University of Georgia Athletics
Bulldog Golfers Head To SECs
April 14, 2010 | Women's Golf
Georgia Women's Golf
2010 SEC Championships
April 16-18
NorthRiver Yacht Club
Par 71; 6,057 Yards
Tuscaloosa, Ala.
Bulldogs travel to Tuscaloosa for SECs
The Georgia women’s golf team opens the post-season portion of its slate this weekend at the SEC Championships in Tuscaloosa, Ala. The 54-hole event will be contested on the par-71, 6,057-yard layout at the NorthRiver Yacht Club.
The Bulldogs enter the SECs ranked No. 14, No. 15 and No. 16 in the three national polls and will face a stiff field, with seven of 12 league schools currently among the nation’s top 25.
Sophomore Marta Silva Zamora, the defending SEC individual champion, headlines Georgia’s playing five, which also includes senior Carolina Andrade, sophomore Milena Savich and freshmen Emilie Burger and Kendall Wright.
Georgia will be returning to action for the first time since a disappointing showing at its own Liz Murphey Collegiate Classic three weeks ago. According the head coach Kelley Hester, the time off has been beneficial.
“We’ve had a couple of weeks and that has given the girls time to practice and prepare,” Hester said. “I think everybody is ready to go. The post-season is exciting and the SECs is always such a great tournament. It’s the first one for three of them, Marta is the defending champion and for Carolina, it’s her last one. We’re going to try to make the most of it.”
Georgia began the season with a bang, winning the Cougar Classic by shooting a school-record 14-under team score. The Bulldogs spent much of the fall ranked among the nation’s top-10 teams before slipping from that lofty perch this spring.
“We haven’t really had that day where everyone clicks lately,” Hester said. “We had that some in early in the season. You hope that everybody will be able to have a great post-season. Our philosophy is to try to get better every day. If you do that, you should be better at the end of the year than you were at the beginning of the season.”
Hester also feels confident that her lineup has the potential for great things.
“We’re putting five people out there who can compete,” Hester said. “In the past, it felt like we had three solid scores and we had to hope we got a good score from the fourth or fifth spot. This year, I think every one of our five golfers can go low on any given day. Hopefully, this weekend will that time.”
No one in the Bulldogs’ lineup has ever played the NorthRiver layout; however, Hester has heard the course has some similarities to the UGA layout.
“I’ve heard it’s hilly,” Hester said. “I feel like our kids should be prepared for that because we play pretty much every day on a hilly golf course. I feel like we can adjust and adapt to that. It’s going to be pretty hot. That’s where our conditioning can really help us.”
The Bulldog Lineup
Head Coach: Kelley Hester (3rd season at Georgia)
Assistant Coach: Margaret Shirley (1st season at Georgia)
Team Rankings: No. 14 Golf World; No. 15 Golfstat ; No. 16 Golfweek
UGA’s SEC Championship history
Georgia has captured a league-leading 19 SEC Women’s Golf Championships all-time. The Bulldogs have won 11 team and eight individual titles.
Florida ranks second with 16 championships, eight team and eight individual titles, while Auburn is third with 12 crowns (seven team and five individual).
Advice for Marta...not much, really
Georgia sophomore Marta Silva Zamora will have three chances to become only the fifth women’s golfer in SEC history to capture multiple league individual championships. She won last year’s title by four strokes.
Kelley Hester says her advice to Silva Zamora, a relative free-spirit both on and off the golf course, will be quite simple.
“Marta looks at things so differently than most people,” Hester said. “I’ll probably just tell her to go out there, have fun and play free. She pretty much does that anyway. She’s one of those kids that you can kind of leave alone.”
Florida’s Deb Richard is the lone three-time winner (1982, 1983, 1984), while Georgia’s Shauna Estes (1997, 1999), South Carolina’s Kristy McPherson (2001, 2002) Arkansas’ Stacy Lewis (2005, 2008) won two titles.
SEC provides stiff competition
Seven SEC teams are currently among the nation’s top-25 teams in the three major polls – the Golfweek/Sagarin Index, Golfstat and the Golf World coaches poll as outlined below.
The SEC leads the country in top-25 teams. The PAC 10 has six and the ACC and Big Ten both have three.
SEC Teams In The Top 25
A record-breaking beginning
Georgia shattered its tournament scoring record en route to sweeping the team and individual titles at the College of Charleston’s Duramed Cougar Classic to open the 2009-10 season.
The Bulldogs finished at 14-under 850, eight shots better than the previous school record of 6-under 856 in winning the same event in 2008.
Marta Silva Zamora notched her third career title after posting an 8-under 208, a score equaling the third-best relation-to-par effort in Georgia history. In addition, Emilie Burger tied for third at 4-under 212, and Milena Savich tied for fifth at 3-under 213.
“Everyone was just solid,” Kelley Hester said. “It was really fun. We had three in the top five individually and Carolina (Andrade) wasn’t far behind them. We threw out a 74 and a 75 yesterday and today. That’s just a different place than we were most of last year. I’m ultra pleased, especially with our top four.”
