Cullowhee, N.C. – Western Carolina women's golf travels to coastal South Carolina this weekend to take part in one of – if not the – largest collegiate women's golf tournaments in the nation, the 2020 Kiawah Island Classic hosted by the College of Charleston. The 54-hole event will be played Sunday, March 1 through Tuesday, March 3, between the Osprey Point and Oak Point courses at the Kiawah Island Golf Resort.
 
Paced by sophomore Madison Isaacson – the squad's current leading scorer with a stroke average of 74.93, 13th in the Southern Conference – the Catamount scoring five includes freshman Victoria Ladd, juniors Maya White and Hazel Martin in the third and fifth seed, and senior Brianna Plummer playing as the No. 4. A third junior, Cameron Wood, will see action in just her second event of the season, unattached as an individual competitor.
 
"The team is very excited to head back to Kiawah this year. We didn't have our best performance in Florida earlier this month but they have been working hard on and off the course to get ready for this next tournament," said WCU head coach Courtney Gunter. "We feel comfortable on these Kiawah courses as we had a very successful team finish last year at this same event."
 
This year's Kiawah Island Classic has expanded from 48 teams a year ago, to 53 in this year's field. Two courses – the par-72, 5,984-yard Osprey Point and the par-72, 5,977-yard Oak Point course – will be used for the 54-hole team tournament. After 36 holes of play, the top 26 teams will play for the championship at Osprey Point in the final round while the remainder of the field will play for a flight championship at Oak Point. Last year, Coastal Carolina and North Florida were both crowned tournament champions with a three-round score of 865 (+1). Sydney Shrader of UNF was the individual medalist shooting 9-under par with rounds of 72, 68 and 67.

The shotgun start of the team tournament will go in two separate waves with a morning wave at 8:45 am and an afternoon wave at 1:30 pm on Sunday and Monday. Tuesday's final round is set to start at 8:45 am on both respective courses.
 
In addition to the host Cougars and the Catamounts, this year's team tournament includes 51 other schools: Alabama State, Austin Peay, Bethune-Cookman, Boston University, Bucknell, Charleston Southern, College of Charleston (A), College of Charleston (B), Dayton, Delaware, Elon, Fairfield, Fairleigh Dickinson, Florida Gulf Coast, Hampton, ­High Point, Hofstra, Indiana State, IUPUI, Jacksonville, Jacksonville State, James Madison, Lipscomb, Longwood, Merrimack College, Missouri State, Monmouth, Murray State, Navy, North Alabama, Oakland, Omaha, Oral Roberts, Presbyterian , Radford, Quinnipiac, Sacred Heart, Samford, SCAD – Savannah, Saint Francis, Stetson, Tennessee Tech, Towson, The Citadel, UT Arlington, UNC Asheville, UNCG, USC Upstate, Western Carolina, William & Mary, Winthrop, Wofford and Youngstown State
 
A separate, 16-golfer individual tournament will be contested on the par-72, 5,980-yard Cougar Point course and includes golfers from 14 schools including WCU's individual, Cameron Wood. The individual field includes two golfers from Boston University and Oakland, one from Delaware, Elon, James Madison, William & Mary, Fairfield, Indiana State, Longwood, Monmouth, Hofstra, Quinnipiac, and Towson.
 
Tee times for the individual tournament are set to begin at 12:10 pm on Sunday and 8:00 am both Monday and Tuesday.
 
Live scoring from the tournament every nine-holes is slated to be provided through GolfStat.com.