Cullowhee, N.C. – Western Carolina men's golf opens its six-event spring schedule this Monday and Tuesday, returning to Laredo, Texas, for the second time in as many years to compete in the Border Olympics University Golf Tournament, hosted by the University of Houston at the par-72, 7,375-yard Laredo Country Club.
 
The spring-opening, 54-hole event will be played over two days with 36 holes of continuous play on Monday (Feb. 19) followed by the final round on Tuesday, Feb. 20. Live scoring for each round will be available on SmartGolf.
 
"We are excited to kick off the spring season back in Laredo, Texas," said WCU head coach Tim Eckberg. "It's been a fun month of preparations in getting ready. This whole squad has worked incredibly hard this spring and I feel that it's going to show throughout this spring season.
 
In addition to the Catamounts and the host Cougars, this year's 17-team field includes golfers from Abilene Christian, Bowling Green, Houston Christian, Illinois State, Lamar, Lipscomb, Miami (Ohio), Michigan, New Mexico State, North Texas, Rice, Sam Houston, Troy, ULM, and Wright State.
 
Seven of the Top 10 finishing teams from a season ago are slated to be on hand at this year's event as Houston finished as the runner-up last year. Michigan was third and ULM fourth as three of the Top Five schools are back this year, with Wright State (6th), Sam Houston (8th), New Mexico State (9th) and Rice (10th) as the others. WCU finished tied for 14th with Miami (Ohio) at last year's event with a three-round score of 910.
 
Fifth-year senior Magnus Pedersen leads Western Carolina's scoring five this week, flanked by sophomore transfer Ivan Ninkovic and redshirt senior Pablo Hernandez. Pedersen led the Catamounts through 15 rounds in the fall with a 69.93 stroke average – fourth-best in the Southern Conference. He posted a third-place showing at the Golfweek Fall Challenge, earning SoCon Player of the Week plaudits. Both Ninkovic (71.27) and Hernandez (71.67) finished the fall with stroke averages under 72 and both with at least one Top 10 individual finish – Hernandez with two.
 
Rounding out WCU's lineup are freshmen Jace Butcher and Andrew Korytoski who both averaged 73.53 over 15 rounds in the fall.
 
"I love the course and the event," said Eckberg about the Border Olympics at the Laredo Country Club. "We are all ready to have another crack at it knowing the course a little better and how it plays."
 
Looking back to the fall semester, WCU posted three Top 10 finishes including a pair of podium finishes. Led by fifth-year senior Magnus Pedersen finishing amidst a two-way tie for third place, the Catamounts opened the fall with a third-place team finish at the Golfweek Fall Challenge. The squad carded a school-record-low round of 266 in the second round on Pawley's Island, S.C. Pedersen collected SoCon Men's Golfer of the Week honors following the season-opening tournament, his second career honor.
 
Redshirt senior Pablo Hernandez guided the Catamounts to a runner-up finish at Elon's Phoenix Invitational in mid-October, the team's best finish since September 2022 with a second place at its home event, the JT Poston Invitational.
WCU's spring semester opens with a competition at the Border Olympics University Golf Tournament on Feb. 19-20.
 
The squad's first of three events in March open with the Catamounts hosting their second event of the year, returning to the Sea Palms Resort in St. Simons Island, Ga., for a fourth-consecutive year. This year's tournament is sponsored by Peoples Golf and dubbed the Peoples Golf Championship at Sea Palms Resort. The highly anticipated event plays out at 54 holes over three days, March 7-9.
 
Owned by WCU alum Will Peoples, Peoples Golf furthered its relationship with Catamount men's golf by sponsoring the spring tournament beginning in 2024. Founded in 2008, Peoples Clubs is a full-service online golf store specializing in custom-built tour-issue clubs. Will Peoples was an avid golfer growing up and turned his passion into a business.
 
"During the COVID pandemic, the fall season for most teams was canceled in 2020. With play returning in the spring of 2021, everyone was looking for extra events to play in to pack their spring season as full as they could. I saw this as an opportunity," said WCU head coach Tim Eckberg. "One of my former player's dads was a part of a group that had taken over management of Sea Palms Resort. A couple of years prior I had visited and played and loved every bit of it."
 
Eckberg continued, "Through that continued relationship – and when the thought came to host a spring event – we put something together very fast, hoping to get 6-to-8 teams -- we got 17. They all loved the experience, the golf course, the resort, and of course, St. Simon's Island. Virtually overnight we had a massively successful tournament that I'm proud to continue to host for teams from all over the country."
 
Three different teams have won the first three WCU-hosted tournaments at the Sea Palms Resort including Jacksonville State in 2021, Wright State in 2022, and Davidson last year. This season marks the first that teams will compete for The Peoples Golf Championship.
 
WCU's March schedule continues with a venture up the coastline for the General Jim Hackler Championship in Myrtle Beach, S.C., hosted by Coastal Carolina at The Dunes Golf and Beach Club March 18-20. The month concludes with WCU's first appearance in the Sweetens Cove Intercollegiate in Pittsburg, Tenn., hosted by Miami (Ohio) on March 25-26. The two-day match-play event is slated for the Sweetens Cove Golf Club, a venue located between Chattanooga and Nashville that is part-owned by Peyton Manning.
 
In the penultimate event of the regular season, the Catamounts return to the upstate of South Carolina for the Wofford Intercollegiate, April 15-16. Last year, WCU posted its best finish of the spring with a fifth-place showing after sitting in the runner-up spot through 36 of the 54 holes of the event hosted by its SoCon rival.
 
Riding the momentum of top-four finishes over the past three seasons including a runner-up showing in 2021 and consecutive fourth-place finishes the past two years, WCU heads to the 2024 SoCon Men's Golf Championship for the three-round, 54-hole champion-crowning event. The team champion garners the league's automatic bid to the NCAA postseason.
 
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).