For most of the final round of the Yamaha Georgia Women’s Open, tournament contenders Emilie Burger and Margaret Shirley shared plenty of laughs as they tooled around Canongate’s SummerGrove GC.

The pairing was a potentially awkward one, as Burger, who led the 36-hole event after a first round 67, plays on the UGA golf team, with Shirley, who opened with a 69, serving as the team’s assistant coach.

For 15 holes, the mood was consistently jovial, as Burger maintained a small but consistent lead and Shirley emerged as the soon-to-be Georgia sophomore’s most serious contender.

All that changed when Burger suffered her first slip of the day at the 16^th hole, three-putting from around 5 feet for a double bogey that reduced her lead to one stroke.

Shirley, who won the tournament in 2006 and ’08, birdied the 17^th to pull even with Burger going to the final hole. But she narrowly missed a short par putt after a poor drive left her with about 100 yards for her third shot on SummerGrove’s demanding par-4 finishing hole.

“We had a lot of fun,” Shirley said of her pairing with Burger. “We were joking around all day.”

There weren’t any jokes as the two players walked to the 17^th tee, and Shirley intentionally avoided eye contact with the steaming Burger.

With a seemingly comfortable victory suddenly in doubt, Burger quickly composed herself and played the final two holes as if her near meltdown had never occurred. She carded a solid par at the 17^th while Shirley rolled in her birdie putt to pull even. But the momentum swung back in Burger’s direction after Shirley’s drive at 18 caught a fairway bunker.

Burger responded by striping her tee shot so accurately that she had to remove the 150-yard post to hit her approach. She landed her second shot about 10 feet above the hole, and barely missed her birdie try. With a chance to send the tournament to a playoff, Shirley’s putt of maybe 6 feet slid just below the cup, leaving Burger with a tap-in for the victory.

Burger put together scores of 67 and 72 for a 5-under 139 total, with Shirley second at 140 after rounds of 69 and 71. Defending champion Mariah Stackhouse of Riverdale was third at 141 (69-72), with Carmen Bandea (72-70) and Lacey Agnew (70-72) tying for fourth at 142 and sharing low pro honors. Duluth’s Kendall Wright, Burger’s teammate on the Georgia golf team, also tied for fourth at 142 (69-73).

Burger, who lives in the east Gwinnett community of Hoschton, took control of the tournament with her opening 67 that was highlighted by a hole-out for eagle on the par-5 11^th.

“I played well,” Burger said of her opening 67. “I made a lot of putts. Everything seemed to be going in. And I got a little help from the golf gods when I holed out for eagle on 11.”

Finding herself in the unusual position of leading going to the final round, Burger admitted she was “a little nervous. I’d rather be one of those players trying to come back and win.”

Burger calmly protected her lead for 15 holes, beginning with a birdie on SummerGrove’s opener. A bogey on the sixth hole, which was more a product of a bad break on her approach shot, was the only stain on her scorecard. She hit it close for birdie on the short, par-4 12^th and reached the par-5 14^th in two for another birdie to take a three-stroke lead into the closing holes.

An excellent two-putt from below the sizeable ridge on the 15^th green preserved her three-stroke lead, and she was in position for another par save after missing the green at the 16^th.

“After I missed the first putt I was thinking about it. I thought I made a good putt on the second one, but it didn’t go in. Maybe I let my guard down.

“It shows you can’t get rattled when you have a chance to win. It was a good learning experience about staying in the present.”

Burger, who earned honorable mention All-America honors after a solid freshman season on the Georgia women’s team, recently made her third appearance in a USGA event, competing in the Women’s Public Links Championship. She played in the Girls Championship in 2008 and the Women’s Amateur last year. She tied for 7^th in last year’s Georgia Women’s Open, sharing that spot with Shirley.

“Margaret and I play together all the time. It was very relaxing playing with her in the tournament.”

Shirley, who has been a consistent contender in the tournament going back to her days as a junior golfer, carded five birdies in her 71, but also had four bogeys, the costliest coming on the final hole.

“I had a lot of fun,” she said. “At least until I hit as bad a drive as I could hit at 18. I laid up to a perfect yardage and hit a really good shot in there, but I just missed the putt.”

Although Shirley was disappointed that she didn’t add a third Georgia Women’s Open title to her resume, she said she was “happy for Emilie. I hope she can represent Georgia like that.”

Shirley enjoyed a successful college career at Auburn and played briefly as a professional, winning a few mini-tour events in Florida, before becoming an assistant coach at Georgia and regaining her amateur status.

Her duties as assistant coach take up most of her time, but Shirley has managed to keep her game sharp enough to give one of her team’s best players a run for her money.

Stackhouse, the state’s top girls junior, shot herself out of contention with two bogeys on the front nine, and like several other contenders, failed to fully capitalize on her birdie opportunities. A birdie on the 18^th gave her outright third place.

Wright, who tied for 3^rd last year, also fell off the pace on the front nine, taking a double bogey on the short but perilous par-4 fifth hole. She rebounded with four birdies, but offset them with three bogeys.

Bandea, who plays on the Futures Tour, was the hot player for most of the day, shooting 4-under 32 on the front nine while none of the other eight players who shot par or better the first day broke par in the second round on the outgoing nine. A long birdie putt at the difficult par-4 ninth pulled Bandea within one shot of the lead, but she missed a string of short birdie putts early on the back nine. She pulled her tee shot into the hazard left of the 15^th green and took a double bogey, but closed with a birdie to finish at 2-under, which led the pros at the time.

It was the fifth straight top-10 finish in the Georgia Women’s Open for Bandea, who lost in a playoff in 2007.

Agnew, who recently completed her college career at Florida State, was playing in just her second tournament as a professional. She birdied four of the last eight holes to shoot 3-under on the back nine, with her final birdie coming at the 18^th and earning her a tie for low professional with Bandea. Both players took home $875, with Newnan’s Jackie Szymoniak, last year’s low pro and overall runner-up, third among the pros at 147.

Amateurs Yugene Lee of Athens and Laura Coble of Augusta, who won the tournament at SummerGrove in 2004, tied for seventh at 143, with Michelle Griffith of LaGrange ninth at 144. Szymoniak was 10^th overall.

Although the field featured a strong amateur contingent, only seven pros entered, with several long-time participants not competing.

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