Emilie Burger has had a decorated career at Georgia. She will end it this week as a four-time All-American and four-time All-SEC player.
But all she can think about as she gets ready to tee it up Tuesday in the NCAA Championships at the UGA Golf Course is what she doesn’t have.
Which is: any of her teammates.
“I was pretty disappointed,” said Burger, a senior from Hoschton. “It has been my goal all four years here to qualify as a team and we’ve never done it. So obviously I was disappointed. This was my best year and I owe a lot to my teammates and coaches. But all the same, I’m excited to get an opportunity to play as an individual on our home course my senior year.”
The Bulldogs came tantalizingly close to qualifying for the team championship, which will be decided over 72 holes the next four days. They finished just two strokes shy of advancing out of the Stanford Regional in Palo Alto, Calif., last week. The top eight teams from each regional advanced to championship round.
But while Bulldogs came up short as a team, Burger was able to qualify as an individual, shooting 69 in the final round to finish in seventh place overall.
“We’re really happy for her to be representing the ‘G’ and we know she’s going to do well,” said Burger’s sophomore teammate, Rocio Sanchez Lobato of Spain. “But it’s also a sad feeling to not be able to support her. She’s such a good player and she deserves to be here her last year at Georgia and we have a good feeling about that.”
Nobody was more upset about the Lady Bulldogs coming up short than first-year coach Josh Brewer. Missing the NCAA Championships is one of the main reasons Brewer in now Georgia’s coach. Previous coach Kelley Hester, a UGA graduate and golf team letterman, was dismissed by Athletic Director Greg McGarity this time last year in large part because of her failure to lead the team to the championship rounds the previous three years.
Hester is now coach at Furman. Brewer was brought in from Southern Cal to replace her.
“Trust me, I haven’t slept much trying to figure out why that happened,” Brewer said. “And it’s tough when the championships are on your home golf course. As a coach, I have to look at it so it doesn’t happen in the future.”
In the meantime, Burger will be carrying the Bulldogs’ banner. And she’s capable of winning it all. The Mill Creek High graduate entered the postseason ranked 20th in the Golfstat’s individual collegiate rankings and 26th according to the Golfweek/Sagarin Performance Index.
Burger leads the Bulldogs in stroke average (73.20), won the Bryan National tournament earlier this season and has played in every tournament during her UGA career.
“She is what every Georgia golfer will be compared to,” Brewer said. “To shoot 2-under like she did at regionals, with all the pressure, knowing this was her last chance to play in a NCAA. I’ll miss the heck out of her. Now if we can just find more like her.”
Said Sanchez Lobato: “Obviously, we all want to be there, but she’s there and she’s the pride of the team.”
Burger will encounter a star-studded field. The top three ranked teams in the nation — No. 1 Southern California, No. 2 Alabama and No. 3 Duke — will be represented, as well the best players from all over the country.
“It’ll be tough playing without my teammates,” Burger said. “I guess there will be some pressure. But when I go out there, I just try to think about one shot at a time and focus on the present. Obviously I want to do well on my home turf.
“It’s been my goal my entire career to play my last four rounds here for the national championship and I’m doing that. I’m really excited just to have the opportunity.”
It wouldn’t exactly be a shocker to see a Georgia player win on the UGA Golf Course. The last three Stadion Classic tournaments — a Web.com tour event — played on the course have been won by UGA graduates Russell Henley, Hudson Swafford and Brendon Todd.
“Hopefully four times is a charm and we can get one on the women’s side,” Brewer said.
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