University of Georgia
NCAA Championships
Georgia Opens NCAAs With A 298
May 20, 2016 | Women's Golf
Head Coach Josh Brewer, Rinko Mitsunaga, and Harang Lee recap the opening round of the NCAA Championships.
May 20, 2016
EUGENE, Oregon --- The No. 6-ranked Georgia women's golf team carded a 10-over 298 in Friday's opening round of the NCAA Championships at the Eugene Country Club. The Bulldogs are among a trio to teams tied for 18th on the team leaderboard but just five shots out of eighth.
"I'm proud of the fact that they fought and hung in there," head coach Josh Brewer said. "That kept us right where we need to be to accomplish what we want to on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday."
Harang Lee paced the Bulldogs with a 1-over 73, while Georgia also counted a pair of 74s from Jillian Hollis and Rinko Mitsunaga and a 77, the tally signed for by both Mary Ellen Shuman and Bailey Tardy.
"We just need to play, play like we have all year," Brewer said. "That's one of the things I like about this team. We always seem get better as the tournament goes along. We do a good job of settling in. I don't think we were nervous today. I think we were just very excited. We wanted to get out there and get going. That may have led to a couple of our uncharacteristic errors. We just need to come out tomorrow and play like we have all year and then enjoy an afternoon off."
On Saturday, the Bulldogs will again be paired with Florida and Duke, teeing off from No. 10 in waves from 7:30-8:14 a.m. ET (10:30-11:14 ET).
Friday marked just the fourth time in 31 team rounds this season that at least one Georgia golfer did not post a par-or-better score. Small mistakes prevented three Bulldogs from doing so.
Lee turned at 3-over with a double-bogey at No. 5 and a bogey at No. 9 but bounced back with birdies at No. 12 and No. 17 to cover the second half of her loop at 2-under.
Hollis played the first 16 holes at even-par before a double-bogey at No. 17 stopped her from notching her 14th par-or-better effort of the season.
Mitsunaga's 2-over tally was the result of a double-bogey at 4. Following that, she birdied No. 7 but lost that stroke with a bogey at No. 12, her only non-par on the back side.
"When you play seven rounds of golf like we hope to out here, you're going to have one or two holes that you'd like to have back," Brewer said. "We just happened to have a couple of them on the same day."
August Kim of Purdue and Haley Moore of Arizona share the individual lead after shooting 4-under 68 on Friday. For Georgia, Lee is tied for 39th, Hollis and Mitsuanaga are tied for 55th and Shuman and Tardy are tied for 101st.
No. 8 Oklahoma State shot 4-under 284 to grab the top spot on the team leaderboard, two shots better than No. 3 UCLA in second. The Bulldogs are tied with No. 19 Furman and North Carolina, a shot back of a three-way tie between No. 4 Florida, No. 20 Oregon and No. 21 Tennessee.
The tournament will continue on Saturday and Sunday with all 24 teams in the field. Following the third round, the competition will be cut to the top-15 teams and the top-nine individuals who are not among those teams. A fourth round of stroke play will be contested on Monday, with the NCAA individual medalist and the eight teams advancing to match play determined afterward.
The match play bracket will feature quarterfinals and semifinals on Tuesday and the championship match on Wednesday.
Live scoring is being updated on a hole-by-hole basis at www.golfstat.com.
NCAA Division I Championships
Eugene Country Club
Eugene, Oregon
Par 72, 6331 Yards
Friday's First-Round Standings
Team Leaderboard
Oklahoma State 284
UCLA 286
Washington 289
Southern Cal 289
Arizona 291
Northwestern 292
Arkansas 292
Virginia 293
Ohio State 293
South Carolina 293
BYU 294
Stanford 295
Florida State 295
Michigan 296
Tennessee 297
Florida 297
Oregon 297
Georgia 298
Furman 298
North Carolina 298
Miami 299
Duke 299
Alabama 300
Texas 301
Individual Leaderboard
Haley Moore, Arizona 68
August Kim, Purdue 68
Katelyn Dambaugh, South Carolina 69
Anna Newell Tennessee 69
Dewi Weber, Miami 69
Cheyenne Knight, Alabama 69
Virginia Elena Carta, Duke 69
Louise Ridderstrom, UCLA 69
Chih-Min Chen, Oklahoma State 69
Jennifer Kupcho, Wake Forest 69
Alana Uriell, Arkansas 70
Grace Choi, Michigan 70
Rio Watanabe, Ohio State 70
Alex White, BYU 70
Morgane Metraux, Florida State 70
Olivia Cason, Louisville 70
Marianne Li, Cal 70
Sarah Rhee, Washington 70
Georgia Scores
T39. Harang Lee, Georgia 73
T55. Jillian Hollis, Georgia 74
T55. Rinko Mitsunaga, Georgia 74
T101. Mary Ellen Shuman, Georgia 77
T101. Bailey Tardy, Georgia 77
Players Mentioned
