The Georgia women’s golf team will begin the 2016 portion of its schedule on Saturday when the Bulldogs host the fourth annual Lady Bulldog Individual Tournament at the University of Georgia Golf Course. The one-day, 36-hole event is slated to begin at 8:45 a.m.

 
The tournament will feature 38 golfers from seven schools. In addition to Georgia, competitors from Auburn, Dalton State, Ole Miss, UNC Greensboro, Samford and Tennessee will be in the field.
 
 
The Bulldogs are coming off an ultra-successful fall campaign that placed them No. 4 and No. 8 in the Golfweek and Golfstat rankings, respectively. All five regulars in the Georgia lineup are currently ranked among the nation’s top-75 individuals by both. Harang Lee is the top-ranked Bulldog in Golfweek at No. 5, while Bailey Tardy is Georgia’s top individual in Golfstat at No. 7.
 
 
“It definitely make the start of the spring more relaxing than the past couple of years when we knew we had to go perform well immediately,” head coach Josh Brewer said. “This year, we’ll be able to ease into it and find our games. I wish the national championships were in the middle of October, but they weren’t. We knew it was on the schedule for May so we’ll just try to maintain that momentum. Now you can feel the excitement of teeing it up again and creating that buzz around playing and competing.”
 
 
Saturday’s event will afford all 10 golfers on the Georgia roster the opportunity to compete for the second time this season. Everyone also played in the season-opening Cardinal Kickoff at the Atlanta Athletic Club in September.
 
 
“It’s a great way to not qualify but play a tournament and play with other teams and get in the habit of truly putting everything in, keeping score and having a winner at the end of the day,” Brewer said.
 
 
Most of the Georgia golfers have not competed since the Bulldogs finished their fall campaign at the Stanford Intercollegiate on October 20. Senior Manuela Carbajo Ré did play in the South American Amateur two weeks ago, where she tied for 28th.
 
 
“I think Manuela is the only one who has played in the last three and a half months in any kind of tournament so it’s good to – before we go down to Puerto Rico – have an extra week to get our senses up on what we may need to practice,” Brewer said. “It gives us a idea as coaches of what we can start talking to people about.”
 
 
The Bulldogs will begin the team portion of the spring next weekend when they compete in the Lady Puerto Rico Classic in Rio Grande, P.R., on Feb. 14-16. The rest of Georgia’s regular-season slate includes the Darius Rucker Intercollegiate on March 4-6; the Mountain View Collegiate in Tucson, Ariz., on March 18-19; and the 44th annual Liz Murphey Collegiate Classic at the UGA Golf Course on April 1-3.
 
 
Postseason play begins with the SEC Championships on April 15-17 in Birmingham, Ala., followed by NCAA Regionals on May 5-7 at a yet-to-be-determined site; and the NCAA Champions on May 20-25 in Eugene, Ore.
 

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