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Georgia Golfers Christen Spring Campaign

Feb 7, 2010 by Georgia Sports Communications

ATHENS - The No. 10-ranked Georgia women’s golf team will open up the 2010 calendar portion of its schedule on Sunday at the Lady Puerto Rico Classic on Rio Grande, P.R. The 54-hole event will be contested Sunday-Tuesday at the par-72, 6219-yard Trump International Golf Club at Coco Beach Resort.

During the fall, Georgia won two team and individual titles, with sophomore Marta Silva Zamora leading sweeps at both the Duramed Cougar Classic and the Eat-A-Peach Collegiate. The Bulldogs last competed in late October at the Landfall Tradition/Fall Preview.

“We really tried to do more conditioning during the off season,” head coach Kelley Hester said. “The girls look good and fit. You don’t think of that as a huge factor in our sport, but it does mean a great deal as the season wears on, especially down the stretch when the tournaments mean the most.”

Silva Zamora anchors the Bulldogs’ lineup in Puerto Rico, with Carolina Andrade, Emilie Burger, Tess Fordham and Kendall Wright rounding out the playing five. Kiara Hayashida, who missed the fall due to injury, will make her Georgia debut competing as an individual.

“I think they’re excited to compete again,” Hester said. “The goals for each one of them are different. I think they’ve been working hard and when you work hard and don’t get to compete, it makes you want to play in a tournament even more. That’s especially true with Kiara. She’s really trying to get her game back since she didn’t get to play in the fall.”

Hayashida, a transfer from Pepperdine, earned a spot in the lineup for the season opener at the Hooters Match Play Collegiate but suffered a back injury while playing a practice round and suffered from chronic back spasms the rest of the fall.

The Bulldogs are one of three top-10 teams and 10 top-50 squads in the 16-school field. No. 4 Purdue carries the highest ranking at No. 4, followed by No. 9 Alabama, the 10th-ranked Bulldogs, No. 22 Oklahoma State, No. 26 Florida State, No. 30 Kent State, No. 40 Northwestern, No. 44 Iowa State, No. 49 Texas Tech and No. 50 Wisconsin. Rounding out the competition are Baylor, Indiana, Michigan, Oklahoma, Penn State and SMU.

“Overall, the field might not be as deep as our typical SEC Championship competition,” Hester said. "There are several very good teams in the field, and it would certainly be good to have some positive head-to-head results against them.

“We’ll ease back into it and hopefully have a good first round,” Hester stated. “Then we’ll try to put a solid second round together and, with any luck, be near the top of the leaderboard as we go into the final round. That’s when the competitive juices really start flowing, when you’re in the hunt.”