Cullowhee, N.C. – Western Carolina sophomore Dalton Payne carded the lowest score of Sunday's final round of the App State Individual to claim medalist honors to highlight the split-squad action on the final weekend of the Catamounts' fall schedule. Payne carded a 36-hole score of 145 to pace the 29-golfer field as WCU's highest finisher of four entries.
 
Meanwhile in Greenville, S.C. at the Furman Intercollegiate, the Catamount scoring five posted its lowest team score of 288 to cut into its day one deficit but were unable to advance, finishing 15th overall just a stroke behind 14th-place Gardner-Webb.
 
Payne wasn't the only Catamount to hoist golf hardware on Sunday. WCU alum JT Poston capped the weekend with a triumphant return to the links by winning the Shriners Children's Open at TPC Summerlin in Las Vegas, Nev., sinking a four-foot putt on hole No. 72 to secure the one-stroke victory. The win was the third of Poston's PGA TOUR career, securing his spot in The Masters next spring where he'll make his third-straight appearance.
 

Tied for sixth after Saturday's opening round at the Cedar Rock Country Club, WCU's Payne climbed five spots over the final 18 holes as the only golfer in the field to shoot under par with a final-round 2-under par 70 to edge UNCG's Keenan Royalty (72-74=146) by a stroke.
 
Opening on the back nine, Payne birdied three of his first five holes of the day before countering a pair of bogeys with a fourth birdie to make the turn for home at 2-under. The second-year striker from Estero, Fla., balanced a pair of bogeys with two birdies on the front to finish the day at 70. Payne claimed the top prize in just his third tournament of the fall, improving his career-best finish by 20 spots after placing in a tie for 21st at the Johnson Group Carolina Cup earlier this year.
 
Rounding out WCU's four individual competitors were senior Kiefer Bulau in a tie for 14th with a two-round score of 156, followed by sophomore Michael Bevins in an 18th-place tie (159) and redshirt junior Josh Lendach in a tie for 24th (167).
 
Payne fended off UNCG's Royalty and a three-way tie for third between a second Spartan in Liam Percy, Davidson's Adam Lauer, and Morgan Cain of Lincoln Memorial who each were two strokes off the pace with matching scores of 147.
 
App State Individual – Cedar Rock CC
Final Results – Lenoir, N.C.
1 – Dalton Payne – 75-70 = 145 (+1)
T14 -  Kiefer Bulau – 77-79 = 156 (+12)
T18 – Michael Bevins – 79-80 = 159 (+15)
T24 – Josh Lendach – 81-86 = 167 (+23)
 
At the 54th Annual Furman Intercollegiate in Greenville, S.C., Western Carolina's lineup was 11 strokes better than its lowest score on Saturday, shooting 288 Sunday to finish with a three-round score of 888 as the Catamounts were unable to advance from their standing through round two.
 
Three of WCU's scoring five advanced their positions in Sunday's final round. Junior Ivan Ninkovic was the team's biggest gainer, climbing 17 spots into a tie that included teammate Callum Waugh who slid 12 spots into 67th place. Freshman Chase Cline moved up two spots into a tie for 74th with his best round of the weekend at 3-over par 74, while sophomore Jace Butcher moved up five positions, also shooting 74 on Sunday.
 
Ninkovic birdied three of his first six holes to start the final day, turning for home at 1-under par after posting bogeys on No. 17 and 18. He was strong down the home stretch, though, posting seven pars and two additional birdies for his 3-under par round score of 68.
 
The squad's second-round leader Andrew Korytoski fired a 1-over par 72 over the final 18 holes but slipped 10 spots in the final standings to come home tied for 33rd. For the event, Korytoski his three-round career-low of 216 that was 3-over on the par-71 course.
 
Korytoski led the Catamounts with nine birdies – two in the first round, five in the second, and two on Sunday. Waugh was right behind him with eight total birdies, carding five in round one, 1 in the second, and two over the final 18 holes. Ninkovic was third with six total, five of which came on Sunday afternoon.
 
No. 27 Texas A&M finished both days atop the team leaderboard, carrying home the hardware after fighting off the host Paladins by two strokes, 829-to-831. The Aggies were one stroke better than Furman on Sunday to lengthen their winning advantage, while No. 34 Wake Forest climbed to the second runner-up spot to complete the podium with a 54-hole score of 833. Richmond (859) charged five positions on Sunday to finish fourth with Western Kentucky (860) rounding out the Top Five.
 
Wake Forest's Scotty Kennon (202) carded a final-round 66 to claim individual medalist honors by three strokes over second-round leader Phichaksn Maichon of Texas A&M who was the runner-up with a three-round score of 205. His Aggie teammate Aaron Pounds completed the podium with a third-place showing, four strokes off the pace at 206.
 
Furman Intercollegiate:
Final Results – Greenville, S.C.
15 – Western Carolina – 299 – 301 – 288 = 888 (+36)
T33 – Andrew Korytoski – 74-70-72 = 216 (+3)
T67 – Ivan Ninkovic – 79-77-68 = 224 (+11)
T67 – Callum Waugh – 72-76-76 = 224 (+11)
T74– Chase Cline – 75-78-74 = 227 (+14)
T79 – Jace Butcher – 78-78-74 = 230 (+17)
 
Western Carolina has exhausted the fall portion of its 2024-25 schedule after splitting the roster this weekend. The Catamounts open a busy spring in February with an international trip to Playa Del Carmen, Mexico, for the Los Vaqueros Intercollegiate, hosted by Texas-Rio Grand Valley on Feb. 2-4, 2025. The spring includes a pair of tournaments in February before hosting the Peoples Golf Championship at the Sea Palms Resort in mid-March. The six-event semester concludes with the 2025 SoCon Men's Golf Championship back at the Reynolds Lake Oconee in Greensboro, Ga., April 20-22, 2025.
 
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