University of Georgia Athletics
Women's Golf History
July 08, 2009 | Women's Golf
Year by Year
| | | | 2008-09 | 2007-08 | 2006-07 |
| 2005-06 | 2004-05 | 2003-04 | 2002-03 | 2001-02 | 2000-01 |
| 1999-2000 | 1998-99 | 1997-98 | 1996-97 | 1995-96 | |
Records
| All-Time Lettermen | All-America | SEC Academic Honor Roll |
Academic Honors | All-Time Results | Team and Individual Records |
| Letterwinners | National Honors | NGCA Hall of Fame |
| Individual Championships | SEC Champions | Team Championships | National Championships
| Great Moments in Women's Golf | Women's Golf Milestones
From humble beginnings...
It all began in 1967, when Liz Murphey joined the University of Georgia staff as an assistant physical education professor and golf coach. She built Georgia into a national powerhouse...status the Bulldogs have maintained for decades.
Today, the Georgia tradition is perhaps as deep as any in the country. In the past three decades, the Bulldogs have produced three national individual champions and claimed the 2001 NCAA team title.
All told, Georgia has finished among the top 20 schools at the national championships during 24 of the last 31 years – 20 of those in the top 10. In addition, 26 golfers have won All-America honors a combined 42 times.
Georgia has won a league-leading 19 SEC titles, including an unprecedented three straight from 1997-99. Seven Bulldog golfers have combined to win eight SEC individual crowns, including two-time winner Shauna Estes (1997 and 1999) and 2009 champion Marta Silva Zamora. Bulldogs have been awarded All-SEC status on 73 occasions, including 80 percent of the lineup in 1993, ’98, ’99, 2001 and ’07.
The quartet of coaches
In 1986, Beans Kelly, a member of Bulldog teams that finished fourth and third at the 1982 and 1983 national championships, respectively, took the reins from her mentor and continued to build upon the foundation Liz Murphey established.
Todd McCorkle assumed the helm in 2000 and delivered the program’s first-ever team national title the following spring.
Kelley Hester, a three-time All-SEC performer as the former Kelley Richardson, christened the newest chapter in Georgia Golf lore a year ago by leading the Bulldogs to yet another top-10 finish.
National titles make their way to Athens
Georgia Golf owns four national championships – three individual crowns and one team title.
Athens native Terri Moody was the first woman ever to receive a full athletic scholarship to UGA. As a senior, Moody became the Bulldogs’ first national medalist. She captured the 1981 AIAW title on the University of Georgia layout and did so in a most dramatic fashion by winning a three-hole playoff over Miami’s Patti Rizzo.
Cindy Schreyer, who went on to win nearly $1.5 million on the LPGA Tour, secured Georgia’s first NCAA medalist honor by winning at the Innisbrook Resort in Tarpon Springs, Fla., in 1984. She did it in much the same style as Moody, in three-hole playoff win over SMU’s Martha Foyer and Miami’s Michele Berteotti.
Perhaps no other player in Georgia history made the impact that Vicki Goetze did in her stint. The native of nearby Watkinsville arrived on campus with a slew of junior honors and only added to that list during two years with the Bulldogs.
By her standards, Goetze struggled through much of her freshman year, winning “only” three events in the fall and spring. But she leaped back into the national spotlight at the 1992 NCAA Championships by shooting a tourney-record 65 on the last day to win medalist honors by three shots over Annika Sorenstam.
In 2001, after posting 14 top-10 and seven top-five finishes at the previous 17 national championships, the Bulldogs finally captured their first team national title. Georgia rallied from a four-shot deficit entering the final round to secure the victory in Howey-in-the-Hills, Fla.
Premier amateurs
Vicki Goetze arrived in Athens as one of the most celebrated and decorated junior golfers in history. Goetze won the 1989 U.S. Am during the summer after her sophomore year of high school and was a six-time AJGA All-American and three-time Junior Golfer of the Year. She won a second U.S. Am in 1992.
The year before Terri Moody won her individual national crown she became UGA’s first representative on the U.S. team for the Curtis Cup, the biennial competition between top amateurs from the U.S. and Great Britain & Ireland.
Five more Bulldogs – Cindy Schreyer in 1986; Goetze in both 1990 and ’92; Angela Jerman in 2002; and Taylor Leon in 2006 represented the U.S., while Krystle Caithness became UGA’s first representative for GB&I at the 2008 Cup.
Dominating the Southeastern Conference
Shauna Estes and Reilley Rankin were the driving forces behind teams which won an unprecedented trio of three straight SEC Championships between 1997-99.
In 1997, Estes became the first player ever to claim the league’s “Triple Crown” – earning SEC Player and Freshman of the Year accolades and medalist honors at the SEC Championships.
In 1998, individual accolades were again plentiful as Kelly was tabbed National Coach of the Year and Rankin followed in Estes’ footsteps as only the second SEC “Triple Crown” performer.
In 1999, the Bulldogs not only won their third straight SEC title but also captured a second consecutive NCAA East Regional crown. Georgia then equaled what was then its best-ever NCAA finish by tying for second.
During 2000, Beans Kelly’s final season as head coach, the Dogs finished seventh at the NCAAs, Estes became the only four-time All-American in school history and she also won two individual titles to equal Vicki Goetze’s UGA career record of seven victories.
Standouts in the classroom as well
For all the successes Georgia has enjoyed on the course, the Bulldogs’ academic resume is equally impressive.
The women’s golfers have captured UGA’s Faculty Athletic Representatives Award – given annually to the women’s and men’s teams with the highest grade point average for the year – 11 times.
Julia Boros capped her collegiate career in 1998 by earning the Edith Munson Award as the senior All-American golfer with the highest cumulative GPA. Boros was a two-time CoSIDA Academic All-America honoree and also earned an NCAA post-graduate scholarship. Cindy Pleger was awarded a post-graduate scholarship from the NCAA, while Shannon Ogg was named CoSIDA Academic All-America in 2000.
