Cullowhee, N.C. – Western Carolina men's golf senior Louis Theys is slated to represent his home country of Belgium in The 2021 Spirit International Amateur Golf Championship presented by The Will Erwin Headache Research Foundation (The Spirit). The Championship will be held Nov. 4-6 at the par-72, 7,485-yard Whispering Pines Golf Club in Trinity, Texas, bringing together the best men's and women's amateur golfers from 20 countries and four continents for three days of competition.
 
Theys is one of three men's golfers from the Southern Conference to be invited to compete in the international event. He is joined by Chattanooga's Paul Conroy (Ireland) and Mats Ege (Norway) of ETSU.
 
The 2021 Spirit features 80 competitors in a 54-hole, four-ball stroke play competition, with five concurrent competition categories: team competition (best three scores), women's team competition (combined women's player score), men's team competition (combined men's player scores), and both a women's and men's individual competition (total score over three rounds). Gold, silver, and bronze commemorative medals are awarded to the top finishers in each competition.
 
Live scoring for both the men's and women's competitions will be available online through GolfStat.
   
Theys is amidst his fourth season of competition for the Catamount men's golf team. The Villers-Perwin, Belgium, native will team with captain Leslie Cloots (Antwerp), who plays collegiately at North Carolina; Rebecca Becht (Brussels), who plays at Stanford; Elsie Verhoeven (Nethen), who plays at Old Dominion; and Matthis Besard (Oudenaarde), who plays collegiate golf at Southern Illinois.
 
Through 15 rounds this season, Theys has a scoring average of 74.33 including two rounds carded in the 60s, posting a career-low round of 65 in the second round of the 2021 JT Poston Invitational. For his career, he has a 75.22 scoring average over 82 career rounds. Off the course, Theys was listed as a recipient of a 2020-21 Academic Momentum Award as announced by the Scholar Baller program in conjunction with the Institute for Sport & Social Justice (ISSJ) back in May.
 
"What a great and deserved honor for Louis," said Catamount men's golf head coach Tim Eckberg. "He has represented WCU with class every step of the way throughout his career, and he will do the same at The Spirit, representing both his home country of Belgium and our men's golf program. It's special to see what's happening in this program – and he's a big part of it. This is another sign of where we are heading with WCU Golf being a part of this prestigious event."
 
Players in the tournament range from 16 to 24 years of age with 21 of the 80 ranking among the Top 100 in the world amateur golf rankings. A total of 73 golfers are currently or have competed collegiately in the United States and nine return from The 2019 Spirit.
 
"Every single one of our 80 participants has expressed how excited they are to have the opportunity to represent their country in competition," said Charlie Epps, The Spirit tournament director and president of the Spirit Golf Association. "Some of these players will experience international competition and team golf for the first time, but others have experienced it before and have joined our field because of how much they do enjoy it. We're looking forward to an incredible week at The Spirit."
 
The Spirit is described as a celebration of international goodwill through the game of golf and includes both an opening and closing ceremony, held Tues., Nov. 2 and scheduled for Sat., Nov. 6, respectively. Camp Olympia, one of the premier summer camps in the country, provides international village accommodations for the golfers.
 
The tournament will be held at the Whispering Pines Golf Club, which is widely recognized as the No. 1 golf course in the state of Texas. The beautiful, 18-hole Championship Golf Course is carved through piney woods, creeks, lakes, and natural dunes. It was originally designed in 1998 by Texas golf course architect Chet Williams with the Nicklaus Design Group. In December 2019, Williams returned for the course's construction during the end-of-season closure. The 2021 Spirit will be the first played on the updated layout.
 
Coverage of the championship will be available via live stream during competition on GolfChannel.com, the NBC Sports app, and on TheSpiritGolf.com. GOLF Channel will present the highlight show in primetime from 7-9 p.m. ET on Dec. 9, followed by an encore presentation on Dec. 11 from 4-6 p.m. The highlight show will be the first television presentation of The Spirit in its 20-year history.
 
"The Spirit is an incredible event that features the next generation of PGA and LPGA Tour standouts," said Andrea Starkey, VP of Partnerships and Programming, GOLF Channel. "We are proud to showcase this international competition on GOLF Channel, which will showcase nearly 100 hours of amateur and collegiate golf this fall."
 
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