University of Georgia Athletics
Patience Tested In Opening Round
May 08, 2017 | Women's Golf
By John Frierson
UGAAA Staff Writer
In the time it would take to fly from Atlanta to San Francisco, pick up your bags and rental car and drive to the Golden Gate Bridge, the No. 2-seeded Georgia women's golf team played its opening round Monday in the NCAA Athens Regional.
The tone was set from the start, when Bailey Tardy's threesome walked up to the tee box for their opening drives around 9:30 a.m. and had to wait six minutes to begin their NCAAs.
"You just have to get in the mindset that it's going to be a long day," Tardy said after shooting a 1-over 73. "Thankfully I had a good group and we all know each other really well."
Georgia's players were grouped with top-seeded Alabama and No. 3 seed Northwestern. The teams have players from all over the country and beyond, but they're not strangers by any means. Years of elite-level junior golf brought the best of the best together many times over the years.
Playing with Tardy were Alabama's Lakareber Abe and Northwestern's Kacie Komoto. With so much time to chat during the round, the three covered a lot of conversational ground.
"We talked about a lot of fun things and that passes time quicker, I guess," Tardy said. "We talked about random stuff: differences between our schools, food, parking, just random things like that. We talked about animals — you can't focus for all six hours or you'll be mentally dead after. It's just nice to be able to relax and take your mind off of what you're doing for a few minutes."
Playing 18 holes at the UGA Golf Course shouldn't take more than six hours, but tournament golf at seemingly all levels is slowing to a crawl. It's up to the players to handle the pace and control what they can control.
"I think instead of being negative about having to wait, you just take the moment and tell yourself, this is my time to relax, sit down and stretch and have the moment to yourself, instead of looking at what everyone else is doing," said Rinko Mitsunaga, who shot a 74 Monday.
Patience was required and rewarded Monday almost as much as good drives down the middle of the fairway.
For the eighth-ranked Bulldogs, the marathon round ended on a good note. Four of the five Georgia players birdied the 18th hole and a third of the way through the 54-hole event, the Bulldogs are 5 over par and tied for third place.
It wasn't a great day on the course for Georgia, which is tied with Northwestern. The Dogs' five players combined to make 22 bogeys and 13 birdies and they had a lot of putts from inside 12 feet that didn't fall. But when it comes to a regional, position on the leaderboard is more important that position in relation to par.
The top six teams after Wednesday's third round advance to the NCAA Championships, and the Bulldogs are well positioned to make it. Unranked Michigan State ended the opening day at 4-under, with a five-stroke lead over top-seeded Alabama.
Several Bulldogs struggled at times Monday, but no scores got too big and Georgia didn't put itself in a position where it has to make up a ton of ground Tuesday and Wednesday.
"I think today definitely wasn't our best, but we were grinding out there," Mitsunaga said. "I think it definitely could have gone downhill, but we held on and kept ourselves in position."
Jillian Hollis, a sophomore like Tardy and Mitsunaga, led Georgia with a 2-under 70, playing the final 10 holes bogey-free and 3-under. Hollis has now shot par or better in nine straight rounds and is tied for fifth in the individual standings.
One reason for Hollis' strong showing may have been her approach to being on the course for so long.
"I have a lot of friends out here," she said after posing for a photo with a friend on Michigan State's team and chatting with some Alabama players.
Whenever Georgia hosts a tournament, such as last month's Liz Murphey Collegiate Classic, there is a bottleneck at the 16th tee. The 16th hole is a downhill par 3, with water in front of the green.
It was more than a bottleneck Monday: between her tap-in for par on No. 15 and hitting her tee shot on 16, Tardy had to wait 28 minutes. At one point there were four groups waiting to play.
While Tardy and Mitsunaga mostly just plopped down on the grass when they joined the crowd at the tee and took it easy, the very outgoing Hollis looked like she was at a party. Hollis is good friends with Alabama's players and she used the time to catch up with them.
And by the time Hollis holed her birdie putt on No. 18, she had a 70 on her scorecard and a smile on her face.
"It's a nice six-hour walk, that's how I look at it," she said, "to be able to play with my friends."
And they'll all get to do it again Tuesday.
John Frierson is the staff writer for the UGA Athletic Association and curator of the ITA Men's Tennis Hall of Fame. You can find his work at: Frierson Files. He's also on Twitter: @FriersonFiles and @ITAHallofFame.
