Ooltewah, Tenn. – Tenth after the first 18 holes of the amended 2020 fall season, the Western Carolina men's golf team rebounded to ninth after the second round at the season-opening Scenic City Collegiate, hosted by Chattanooga at The Honors Course. The Catamounts countered a first-round team score of 324 with a 305 in the second round for a two-round score of 629 on the par-72, 7,263-yard layout.
 
Sophomore Pierre Viallaneix paced the Catamounts on Monday, following an opening-round 90 with a 4-over par 76 to sit in a tie for 31st overall at 156. Junior Louis Theys carded a team-low round of 2-over par 74 in the second round
 
WCU and fellow Southern Conference member, ETSU, in a tie for third both had the biggest improvement from the first to the second round, trimming 19 strokes off their first team score of 2020.
 
Viallaneix led WCU with a team-best 23 pars, tied for the sixth-best among the 63 golfer field. He added three birdies on Monday. Freshman Presten Richardson posted rounds of 82 and 77 in his first collegiate event, entering Tuesday's final round tied for 41st overall while sophomore Magnus Pedersen is two spots in arrears in 43rd with a two-round score of 160 (82-78). Like Viallaneix, both Richardson and Pedersen finished with three birdies in Monday's rounds.
 
Rounding out WCU's six golfers are juniors Tumi Kúld (t-47th, 162) and Louis Theys (T-49th, 163) with senior Michael Coe 61st with a score of 174. Theys, who climbed a dozen spots up the leaderboard in the second round, led WCU with four birdies including three in the second round alone, while Kúld charted a trio of birdies.
 
Ben Rebne of NAIA-member Dalton State holds a one-stroke lead over Chattanooga's A.J. Lintunen, 142-to-143, with one round to play. Rebne jumped two spots to sit atop the leaderboard while Lintunen climbed five spots into the runner-up spot with 18 to play.
 
Tuesday's final round is slated to open with tee times off both the first and 10th tees beginning at 8:00 am with live coverage from the 18th hole on ESPN3 scheduled to begin at 12:30 pm. The broadcast is slated to have access to both the par-3 No. 16 and the tee box on No. 17. WCU's six scorers will tee-off on the back nine beginning at 8:33 am.
 
Live scoring of the complete third round is also available online at GolfStat.com.
 
 
T1 – Little Rock – 298-293 = 591 (+16)
T1 – UAB – 296-295 = 591 (+15)
T3 – ETSU – 306-287 = 594 (+18)
T3 – Middle Tennessee – 299-295 = 594 (+18)
5 – Chattanooga – 308-290 = 598 (+25)
6 – Georgia Southern – 304-297 = 601 (+25)
7 – Dalton State – 307-302 = 609 (+33)
8 – Central Arkansas – 311-300 = 611 (+35)
9 – Western Carolina – 324-305 = 629 (+53)
10 – Mercer – 323-318 = 641 (+65)
 
9 – Western Carolina – 324-305 = 629 (+53)
T31 – Pierre Viallaneix – 80-76 = 156 (+12)
T41 – Presten Richardson – 82-77 = 159 (+15)
43 – Magnus Pedersen – 82-78 = 160 (+16)
T47 – Tumi Kúld – 80-82 = 162 (+18)
T49 – Louis Theys – 89-74 = 163 (+19)
61 – Michael Coe – 89-85 = 174 (+30)