University of Georgia Athletics
Georgia Golfers Trek To Mason Rudolph Fall Preview
September 22, 2011 | Women's Golf
Sept. 22, 2011
ATHENS, Ga. --- The Georgia women's golf team will travel to Franklin, Tenn., just south of Nashville this weekend to compete in the Mason Rudolph Fall Preview. The Preview features a stacked field competing on the same Vanderbilt Legends Club layout that will host the 2012 NCAA Championships next May.
Seventeen of the 18 teams in the Preview field were included in the top-20 preseason picks for the Golfweek and the NGCA/Golf World coaches poll.
UCLA was the consensus No. 1, followed by Southern Cal at No. 2 and Alabama at No. 3. Following those squads in the Preview field are: Arizona (No. 10 Golfweek, No. 12 Golf World), Arizona State (No. 12, No. 8), Arkansas (No. 14, No. 10), Cal (No. 4, No. 13), Duke (No. 6, No. 7), Florida (No. 13, No. 16), the Bulldogs (No. 11, No. 17), LSU (No. 8, No. 4), North Carolina (No. 5, No. 9), Purdue (No. 16, No. 6), Tennessee (No. 7, No. 11), Texas A&M (No. 16, No. 20), Vanderbilt (No. 18, No. 15) and Virginia (No. 9, No. 5). Tulane, ranked No. 24 by Golf World and No. 30 by Golfweek, rounds out the competing schools.
"Traditionally, the Mason Rudolph is always a great field," head coach Kelley Hester said. "This year there's a little more added because it's the Preview and where the national championships are going to be held. I don't think it will be much different from a competitive standpoint than previous Mason Rudolphs. It's always right up there. We'll definitely have a feel for how we stack up against the best teams in the country after this event."
Though Georgia has competed in seven of the last eight editions of the Mason Rudolph, Hester believes that familiarity won't be a factor this weekend.
"It does look as though they've changed the golf course some," Hester said. "They've lengthened it a little bit and they've also changed the greens so the golf course itself will be a little bit different. I would consider it in the past to have been a pretty scoreable golf course. I think they're going to try to change that."
The course played at 6,281 yards last year but now will be contested at 6,451.
Georgia's lineup for the weekend will consist of seniors Milena Savich and Marta Silva Zamora, juniors Emilie Burger and Abby Johnson and freshman Rocio Sanchez Lobato. The Bulldogs opened the season with a fourth-place finish at the Cougar Classic on Sept. 11-13 in Charleston, S.C. Georgia shot even-par 864 to equal the sixth-best tournament score in school history. Sanchez Lobato paced the Bulldogs by finishing at 5-under 211 and tying for sixth. Her 54-hole tally tied the 11th-best mark in Bulldog annals.
The Bulldogs won the 2003 Mason Rudolph and finished as runner-up in both 2004 and 2005. Individually, Jackie Beers captured medalist honors in 2004 and Garrett Phillips placed second in 2006.
Georgia will be paired with Southern Cal and Purdue for Friday's first round, teeing off beginning at 8 a.m. CT. Hole-by-hole updates of the scoring can be found throughout the tournament here.
