareber Abe, Alabama 67-68=135
Lauren Coughlin, Virginia 66-71=137
Stephanie Lau, Northwestern 68-70=138
Harang Lee, Georgia 70-69=139
Olivia Cason, Louisville 69-70=139
Kacie Komoto, Northwestern 71-68=139
Jillian Hollis, Georgia 70-70=140
Bailey Tardy, Georgia 72-69=141
Rinko Mitsunaga, Georgia 74-67=141
Alex Harrell, Auburn 69-72=141
Eunice Yi, GRU Augusta 71-70=141
Caroline Nistrup, LSU 69-72=141
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Additional Georgia Score
T29. Manuela Carbajo Ré, Georgia 74-71=145