University of Georgia Athletics
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Georgia Heads To PING/ASU Invitational
March 28, 2019 | Women's Golf
Georgia Heads To PING/ASU Invitational
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ATHENS, Ga. — The Georgia women's golf team will make its final road trip of the regular season this weekend when the Bulldogs compete in the PING/ASU Invitational. The 54-hole tournament will be contested on Friday-Sunday on the par-72, 6430-yard layout of the Papago Golf Course in Phoenix.
The Bulldogs haven't competed since the Darius Rucker Intercollegiate three weekends ago.
"It's only been a three-week break from competition, but it feels like a semester because we played so much early in the year," head coach Josh Brewer said. "The team seems excited. We've been practicing better after Spring Break. The first couple of days back we had some doldrums, but you can sense the excitement picking up every day. It will give us a great idea of where we stand before the Liz Murphey and the SEC Championships."
The field includes the top team and individual in this week's edition Golfstat's national rankings. No. 1 Southern Cal headlines a list of four top-10 and nine top-25 teams competing against Georgia. Stanford's Andrea Lee is atop Golfstat's individual rankings, while seventeen golfers from the teams in the field are featured in the top 50.
The other competing teams include No. 4 Stanford, No. 5 UCLA, No. 10 Arizona, No. 16 Arizona State, No. 17 Northwestern, No. 21 Oklahoma, No. 24 Furman, Colorado, Denver, New Mexico, Oklahoma State and Washington.
Georgia's lineup will feature freshmen Jenny Bae, Jo-Hua Hung and Harmie Constantino, senior Rinko Mitsunaga and junior Kelsey Kurnett. In addition, junior Gabriela Coello will compete as an individual.
The freshmen have produced the Bulldogs' three best stroke averages this spring. Bae sports a team-low 72.70, with three top-10 finishes in four events since joining the Georgia roster in January. Constantino has a team-high five top-10 individual efforts in seven tournaments this season. Hua was runner-up in her collegiate debut.
"They've played really well," Brewer said. "Jenny has had a great start to her Georgia career, and we expect Jo and Harmie to break through have another top-10 or top-5 finish at any time. We're very pleased with them. Rinko is playing very well and finished second in our qualifier."
Kurnett is making her first appearance in the lineup this spring. After serving as a team manager for two seasons, she joined the roster as a walk-on last fall and was placed on scholarship for the spring semester.
"Kelsey earned a spot in our lineup in qualifying," Brewer said. "It's a great opportunity for her. It's the first time she's been in the lineup this spring, and we'll see how she handles competition. That's what we want, people who want to compete every day and try to win."
Bae was tabbed SEC Freshman of the Week on March 13 after posting a ninth-place finish at the Darius Rucker against a field that featured five top-10 and 21 top-50 golfers. She won the Georgia Class 7A individual state title last spring as a junior at Collins Hill High School before coming to Athens two months ago.
"In high school, it's a team and it's a similar format, but there's only three players including me," Bae said. "It was a team and I really loved it, but I feel like it's more of a team feel here because there's more players and there's more competition. Since I came to Georgia, I think I have a better practice routine. Coach Brewer has drills that focus on my specific needs, things like speed drills and making as many putts as possible from 4-8 feet. I think that has helped me improve and know what I need to focus on at tournaments. That gives me confidence to hit shots I normally wouldn't be able to play well."
Mitsunaga has been impressed with the trio of freshmen. She herself was a member of a recruiting class of three future All-Americans for the Bulldogs.
"The freshmen are doing awesome," Mitsunaga said. "They're such awesome people. They have listened to everything that they've been asked to do. They come in every day willing to work hard, and obviously it's reflecting because they are the best freshmen playing out there right now. I think it's safe to say that they are just as good or better than when me, Jillian (Hollis) and Bailey (Tardy) came in. I think Josh and (assistant coach) Mimi (Burke) have done a great job getting them on board, and it's only going up from here. I don't see anything other than that. We just think we've got to fix some little things, but we're going to do that before the postseason."
Georgia began the spring season by finishing as runner-up at the Duel in the Desert in Arizona, a one-day, 18-hole event featuring the Bulldogs, Arizona State and Denver.
"I think it was awesome that we got to play out there," Mitsunaga said. "That's definitely got us more prepared and more confident coming into this tournament. It's very, very different from courses in the Southeast. There's a frickin' 7-foot tall cactus everywhere. If you miss the fairway, some times you're in sand. It's just a very particular type of course."
