Georgia golfers didn’t need to even look at the leaderboards to know they were inching closer and closer to their season’s end on Saturday in the final round of the NCAA Athens Regional at the UGA Golf Course.
“You could feel what was going on out there, and I could feel early we were starting to slip a little bit,” Georgia’s Joey Garber said. “We just knew we had to grind it out and make as many pars as we could.”
Fortunately for Georgia, the going was tough for the rest of the field, too.
Two-time defending national champion Augusta State slipped out of contention for fifth place shortly after Georgia’s golfers finished their rounds, and Iowa slipped up late, too, bumping the Bulldogs up a spot to fourth and securing Georgia with a trip to the NCAA championships later this month.
“My heart lost a few years again and I found a few gray hairs I didn’t need to have,” Georgia coach Chris Haack said. “… We made it a little tighter than we wanted to make it, but the guys came through.”
Alabama went wire to wire with the lead to win with a 24-under 269 and swept the top three individual spots led by Justin Thomas (9-under 204), Bobby Wyatt (8-under 205) and Cory Whitsett (5-under 208).
Rounding out the top five and headed to the NCAA championships was East Carolina (1-over 853), North Florida (6-over 858), Georgia and Iowa (14-over 866). Also advancing is the top individual finisher not on a qualifying team — Long Beach State’s Philip Chian (tied for fourth, 3-under 210). The championship tournament will be played May 29-June 3 at Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, Calif.
Alabama opened the regional with a 15 under on Thursday and shot 8 under. Saturday’s round of 1 under lacked the pizzazz of the Tide’s first two days on the course but worked well enough considering the difficult pin placement and windy conditions, Alabama coach Jay Seawell said.
“This golf course was really hard,” Seawell said. “If you look at all the golf scores, we had 18 hard pins. They made sure birdies were hard to come by today. I think we eked out a 1-under-par round, which I think was really good.”
Thomas, the Southeastern Conference Golfer and Freshman of the Year, opened the tournament with back-to-back 4-under 67s but shot a 1-under 70 on Saturday in a round that featured five bogeys, including two in a row to open the day.
“I just capitalized on my birdie chances,” said Thomas, who birdied six holes Saturday. “I made a lot of bogeys but I felt like I just kind of stayed consistent and stayed with each shot pretty well all week.”
T.J. Mitchell had Georgia’s best day yet again, shooting a 2-over 73 for a three-day 2-under 211 and sole possession of sixth place. He was followed by teammates Brian Carter (216, tied for 18th), Joey Garber (219, tied for 29th), Nick Reach (221, tied for 45th) and Keith Mitchell (222, tied for 51st).
“Yesterday, after kind of holding on after that rough start, that really motivated me for today,” said T.J. Mitchell, who was 4 over through his first three holes a day earlier. “… I knew I had to keep grinding because I knew my score was probably going to count.”
It was Reach’s round, though, that held the most drama. He was 4 over at the turn and bogeyed No. 12, but birdies on 14 and 18 gave Georgia hope as it watched the other teams in contention move up and down on the scoreboard. Haack said Reach’s birdie on the final hole was maybe the most important shot of the day.
“It was huge,” Haack said. “He made a really good par putt on 16 and then just missed birdie on 17, and to make that birdie on 18, I told him that those two putts coming in could have been the difference. And as it was unfolding there, it almost looked like it was the difference. “
Georgia sat in fifth place when its golfers finished their rounds, and Augusta State was two strokes behind at 14 over with two golfers remaining on the course. But the Jaguars failed to make up the ground and slipped to sixth, and Iowa — which was in fourth place when the Bulldogs finished — faltered late to cede its spot to Georgia.
Augusta State coach Kevin McPherson said he was proud of his team’s effort despite missing the NCAA championships, particularly when considering that four of his five golfers at the regional had not been to that level before.
“When we were tied for that fifth spot, it was all about just getting into a playoff,” McPherson said. “That was all we could ask for, just to put ourselves in that position. But we didn’t fold today; we didn’t lie down. And that was big for us to grind it out to the close.”
The Bulldogs also sport a young team with freshman Reach, sophomores Carter and Keith Mitchell and junior T.J. Mitchell. The trip to the national championships should pay dividends down the road, regardless of how Georgia finishes, Reach said.
“We’re a really young team and we really do lack the experience Coach Haack has had in the past couple years,” Reach said. “Getting there is a good accomplishment, but I think we’re ready to go out there and hone our games a little bit this week and get out there and get after it.”