A year ago, the Bulldogs played half of the fall campaign with only five golfers on their roster before adding a walk-on for the spring.
Silva Zamora started the final round two strokes off the pace of Florida State’s Lacey Agnew but played along side her competition and sealed the win with a four-foot birdie putt on No. 18.
“I was playing with the girl who was first starting the day so I was kind of keeping up with what she was doing,” Silva Zamora said. “I knew if I played well, it was going to be good for the team and good for me so everything would be positive.”
Burger wins on The Plains
Emilie Burger fired a 1-under 71 to capture medalist honors at the one-day Auburn Invitational at the Auburn University Club on March 7.
“Emilie has been very solid all year,” Kelley Hester said. “Even in the rounds where she didn’t score as well as she would’ve liked, she’s played well. It was great to see her break through and win. She beat some really good people today and picked up a couple of solid head-to-head individual wins.”
The Bulldogs finished third in the four-team event and played without Marta Silva Zamora, who was traveling with her parents who were visiting the U.S. from Spain during UGA’s spring break.
Worst day is a positive one
Georgia shot 313 in the second round of Tiger/Wave Classic, its worst round of the season to that point, but still climbed six spots on the team leaderboard.
“I told them after we finished that I don’t know if I’ve ever been prouder of one of my teams,” Kelley Hester said. “There was a pretty solid 30 mile-per-hour wind most of the day, and we really struggled on our first nine holes. They could’ve given up, but they fought through it and played pretty well the rest of the way.
“We shot 313 and still made a very solid push on the leaderboard,” Hester continued. “That demonstrates how difficult the conditions were.”
One Super Weekend
Abby Johnson, who is not the lineup this weekend, is the daughter of New Orleans Saints defensive line coach, Bill Johnson. Abby was in Miami to watch the Saints win Super Bowl XLIV.
2010 SEC Championships
April 16-18
NorthRiver Yacht Club
Par 71; 6,057 Yards
Tuscaloosa, Ala.
Bulldogs travel to Tuscaloosa for SECs
The Georgia women’s golf team opens the post-season portion of its slate this weekend at the SEC Championships in Tuscaloosa, Ala. The 54-hole event will be contested on the par-71, 6,057-yard layout at the NorthRiver Yacht Club.
The Bulldogs enter the SECs ranked No. 14, No. 15 and No. 16 in the three national polls and will face a stiff field, with seven of 12 league schools currently among the nation’s top 25.
Sophomore Marta Silva Zamora, the defending SEC individual champion, headlines Georgia’s playing five, which also includes senior Carolina Andrade, sophomore Milena Savich and freshmen Emilie Burger and Kendall Wright.
Georgia will be returning to action for the first time since a disappointing showing at its own Liz Murphey Collegiate Classic three weeks ago. According the head coach Kelley Hester, the time off has been beneficial.
“We’ve had a couple of weeks and that has given the girls time to practice and prepare,” Hester said. “I think everybody is ready to go. The post-season is exciting and the SECs is always such a great tournament. It’s the first one for three of them, Marta is the defending champion and for Carolina, it’s her last one. We’re going to try to make the most of it.”
Georgia began the season with a bang, winning the Cougar Classic by shooting a school-record 14-under team score. The Bulldogs spent much of the fall ranked among the nation’s top-10 teams before slipping from that lofty perch this spring.
“We haven’t really had that day where everyone clicks lately,” Hester said. “We had that some in early in the season. You hope that everybody will be able to have a great post-season. Our philosophy is to try to get better every day. If you do that, you should be better at the end of the year than you were at the beginning of the season.”
Hester also feels confident that her lineup has the potential for great things.
“We’re putting five people out there who can compete,” Hester said. “In the past, it felt like we had three solid scores and we had to hope we got a good score from the fourth or fifth spot. This year, I think every one of our five golfers can go low on any given day. Hopefully, this weekend will that time.”
No one in the Bulldogs’ lineup has ever played the NorthRiver layout; however, Hester has heard the course has some similarities to the UGA layout.
“I’ve heard it’s hilly,” Hester said. “I feel like our kids should be prepared for that because we play pretty much every day on a hilly golf course. I feel like we can adjust and adapt to that. It’s going to be pretty hot. That’s where our conditioning can really help us.”
The Bulldog Lineup
Head Coach: Kelley Hester (3rd season at Georgia)
Assistant Coach: Margaret Shirley (1st season at Georgia)
Team Rankings: No. 14 Golf World; No. 15 Golfstat ; No. 16 Golfweek
| Player | Rds. | Avg. | Low | PoB | Notes |
| Carolina Andrade | 25 | 76.80 | 69 | 2 | In lineup for every event last three seasons; career-best t-6th at Eat-A-Peach Collegiate |
| Emilie Burger | 25 | 73.68 | 66 | 9 | Won Auburn Invit. as only golfer in red at one-day event; leads UGA in eagles and birdies |
| Milena Savich | 20 | 76.05 | 69 | 5 | Top-5 finisher in first two events of the fall, including third at Match Play Qualifying |
| Marta Silva Zamora | 24 | 72.96 | 67 | 10 | Wins at Cougar Classic & Eat-A-Peach ups “Ws” to four; No. 15 by Golfweek & Golfstat |
| Kendall Wright | 22 | 77.64 | 71 | 2 | Back-to-back top-20s at Kinderlou 13th) and Auburn (10th); Even-par 144 at Mason Rudolph |
UGA’s SEC Championship history
Georgia has captured a league-leading 19 SEC Women’s Golf Championships all-time. The Bulldogs have won 11 team and eight individual titles.
