BRADENTON, Fla. - Georgia has won three tournaments this season, but also finished last out of 15 teams once and took 14th out of 15th in another tournament.
The team that coach Chris Haack has brought to the NCAA championships has looked more like the former version. The Bulldogs will go into Sunday’s third round at the Concession Golf Club in third-place tie at 5-over par, seven shots behind leader USC, after shooting a 5-over Saturday.
“We’ve seen throughout the year, when we play to our potential, we’re pretty tough to beat,” Mookie DeMoss said. “So we’re not really shocked at where we are. We’re kind of where we want to be.”
Georgia, ranked No. 33 in the country by Golfstat, will need to stay in the top 15 to make it to Monday’s fourth round, where the top eight teams will advance to match play. The individual champion will also be crowned after Monday’s play.
Freshman Zach Healy is tied for sixth at 2-under after turning in an even-par round Saturday. (Interestingly, he is one of three players named Zach or Zachary in the top 11.) Sepp Straka, who shot Georgia’s low round Saturday (2-under 70), is tied for 17th at even par, seven strokes behind leader Bryson Dechambeau of SMU. Lee McCoy, a finalist for the Nicklaus Award presented to the national player of the year, is tied for 60th at 6 over.
The Bulldogs played in the afternoon wave, sweating through considerable heat and dealing with winds that picked up during the round. A considerable strength for Georgia has been its ability to navigate through the course’s dangers. Georgia picked up only two double bogeys and one triple bogey and has four scores altogether of double bogey or higher so far, the lowest total in the 30-team field.
“That’s definitely huge out there,” DeMoss said. “There’s some funky spots that you can’t really miss in. That’s definitely big, not making a big number. I’ve seen a lot of teams do that.”
Sunday, Georgia will play in the afternoon wave with leader Illinois and second-place USC, beginning at 1:10 p.m.
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