Georgia men suffer costly mistake, Arkansas women cruising at home at Blessings Collegiate Invitational

The Georgia men suffered a costly mistake while the Arkansas women cruised at home Monday at the Blessings Collegiate Invitational.

The inaugural Blessings Collegiate Invitational is pretty unique.

Like many college tournaments, it’s a 54-hole event where teams of five count their four best scores. So what makes it unique?

For starters, it’s a conference-only event featuring all 14 schools in the SEC. On top of that, men’s and women’s teams are competing on the same course at the same time. Here’s where it gets interesting. Due to the pandemic, instead of being paired with other schools, teams are playing together, with all five golfers per team competing on the same hole – women first, then the men.

Five balls with the same school logo in play is a recipe for chaos and it was a dish served cold for the Georgia men during Monday’s first round at Blessings Golf Club in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

“We had two guys hit the wrong ball,” said head coach Chris Haack to Golf Channel during an on-course interview. The two players were Will Chandler and Davis Thompson, who recently had an impressive showing during the first round of the U.S. Open.

Blessings Collegiate Invitational: Women’s scores | Men’s

“We’re coming off playing the hole before that 5 under, we’ve got five guys in the fairway looking good, get up to the green and realize two of the guys had hit the wrong ball. Lesson learned there,” said Haack. “It’s kind of like running the ball into the endzone and dropping it two yards before you get in there.”

After realizing their fairway fumble, both players went on to make double bogey, resulting in a four-shot swing in the the wrong direction for the Bulldogs, who finished the day 13th at 17 over.

Tennessee sits atop the men’s team leaderboard at 8 under and holds a commanding lead over Kentucky and Texas A&M, who sit T-2 at even par. LSU and Alabama are T-4 at 3 over. Vols junior Hunter Wolcott leads the individual competition after a 4-under 68 in the opening round. Teammate Bryce Lewis is T-2 with Kentucky’s Alex Goff at 3 under.

On the women’s side, the Razorbacks feel right at home atop the team leaderboard after finishing the first round at 1 over on their home course. LSU, which had a birdie party on the par-3 13th, are second at 5 over, followed by Florida at 7 over in third. Georgia and Auburn are T-4 at 12 over.

Razorback junior Brooke Matthews is tied for the individual lead with LSU’s Ingrid Lindblad after impressive rounds of 5-under 67. Florida’s Addison Baggarly and Maisie Filler, along with Kentucky’s Laney Frye, are T-3 at 1 under.

Five awards will be handed out after Wednesday’s final round to the men’s and women’s team and individual champions, as well as one to the school with the best overall combined scores. The action continues Tuesday morning in Arkansas, with Golf Channel airing the tournament from 3:30-7:30 p.m. ET.