Spartanburg, S.C. – Sophomore transfer Ryan Thomas put the finishing touches on a 4-under par three-round 212 on Tuesday in climbing five spots into a fifth-place tie while graduate transfer Adam Hooker carded a team-best round of 4-under 68 over the final 18 holes to lead Western Carolina to a third-place finish at the inaugural Carolina Cup concluded at the par-72, 6,929-yard Carolina Country Club.
 
Posting his best finish as a Catamount, Thomas opened his final round with three birdies over his opening four holes and made the turn for home at 3-under par. Two bogeys on the par-5 13th and par-3 15th moved him back to 1-under before the Launceston, Tasmania, Australia, native birdied his final two holes for the 3-under par round and 4-under par tournament. Thomas finished the event with a team-high 14 birdies, tied for the fifth-most in the tournament field.
 
Redshirt junior Pablo Hernandez finished tied for 18th overall with a three-round score of 218 while graduate transfer Adam Hooker advanced a tournament-best 28 positions over the final round with a 4-under par 68. Hernandez finished with a three-round score of 2-over par 218 including a 75 on Tuesday. The Madrid, Spain, product carded three birdies and was even through 12 holes in the final round until three-consecutive bogeys between holes No. 14 and 16 left him at 3-over where he finished. Hooker had a tremendous final round, countering one bogey with 12 pars and five birdies to shoot a team-low 68, rallying into a tie for 20th.
 
Senior Magnus Pedersen slipped 11 spots into a five-way tie for 26th place overall at 4-over par 220 with fifth-year senior Louis Theys finishing tied for 34th at 222. Pedersen charted a pair of birdies over the final round to finish with 10 over the event, while Theys also carded two birdies in a final-round 76 to finish with nine birdies.
 
Playing unattached as an individual, WCU redshirt freshman Josh Lendach finished tied for 80th with a three-round score of 241. The Raleigh native shot 241, carding four birdies and a pair of eagles – both in Sunday's opening round.
 
UAB rallied from the runner-up spot after 36 holes, cruising to a 10-stroke team championship over Lipscomb, 844-to-854. The Blazers broke the previous tournament record-low 54-hole score. WCU carded an even-par 864 to finish third with SoCon-foe Mercer (868) and UCF (869) rounding out the top five teams.
 
Mercer's Tobias Jonsson posted a tournament-record three-round score of 12-under par 204, edging second-place Khavish Varadan (205) of UAB by one stroke.
 
Western Carolina returns to action this weekend in Raleigh at the Wolfpack Intercollegiate, a three-round tournament hosted by North Carolina State at the Lonnie Poole Golf Course. The tournament opens with 36 holes of continuous play on Saturday, Oct. 15, with the final round slated for Sunday, Oct. 16. Live scoring of each round is available online through GolfStat with a link on 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).
 
3 – Western Carolina – 290 – 286 – 288 = 864
T5 – Ryan Thomas – 73-70-69 = 212 (-4)
T18 – Pablo Hernandez – 71-72-75 = 218 (+2)
T20 – Adam Hooker – 75-76-68 = 219 (+3)
T26 – Magnus Pedersen – 72-72-76 = 220 (+4)
T34 – Louis Theys – 74-72-76 = 222 (+6)
T80 – Josh Lendach (ind.) – 77-80-84 = 241 (+25)