University of Georgia Athletics
University of Georgia
The Battle at Rancho Bernardo
Georgia Golfers Vault To Fourth In Elite Field
March 22, 2011 | Women's Golf
March 22, 2011
SAN DIEGO, Calif. --- A trio of under-par individual rounds led the No. 20-ranked Georgia women's golf team to a 1-over 289 team tally - the best score of the day - in the final round of the inaugural Battle at Rancho Bernardo on Tuesday. The Bulldogs' effort pushed them up six spots on the team leaderboard to fourth in a field which included six top-10 squads.
"We should take some confidence from this," head coach Kelley Hester said. "It was fun to see them rally and play like we did today. They all seemed really determined to play well today. It has been a while. We haven't had a round like this this spring. We were 13th after the first day. To move up to fourth in a field like this is a strong showing."
Sophomore Abby Johnson recorded her first under-par round as a collegiate player, a 2-under 70, to lead Georgia. Emilie Burger and Marta Silva Zamora both shot 1-under 71, and Kiara Hayashida posted a 77 to round out the Bulldogs' counting tallies. Milena Savich shot 78, and Tess Fordham, who competed as an individual, notched an 80.
The Lady Bulldogs teed of on No. 10 and played the back side of the Rancho Bernardo Inn Championship course first. Georgia turned at 2-over and played the final nine holes at 1-under as a team.
Johnson was extremely consistent en route to her career-low loop. She birdied No. 12 and No. 14 to get to 2-under through five but surrendered one of those shots with a bogey at No. 18. Johnson bounced back with the a birdie at No. 1 and then posted pars on Nos. 2-9.
Burger birdied No. 12 to move into red numbers before bogeys at No. 14 and No. 16 pushed her to 1-over. She wrapped up her opening nine with birdies at No. 17 and No. 18 to turn at 1-under and then dropped to 2-under with a birdie at No. 3. Burger gave a stroke back with a bogey at No. 4 before wrapping up the day with five consecutive pars.
Silva Zamora mixed three birdies with two bogeys en route to her 13th par-or-better score in 20 rounds played this season. She birdied No. 12, bogeyed No. 15 and birdied No. 17 to turn at 1-under. A birdie at No. 2 made Silva Zamora 2-under on the day, but she bogeyed No. 3 to return to 1-under.
Purdue's Laura Gonzalez captured medalist honors at 7-under 209 and led the Boilermakers to the team title as well. No. 7 Purdue finished at 879, seven strokes better than No. 1 Southern Cal. Rounding out the top-10 teams were No. 3 UCLA at 887, the Bulldogs at 903, No. 22 Auburn at 905, No. 18 UC Davis at 909, No. 8 Arizona at 912, No. 17 Pepperdine and Texas both at 914 and UNLV at 915.
For Georgia, Silva Zamora tied for eighth at 220, Johnson posted a career-best tie for 16th at 220, Burger tied for 25th at 227, Hayashida and Savich both tied for 65th at 238 and Fordham placed 80th at 243.
Hester was equally proud of all her golfers.
"Abby, Emilie and Marta obviously all played very well," Hester said. "Milena and Kiara got off to poor starts, but they played well the rest of the way. Kiara should take a lot of confidence from this. She tripled her second hole and turned at 5-over but played the final nine holes at even. Golf has been a struggle for her. She kind of fought it. Hopefully, we'll all feel a little bit better going into the Liz Murphey now."
Georgia will return to action in two weeks when the Bulldogs host the 39th annual Liz Murphey Collegiate Classic at the UGA Golf Course on April 1-3. This year's event will feature a new playing and scoring format.
All 23 teams in the field will play together instead of being paired with players from two other schools. Also, each team's best four scores from each individual hole will be used to comprise the team score from that hole, as opposed to the four low scores at the completion of the round.
Battle at Rancho Bernardo
Rancho Bernardo Inn Championship Course
San Diego, Calif.
Par 72; 6336 Yards
Tuesday's Final-Round Results
Team Leaderboard
Purdue 295-292-292=879
Southern Cal 299-295-292=886
UCLA 293-304-290=887
Georgia 310-304-289=903
Auburn 305-307-293=905
UC Davis 294-307-308=909
Arizona 303-302-307=912
Pepperdine 311-308-295=914
Texas 303-306-305=914
UNLV 304-303-308=915
Arizona State 297-316-304=917
Denver 314-305-304=923
California 306-314-304=924
Oregon 309-318-307=934
TCU 322-309-306=937
New Mexico 312-317-311=940
San Diego State 309-321-311=941
Individual Leaderboard
Laura Gonzalez, Purdue 70-71-68=209
Therese Koelbaek, UNLV 72-70-73=215
Lizette Salas, Southern Cal 73-71-71=215
Cydney Clanton, Auburn 71-76-71=218
Giulia Molinaro, Arizona State 69-76-73=218
Numa Gulyanamitta, Purdue 73-75-71=219
Sophia Popov, Southern Cal 74-73-72=219
Marta Silva Zamora, Georgia 77-72-71=220
Stephanie Kono, UCLA 71-78-71=220
Thea Hoffmeister, Purdue 73-74-73=220
Additional Georgia Scores
T16. Abby Johnson 76-78-70=224
T25. Emilie Burger 83-73-71=227
T65. Milena Savich 77-83-78=238
T65. Kiara Hayashida 80-81-77=238
*80. Tess Fordham 85-78-80=243
* Fordham is competing as an individual.
