Cullowhee, N.C. – Coming off a season-best fourth-place finish at its home fall tournament, the JT Poston Invitational at the Waynesville Inn and Golf Club, the Western Carolina men's golf team returns to action with its first of two October dates on Sunday, traveling to the Carolina Country Club in Spartanburg, S.C., for The Johnson Group Carolina Cup, hosted by USC Upstate.
 
The three-day, 54-hole event is slated for Sunday, Oct. 6 through Tuesday, Oct. 8, with 18 holes scheduled for each day. Live scoring of each round will be available through the Scoreboard app powered by Clippd, the new official scoring for US College Golf.
 
In addition to the Catamounts and host Spartans, the eight-team field includes golfers from Charleston Southern, Lafayette College, Oakland, Tennessee Tech, Winthrop, and fellow Southern Conference competitor, Wofford.
 
The Catamounts return to the event for the first time since 2022 when the squad posted a podium finish in third place. Only one current golfer on the roster – redshirt junior Josh Lendach, who competed as an individual back in 2022 – remains on the WCU roster from that squad.
 
Leading WCU's scoring five is junior Ivan Ninkovic, who earned SoCon Men's Golfer of the Week honor back on Sept. 18, after matching his career-best finish with a seventh-place showing at the Poston Invitational. The Pula, Croatia, product is flanked by senior Kiefer Bulau, junior transfer Callum Waugh, sophomore Jace Bucher, and true freshman Chase Cline.
 
Lendach and a trio of sophomores Michael Bevins, Andrew Korytoski, and Dalton Payne are each playing unattached as individuals, vying for medalist honors.
 
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).