Live scoring will be available throughout the tournament at www.golfstat.com.
ATHENS, Ga. — The Georgia women's golf team will make its final road trip of the regular season this weekend when the Bulldogs compete in the PING/ASU Invitational. The 54-hole tournament will be contested on Friday-Sunday on the par-72, 6430-yard layout of the Papago Golf Course in Phoenix.
The Bulldogs haven't competed since the Darius Rucker Intercollegiate three weekends ago.
"It's only been a three-week break from competition, but it feels like a semester because we played so much early in the year," head coach Josh Brewer said. "The team seems excited. We've been practicing better after Spring Break. The first couple of days back we had some doldrums, but you can sense the excitement picking up every day. It will give us a great idea of where we stand before the Liz Murphey and the SEC Championships."
The field includes the top team and individual in this week's edition Golfstat's national rankings. No. 1 Southern Cal headlines a list of four top-10 and nine top-25 teams competing against Georgia. Stanford's Andrea Lee is atop Golfstat's individual rankings, while seventeen golfers from the teams in the field are featured in the top 50.
The other competing teams include No. 4 Stanford, No. 5 UCLA, No. 10 Arizona, No. 16 Arizona State, No. 17 Northwestern, No. 21 Oklahoma, No. 24 Furman, Colorado, Denver, New Mexico, Oklahoma State and Washington.
Georgia's lineup will feature freshmen Jenny Bae, Jo-Hua Hung and Harmie Constantino, senior Rinko Mitsunaga and junior Kelsey Kurnett. In addition, junior Gabriela Coello will compete as an individual.
The freshmen have produced the Bulldogs' three best stroke averages this spring. Bae sports a team-low 72.70, with three top-10 finishes in four events since joining the Georgia roster in January. Constantino has a team-high five top-10 individual efforts in seven tournaments this season. Hua was runner-up in her collegiate debut.
"They've played really well," Brewer said. "Jenny has had a great start to her Georgia career, and we expect Jo and Harmie to break through have another top-10 or top-5 finish at any time. We're very pleased with them. Rinko is playing very well and finished second in our qualifier."
Kurnett is making her first appearance in the lineup this spring. After serving as a team manager for two seasons, she joined the roster as a walk-on last fall and was placed on scholarship for the spring semester.
"Kelsey earned a spot in our lineup in qualifying," Brewer said. "It's a great opportunity for her. It's the first time she's been in the lineup this spring, and we'll see how she handles competition. That's what we want, people who want to compete every day and try to win."
Bae was tabbed SEC Freshman of the Week on March 13 after posting a ninth-place finish at the Darius Rucker against a field that featured five top-10 and 21 top-50 golfers. She won the Georgia Class 7A individual state title last spring as a junior at Collins Hill High School before coming to Athens two months ago.
"In high school, it's a team and it's a similar format, but there's only three players including me," Bae said. "It was a team and I really loved it, but I feel like it's more of a team feel here because there's more players and there's more competition. Since I came to Georgia, I think I have a better practice routine. Coach Brewer has drills that focus on my specific needs, things like speed drills and making as many putts as possible from 4-8 feet. I think that has helped me improve and know what I need to focus on at tournaments. That gives me confidence to hit shots I normally wouldn't be able to play well."
Mitsunaga has been impressed with the trio of freshmen. She herself was a member of a recruiting class of three future All-Americans for the Bulldogs.
"The freshmen are doing awesome," Mitsunaga said. "They're such awesome people. They have listened to everything that they've been asked to do. They come in every day willing to work hard, and obviously it's reflecting because they are the best freshmen playing out there right now. I think it's safe to say that they are just as good or better than when me, Jillian (Hollis) and Bailey (Tardy) came in. I think Josh and (assistant coach) Mimi (Burke) have done a great job getting them on board, and it's only going up from here. I don't see anything other than that. We just think we've got to fix some little things, but we're going to do that before the postseason."
Georgia began the spring season by finishing as runner-up at the Duel in the Desert in Arizona, a one-day, 18-hole event featuring the Bulldogs, Arizona State and Denver.
"I think it was awesome that we got to play out there," Mitsunaga said. "That's definitely got us more prepared and more confident coming into this tournament. It's very, very different from courses in the Southeast. There's a frickin' 7-foot tall cactus everywhere. If you miss the fairway, some times you're in sand. It's just a very particular type of course."
Live scoring will be available throughout the tournament at www.golfstat.com.
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