Pawleys Island, S.C. – Each member of the Western Carolina men's golf scoring five carded rounds under par on Monday with the four that counted each posting rounds in the 60s as the Catamounts carded a single-round, school record-low with a team score of 22-under par 266 to climb two spots into a two-way tie for second entering the final round at the Golfweek Fall Challenge.
Western Carolina enters Tuesday's final 18 holes tied with Loyola Marymount with matching scores of 545, two strokes in arrears of second-round leader Washington State at 543.
The final round at the par-72, 6,988-yard True Blue Golf Club is scheduled for Tuesday morning with tee times beginning at 7:30 a.m. Paired with the other two squads in the top three, WCU's scoring five hits the course on the front nine beginning at 9 a.m. Live scoring of the final round is available online through GolfStat.
Fifth-year senior
Magnus Pedersen and redshirt senior
Pablo Hernandez pace the Catamounts through 36 holes with matching scores of 11-under par 133 which places them in a tie for third just three strokes off the individual leader. Pedersen followed his career-low round of 66 on Sunday with a 5-under par 67 Monday, while Hernandez fired the second-best round of the tournament with a career-low 65 to advance three positions.
Pedersen played his way to 8-under par through 14 holes on Monday but was relegated to 5-under with bogeys on three of his final four holes. The Moss, Norway, product turned in seven birdies and an eagle on the par-5, 548-yard ninth before making the turn. Hernandez birdied nine of his 18 holes Monday to counter a pair of bogeys in shooting a career-best 7-under par.
Sophomore transfer
Ivan Ninkovic was among the biggest movers in the second round, advancing 33 spots with his WCU-best round of 6-under par 66 into a four-way tie for 14th. The Pula, Croatia, native posted a bogey-free round with 12 pars and six birdies.
Rounding out WCU's scoring five are freshmen
Jace Butcher in a tie for 30th and
Andrew Korytoski in a tie for 61st overall. Butcher advanced 25 positions, countering one bogey with five pars in his best round as a collegian. Korytoski moved up seven spots with a 1-under par 71, posting 13 pars, three birdies and two bogeys.
Playing unattached as an individual,
Dalton Payne is in 79th overall, shooting 81 Monday for a two-round score of 156.
Thomas Schmidt of Arkansas State leads the 80-golfer field by two strokes, carding rounds of 66, and a tournament-low 64 for a two-day total of 130. Washington State's Pono Yanagi is second at 132 (66-66), just ahead of the three-way tie for third that includes WCU's Hernandez and Pedersen.
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T2 – Western Carolina – 279 – 266 = 545
T3 –
Magnus Pedersen (1) – 66 – 67 = 133
T3 –
Pablo Hernandez (2) – 68 – 65 = 133
T14 –
Ivan Ninkovic (3) – 72 – 66 = 138
T30 –
Jace Butcher (5) – 73 – 68 = 141
T61 –
Andrew Korytoski (4) – 75 – 71 = 146
79 –
Dalton Payne (individual) – 75 – 81 = 156