ATHENS — Georgia and Jenny Bae combined to sweep team and individual championships on Wednesday at an NCAA Golf Regional for the second time in three years at the UGA nGolf Course.
“We wanted to win,” coach Josh Brewer said. “We haven’t won all year. We felt truthfully that we were the best team on our home golf course. It’s nice for that to happen. But just like this week, everyone starts at zero in nine, 10 days in Arizona.”
The Bulldogs also took home both titles at the 2016 Bryan Regional and the 2021 Columbus Regional, with Bae also winning there. Georgia and Stanford are the only two teams in the country with three regional sweeps during that span.
Georgia closed with a 290 on Wednesday to wrap up play at 13-under (851), two shots clear of runner-up South Carolina. It represented the Bulldogs’ best-ever postseason score and the fifth-best tournament tally in program history.
Bae now owns the two best tourney scores in school history with her second straight 5-under 67, finishing at 13-under (203) with a six-stroke gap over the field.
Earlier this week, on Wednesday, Georgia got a 1-under 71 from Jo Hua Hung and a pair of 76s from Isabella Holpfer and Candice Mahé.
All five of the Bulldogs finishing among the top-25, with Hung finishing fourth at 5-under 211, Holpfer tying for 14th at 219, LoraLie Cowart tying for 20th at 221 and Mahé tying for 24th at 222.
Georgia held a comfortable lead until the final round when the Gamecocks charged, closing to within two shots with two pairings left on.
A birdie by Hung offset a South Carolina birdie, and a subsequent birdie by Bae increased the final margin to two shots.
Bae, a super senior from Suwanee, became the program’s first-ever two-time regional medalist. Bae also notched her school-record 23rd par-or-better score in 33 rounds this season, breaking the previous record set by Marta Silva Zamora in 2010-11 and Bailey Tardy in 2015-16.
“Wow, I mean it’s something that I would hope to achieve,” Bae said. “Hearing it honestly doesn’t sink in right now. It probably will in a few hours. I’m definitely proud of myself for how far I’ve come since freshman year, and I’m also super proud of this team for pulling us through, winning Regionals and being able to head into nationals with high hopes and high confidence.”
Georgia is advancing to the NCAA Championships for the third consecutive year, the first time the Bulldogs have done so since 2007-09.
Georgia will be among 30 teams and six individuals competing at the national championships on May 19-24 at Grayhawk Golf Course in Scottsdale, Ariz. UGA won the team title in 2001 and has had four individual champions.
“We’ve got to go out there with the same confidence, but we also know we can play well because we did it last year,” Brewer said. “We’re excited to be back and just see if we can have an extra day of golf.”