Friendly rivalry.

That perfectly describes the competition between Georgia’s pair of star juniors on the men’s golf team – Russell Henley and Harris English, who also happen to double as best friends and roommates.

The two have been competing against each other in junior golf tournaments since they were kids, so when English pulled ahead in the victor column over Henley with his third career victory at the Bulldogs’ last tournament – the Fighting Illini Invitational – Henley was determined to even the score.

And that is exactly what Henley did on Monday, securing his third win as a Bulldog at the Brickyard Collegiates by five shots at 10-under-par 134.

“It feels great,” Henley said of his third career win. “Harris got his third before me, just like he got his first and second before me, but I’m just happy to get another win.”

Henley’s win came in his hometown of Macon, where he also won the 2008 Georgia Amateur Championship, and on the heels of an incredible 7-under-par 65 in Sunday’s second round. With torrential downpours hitting the state of Georgia, Monday’s third and final round was cancelled, awarding Henley medalist honors.

“I was pretty flawless,” Henley said of his lowest round as a Bulldog. “I think I missed one shot all day, and I got that one up and down from right of the green, so I hit every shot and every putt where I wanted to. It was just one of those rounds where everything kind of goes your way.”

Henley’s career round also propelled the Dogs’ score to the best team score of anyone in the tournament – a 9-under-par 279 – but Monday’s nasty weather conditions wouldn’t allow the Bulldogs to continue making up the needed ground from a poor opening round, finishing sixteen shots back of winner Augusta State in fourth place at 3-over-par for the tournament.

“The weather was so bad that there wasn’t really much of a chance to get out there,” Georgia coach Chris Haack said. “But at least we played really well in the second round and obviously Russell winning individuals was a nice feather in the cap.”

Another welcomed sign for Georgia this weekend was the improved play of redshirt freshman T.J. Mitchell, who fired a second-round 3-under-par 69, to secure solid scores from the 3-through-5 spots in its starting lineup.

“That was huge,” Haack said of Mitchell’s impressive second round. “What we’re looking for out of those guys is to try and keep it somewhere around even-par, and for him to shoot under-par, and even into the 60s, was a huge boost for the team. I think that is one of the reasons we ran up the scoreboard on Sunday because we’ve been getting it out of Harris and Russell, but we need that out of the bottom of the lineup.”