Hetzel helps Dawgs roll to team title

Georgia's Mallory Hetzel played outstanding golf in the Cougar Classic, but she can't help wishing this had been a 36-hole tournament.

Hetzel carried a three-stroke lead into Tuesday's third and final round at Yeamans Hall, but a 2-over-par 74 left her in a three-way tie for fourth at 211, three shots back of individual winner Caroline Westrup of Florida State.

Georgia held on to win the team title at 5 under par, five shots ahead of second-place Alabama. Host school College of Charleston finished 12th.

Hetzel

"I wish it would have been over last night," said Hetzel, a senior from Summerville. "I don't know. I was really nervous this morning and I don't usually get nervous. It has been such a long time that I've been in the lead at a big tournament. The pressure got to me, without a doubt."

Hetzel, who finished third in this tournament as a freshman, looked in good shape to capture the tournament after rounds of 68 and 69.

The final round started badly with bogeys on the first and fourth holes, although she then reeled off three consecutive birdies to battle back. But she bogeyed Nos. 9 and 10 and never got back into contention.

"I just tried to force it all day," she said. "My putter left me, which had kind of been saving me the first two days. I missed a lot of short putts. But I know there were two girls who played really great rounds today and they went really low, so I still would have had to shoot in the 60s again today to win the tournament outright. But I take a lot of good from the first two days. My game is definitely starting to come around pretty good so I'm excited about that."

Westrup fired a final-round 66 and second-place finisher Whitney Neuhauser of Virginia finished with a 68.

C of C postd a 903 three-day total. Fiona Puyo was the team's top individual finisher with a 218 that left her in a tie for 19th.

"I thought today we were on a little bit of a roll but we let a good round get away," said Cougars coach Jamie Futrell. "We have to figure out not how to do that."

TEAM SCORES

TOP INDIVIDUALS

Coll. of Charleston (903) - Fiona Puyo 73-71-74 - 218, Steffi Kirchmayr 73-77-74 - 224, Leigh Whittaker 78-76-77 - 229, Courney Brink 78-77-78 - 233, Gabi Zuber 81-78-77 - 236, Kati Scholten (Ind.) 77-74-80 - 231.