Cullowhee, N.C. – Western Carolina women's golf opens the spring portion of its 2021-22 schedule, traveling south to Panama City Beach, Fla., for the Lady Bison Classic at Bay Point hosted by Lipscomb. The 54-hole tournament will be played over two days, Feb. 7-8, at the Sheraton Panama City Beach (PCB) Golf & Spa Resort located on the Florida panhandle.
The opening event is the first of four tournaments in the spring ahead of the conference championship in mid-April.
In addition to the host Bison and WCU, the 15-team field includes fellow Southern Conference members Samford and Wofford. Rounding out the field are golfers from Appalachian State, Bellarmine, Belmont, Bucknell, Georgia State, Jacksonville, Jacksonville State, North Alabama, Southern Illinois, Troy, and USC Upstate.
Junior
Victoria Ladd leads the Catamount scoring five for the semester-opening event with sophomore
Trinity Ahing qualifying as the No. 2 seed. Senior
Madison Isaacson will play as the No. 3 with freshman
Elizabeth Lohbauer and redshirt freshman
Kayleigh Baker rounding out WCU's side.
Live scoring of the two-day tournament is available online through GolfStat.com with a link available at CatamountSports.com.
Western Carolina posted five, top 10 team finishes through the fall semester including four, top five showings as a squad. The Catamounts finished second in the Aggie Invitational match-play event hosted by N.C. A&T in early October, while also bookending the fall schedule with a pair of third-place finishes in the season-opening F&M Bank APSU Intercollegiate and fall-concluding French Broad Intercollegiate.
Lohbauer paced the Catamount scoring five through the fall, averaging 73.75 strokes over 12 rounds, ranking 12th in the Southern Conference in scoring. The Venice, Fla., native posted a pair of Top 10 finishes including placing in a tie for fourth in the season-opener. Isaacson closed the semester with a season-best third-place tie, matching Lohbauer with two top 10 finishes. The Greensboro, N.C., product was second on the squad with a 74.67 scoring average, 18th in the conference rankings.
WCU also returns
Victoria Ladd (74.89) and first-year strikers in freshmen
Kaitlyn Wingnean (75.89), sophomore
Trinity Ahing (77.50), and redshirt freshman
Kayleigh Baker (79.42), each seeing action in at least two events in the fall.
Following the spring-opening tournament in Florida, two events in March begin with the Oyster Shuck Match Play event hosted by SoCon-foe, The Citadel, at the Charleston Municipal Golf Course in Charleston, S.C., March 7-8. Two weeks later, the Catamounts return to the Gulf Coast for the Bama Beach Bash, hosted by the University of South Alabama in Gulf Shores, Ala. The three-day event will be hosted at the Gulf Shores Golf Club on March 20-22.
WCU's final tune-up before the conference championship comes at the Mimosa Hills Intercollegiate, hosted by rival Appalachian State April 4-5 at the Mimosa Hills Country Club in Morganton, N.C. This year marks the ninth time since helping co-found the event with App State back in 2009 that the Catamounts will participate in the tournament in the western North Carolina foothills.
The 2022 SoCon Women's Golf Championship has a new home for 2022 as the three-day, 54-hole championship event will be held at the Barefoot Resort & Golf – Dye Course in North Myrtle Beach, S.C., April 17-19, 2022.
Keep track of everything related to Catamount women's golf and WCU Athletics through its social media outlets on Facebook (fb.com/catamountsports), Instagram (@wcu_catamounts), and Twitter (@catamounts, @CatamountWGolf).
Western Carolina Women's Golf – Spring 2022 Schedule:
Feb. 7-8 - Lady Bison Classic at Bay Point – Sheraton PCB Golf Resort (Panama City Beach, Fla.)
March 7-8 - Oyster Shuck Match Play – Charleston Municipal GC (Charleston, S.C.)
March 20-22 - Bama Beach Bash – Gulf Shores GC (Gulf Shores, Ala.)
April 4-5 - Mimosa Hills Intercollegiate – Mimosa Hills CC (Morganton, N.C.)
April 17-19 - SoCon Championship – Barefoot Resort & Golf – Dye Course (North Myrtle Beach, S.C.
