Men's Golf Quest for 2024 SoCon Championship Opens Sunday - Western Carolina University (2024)

Three-day, 54-hole champion-crowning event set for Reynolds Lake Oconee

Cullowhee, N.C. – Western Carolina men's golf opens its quest for a conference championship on Sunday as the 54-hole 2024 Southern Conference Men's Golf Championship opens on the par-72, 7,393-yard Oconee Course at the Reynolds Lake Oconee. The three-round event opens with an 18-hole round on Sunday, April 21, and concludes Tuesday, April 23.

The league's eight teams – Chattanooga, ETSU, Furman, UNCG, Mercer, Samford, WCU, and Wofford – compete for the SoCon tournament title and the automatic bid to the NCAA regional field. The individual medalist if not on the championship-winning team will also earn an automatic regional qualification.

Paired with golfers from Mercer, WCU's scoring five hits the course on the back nine between 12:40 p.m. and 1:20 p.m. Live scoring of the tournament through GolfStat isavailable online through a linkat CatamountSports.com andSoConSports.com.

The tournament is open to the public and admission is free. Spectator golf carts will not be available on Sunday or Tuesday because of additional play before/after the tournament. On Monday, spectator carts will be allowed for those with a valid handicap stickerfor $28. It's the fourth straight year that the men's tournament has been contested at the Reynolds Lake Oconee in Greensboro, Ga., which is approximately 90 minutes east of Atlanta, an hour and a half west of Augusta, Ga., and roughly 45 minutes south of Athens, Ga.

The Catamounts look to build upon last year's fourth-place finish – WCU's third-straight Top Four finish at the champion-crowning event that includes a runner-up showing three years ago in 2021 that matched the program's best finish from 1986. Over the past three championship events at Reynolds Lake Oconee, WCU has recorded its lowest three scores in the conference event in program history.

Guiding Western Carolina's scoring five into the weekend is fifth-year senior Magnus Pedersen. The Moss, Norway, product enters his final conference championship event tied for seventh in the conference in scoring at 71.50. Pedersen posted two Top 10 finishes this season including a season-best third-place showing in the season-opening Golfweek Fall Challenge. Eight of his 26 total rounds were carded in the 60s this season.

Pedersen is flanked by redshirt senior Pablo Hernandez as the No. 2 seed and sophom*ore transfer Ivan Ninkovic as the third seed. Hernandez has a seasonal stroke average of 72.31 with Ninkovic posting a scoring average of 72.27 as the duo rank 16th and 15th, respectively, in the SoCon.

A product of Madrid, Spain, Hernandez carded seven rounds in the 60s and turned in four Top 10 individual finishes in 2023-24 including a fifth-place showing at the season-opener. He enters the conference championship after a team-best eighth-place finish at the Wofford Invitational. Ninvkovic closed the season second on the WCU team in scoring average, posting a season-best finish in a seventh-place tie in the first event of the season.

Rounding out WCU's scoring five are a pair of freshmen making their first appearances in the conference championship. Jace Butcher (73.96) and Andrew Korytoski (74.04). Butcher tallied a pair of Top 20 finishes in his rookie season with seven rounds shot at 72 or better including three in the 60s. Korytoski likewise carded 72 or better in seven rounds including a career-low 69 at the fall-ending Furman Intercollegiate.

Entering the conference championship event, the top four teams in the SoCon each rank inside the national Top 100 including three inside the Top 50. ETSU, which also paces the conference with a team stroke average of 282.24, ranks a league-high 20th in the April 18 Clippd ratings. UNCG (40) and Chattanooga (43) are among the Top 50 with Furman (83) giving the SoCon a fourth in the Top 100. Western Carolina enters the weekend ranked fifth in the SoCon in both Clippd ranking at 162 and in seasonal scoring average at 288.54.

Mercer tips the scales at 163, just behind the Catamounts and sixth in the conference. Wofford (174) and Samford (205) round out the eight league teams in the national rankings.

Five of the eight teams in the SoCon have recorded at least one, stroke-play victory with WCU tallying a match-play win to accompany a pair of podium finishes including a runner-up showing at the Phoenix Invitational and a third-place finish at the season-opening Golfweek Fall Challenge. The Catamounts have six Top 10 team finishes overall.

With a storied history, the SoCon Men's Golf Championship dates to 1930 with Alabama winning the first contested team championship. ETSU has won five of the last seven team championships dating back to 2015 with the 2020 event not contested due to COVID-19. UNCG claimed consecutive titles in 2018 and 2019.

All told, ETSU owns 23 SoCon team titles including last year's five-stroke victory over Chattanooga, while Furman has 13 and Chattanooga has six to its credit. Furman's last was in 2010 and Chattanooga claimed consecutive titles in 2012 and 2013. The Buccaneers have a league-best 18 individual medalists to its credit, followed closely by Furman with 14. Western Carolina has had five, while UNCG, Chattanooga, and Wofford claim two each.

WCU's five individual medalists include Kelly Leonhardt (1987), Bruce Kullman (1991), Matt Cook (twice; 2006, 2008), and JT Poston (twice; 2014, 2015).

Complete results of the 2024SoCon Men's Golf Championship will be made available after play concludes through SoConSports.com and CatamountSports.com.

Keep track of everything related to Catamount men's golf and WCU Athletics through its social media outlets on Facebook (fb.com/catamountsports), Instagram (@wcu_catamounts), and Twitter (@catamounts, @CatamountMGolf).