Florida ranks second with 16 championships, eight team and eight individual titles, while Auburn is third with 12 crowns (seven team and five individual).
Advice for Marta...not much, really
Georgia sophomore Marta Silva Zamora will have three chances to become only the fifth women’s golfer in SEC history to capture multiple league individual championships. She won last year’s title by four strokes.
Kelley Hester says her advice to Silva Zamora, a relative free-spirit both on and off the golf course, will be quite simple.
“Marta looks at things so differently than most people,” Hester said. “I’ll probably just tell her to go out there, have fun and play free. She pretty much does that anyway. She’s one of those kids that you can kind of leave alone.”
Florida’s Deb Richard is the lone three-time winner (1982, 1983, 1984), while Georgia’s Shauna Estes (1997, 1999), South Carolina’s Kristy McPherson (2001, 2002) Arkansas’ Stacy Lewis (2005, 2008) won two titles.
SEC provides stiff competition
Seven SEC teams are currently among the nation’s top-25 teams in the three major polls – the Golfweek/Sagarin Index, Golfstat and the Golf World coaches poll as outlined below.
The SEC leads the country in top-25 teams. The PAC 10 has six and the ACC and Big Ten both have three.
SEC Teams In The Top 25
| School | Golfstat | Golfweek | Golf World | Avg. |
| Auburn | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3.3 |
| Alabama | 6 | 7 | 6 | 6.3 |
| Florida | 19 | 11 | 10 | 13.3 |
| Tennessee | 16 | 14 | 11 | 13.7 |
| Georgia | 15 | 16 | 14 | 15.0 |
| LSU | 17 | 19 | 19 | 18.3 |
| Vanderbilt | 20 | 24 | 21 | 21.7 |
A record-breaking beginning
Georgia shattered its tournament scoring record en route to sweeping the team and individual titles at the College of Charleston’s Duramed Cougar Classic to open the 2009-10 season.
The Bulldogs finished at 14-under 850, eight shots better than the previous school record of 6-under 856 in winning the same event in 2008.
Marta Silva Zamora notched her third career title after posting an 8-under 208, a score equaling the third-best relation-to-par effort in Georgia history. In addition, Emilie Burger tied for third at 4-under 212, and Milena Savich tied for fifth at 3-under 213.
“Everyone was just solid,” Kelley Hester said. “It was really fun. We had three in the top five individually and Carolina (Andrade) wasn’t far behind them. We threw out a 74 and a 75 yesterday and today. That’s just a different place than we were most of last year. I’m ultra pleased, especially with our top four.”
A year ago, the Bulldogs played half of the fall campaign with only five golfers on their roster before adding a walk-on for the spring.
Silva Zamora started the final round two strokes off the pace of Florida State’s Lacey Agnew but played along side her competition and sealed the win with a four-foot birdie putt on No. 18.
“I was playing with the girl who was first starting the day so I was kind of keeping up with what she was doing,” Silva Zamora said. “I knew if I played well, it was going to be good for the team and good for me so everything would be positive.”
Burger wins on The Plains
Emilie Burger fired a 1-under 71 to capture medalist honors at the one-day Auburn Invitational at the Auburn University Club on March 7.
“Emilie has been very solid all year,” Kelley Hester said. “Even in the rounds where she didn’t score as well as she would’ve liked, she’s played well. It was great to see her break through and win. She beat some really good people today and picked up a couple of solid head-to-head individual wins.”
The Bulldogs finished third in the four-team event and played without Marta Silva Zamora, who was traveling with her parents who were visiting the U.S. from Spain during UGA’s spring break.
Worst day is a positive one
Georgia shot 313 in the second round of Tiger/Wave Classic, its worst round of the season to that point, but still climbed six spots on the team leaderboard.
“I told them after we finished that I don’t know if I’ve ever been prouder of one of my teams,” Kelley Hester said. “There was a pretty solid 30 mile-per-hour wind most of the day, and we really struggled on our first nine holes. They could’ve given up, but they fought through it and played pretty well the rest of the way.
“We shot 313 and still made a very solid push on the leaderboard,” Hester continued. “That demonstrates how difficult the conditions were.”
One Super Weekend
Abby Johnson, who is not the lineup this weekend, is the daughter of New Orleans Saints defensive line coach, Bill Johnson. Abby was in Miami to watch the Saints win Super Bowl XLIV.
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