University of Georgia Athletics
Georgia Women's Golf Heads To UCF Challenge
March 07, 2008 | Women's Golf
The Bulldogs are among 15 top-25 teams in the latest Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Index among the 18 schools on tap. Top-ranked Duke headlines the field, which also includes No. 2 UCLA, No. 4 Southern Cal, 5 Florida, No. 7 Oklahoma State, No. 8 Arkansas, No. 10 Auburn, No. 11 Purdue, No. 14 Alabama, No. 15 Tennessee, No. 18 Pepperdine, No. 22 New Mexico No. 23 Vanderbilt, No. 25 LSU, Florida State, Furman and UCF.
Georgia opened the 2008 portion of its slate by tying for seventh at the Lady Puerto Rico Classic on Rio Grande, P.R., last week. The Bulldogs fired a 3-over 291 in the third and final round and head coach Kelley Hester looks for that performance to carry over in Florida.
"I feel like we had a pretty good warm-up tournament in Puerto Rico and the girls are ready to go," Hester said. "It takes a while to rekindle those competitive juices after the long break, and we were able to do that as the tournament went on. The girls are fired up and ready to go. We played well the final day in Puerto Rico, and I look for us to continue that momentum and get off to a good start in Florida."
The Bulldogs will travel the same lineup as they utilized last week of senior Garrett Phillips, junior Mallory Hetzel, sophomore Carolina Andrade and freshmen Krystle Caithness and Innapha Tantanavivat. Caithness was Georgia's top individual finisher in Puerto Rico, tying for 15th at 222. Phillips finished at 223 and Andrade and Tantanavivat both posted 224s.
"We did lack consistency in Puerto Rico, but we also showed that basically across our lineup, we have some depth," Hester said. "I do believe this will be a more difficult golf course than the one in Puerto Rico. We are a very strong ball-striking team, and that tends to pay off more on difficult golf courses. The tougher course should bring the whole field together."
Georgia will tee off beginning at 8:00 a.m. on Sunday morning and will be paired with Auburn and Tennessee in the opening round. Live scoring for the tournament will be available here.