ATHENS, GA. — The Georgia women’s golf team will open the 2024 calendar portion of its schedule on Saturday when the Bulldogs host the Lady Bulldog Individual Invitational at the University of Georgia Golf Course.
The one-day, 36-hole event is slated to begin with a shotgun start at 9:00 a.m. and play continuing throughout the day. No admission will be charged to attend the tourney, which will feature 30 golfers from Georgia, Auburn, Clemson, Georgia Southern and Washington.
“That’s the point of hosting this tournament – to get started,” head coach Josh Brewer said. “Most our players haven’t competed since October or even before so after that long of a layoff, you need to remember what it really feels like to make a short putt or hit the fairway when you need it. It’s proven to be very beneficial to us all the years we’ve hosted the tournament. I’m excited to see them go out and compete.”
Nine of 10 Bulldogs will be in the field on Saturday. Graduate transfer Napat “Jenny” Lertsadwattana is not playing because she will be competing in the Women’s Amateur Asia Pacific Championship at Siam Country Club in Pattaya, Thailand this weekend.
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Fifth-year senior Caterina Don was Georgia’s top golfer throughout the fall and finished 2023 at No. 53 individually in the NCAA’s Scoreboard rankings. She recorded three top-10 individual finishes in four tournaments and was a combined 13-under over 12 fall rounds.
“Of course we do this to compete,” Don said. “Practice is great and we work together as a team but in the end, you want to compete and you want to perform. I’m excited. It’s my last dance as you would call it at Georgia. There’s something special about it being my last year. You look forward to it, but you’re also a little sad that you don’t get to do this again. I think I’m embracing every moment a little more since it’s my last season, and you’re not going to have a Lady Bulldog next year. Everything just means a little more.”
Georgia wrapped up the fall season at No. 31 in the NCAA’s new Scoreboard national rankings. The Lady Bulldog Invitational actually will serve as part of Georgia’s qualifying for its first team event of the spring, next weekend’s Collegiate Invitational at the Guadalajara Country Club. Brewer hopes Saturday will get the Bulldogs off to a fast start in their pursuit of a fourth-straight top-20 finish at the NCAA Championships.
“That’s kinda what you hope will happen,” Brewer said. “You’re qualifying trying to pick your lineup, but does someone step up? It happened last year when Jo, Céleste and Isabella finished 1-2-3. Jo got her first win and that helped her become an All-American last year. People can definitely get confidence from how they play in this event and it can help them go on to have a special spring individually.”
Rounding out the Bulldogs competing are graduate transfer Bernice Olivarez Ilas; senior Isabella Holpfer; juniors LoraLie Cowart and Kate Song; and freshman Celine Brovold Sanne, Savannah De Bock, Grace Frei and Natachanok “Drive” Tunwannarux.
“Josh wants us to get out here and compete,” Don said. “I think it’s really cool that we already host one big event, the Liz, that has been here for so long and has gained such a great importance in the world of women’s golf. The Lady Bulldog gives us another event at home so we can have our friends come out and watch. Being an international team, it means a lot when you have someone supporting you. Having the chance to do that twice a year is kind of rare, and it’s amazing. It’s not like having your parents out here, but your friends or even your teammates’ parents become your across the ocean parents. It’s nice that they can come out and see us compete at home.”
Saturday will mark the collegiate debut of De Bock, a mid-year enrollee who joined the Georgia roster earlier this month. She is currently No. 50 in the World Amateur Golf Rankings (WAGR) and has been as high as No. 35. During the fall, De Bock finished fourth at the World Junior Girls’ Golf Championship and notched a 3-0 record while helping Europe win the 2023 PING Junior Solheim Cup. She also won the 2022 European Ladies’ Amateur Championship.
The Bulldogs’ spring schedule includes seven additional regular-season tournaments, headlined by the 51st annual Liz Murphey Collegiate Classic at the UGA Golf Course on March 29-30, before the SEC and NCAA Championships. Georgia is one of college golf’s few programs to host two home events where everyone on the roster competes.
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