Myrtle Beach, S.C. – Fifth-year senior Magnus Pederson advanced 10 positions on Tuesday by chipping two strokes off his opening-round 76, carding a 2-over par round of 74 over the second 18 holes to sit in a tie for 44th overall at the 2024 General Hackler Championship at the par-72, 7,233-yard Dunes Golf and Beach Club. WCU slipped into 13th place in the overall team standings through the day two competition.
 
Final round action gets underway at 8 a.m. with tee times off both the front and back nine. Paired with individuals and golfers from Charleston Southern, WCU's scoring five opens on the 10th tee beginning at 9:15 a.m. Live scoring through GolfStat is available online with a link at CatamountSports.com.
 
Pedersen overcame a 4-over par back nine by carding one of his three birdies against four bogeys on the opening nine holes on Tuesday. He finished the day at 2-under on the front nine with seven pars and two birdies in shooting two strokes better than his first day at 2-over par, 74.
 
Sophomore transfer Ivan Ninkovic shot 83 in the second round to slip into 69th overall at 155 (72-83), with redshirt junior Josh Lendach and redshirt senior Pablo Hernandez tied for 73rd with matching scores of 157. Junior Kiefer Bulau cut three strokes off his opening-round 81 by shooting 6-over par 78, in the clubhouse with a two-day score of 159.
 
Four of WCU's scoring five – Pedersen, Ninkovic, Hernandez, and Lendach – have each posted five birdies through the tournament's first 36 holes.
 
Tournament host Coastal Carolina charged seven positions over Tuesday's second 18 holes, shooting 8-under par 280 to hold a two-stroke lead over second-place Louisville, 574-to-576. ETSU sits in third place, three strokes off the pace at 577, with Furman (580) and College of Charleston (581) rounding out the Top Five.
 
Playing unattached as an individual, Furman's Clark Akers followed up his opening-round 69 with a 68 on Tuesday to climb four spots to the top of the leaderboard, carrying a two-stroke lead over second-place Max Kennedy of Louisville, 137-to-139. Coastal Carolina's Seth Taylor vaulted up the leaderboard with a second-round 67 to sit tied with Benjamin Partridge of San Francisco for third, three strokes in arrears entering Wednesday's final round.
 
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13 – Western Carolina – 299 – 315 = 614 (+38)
T44 – Magnus Pedersen – 76 – 74 = 150 (+6)
69 – Ivan Ninkovic – 72 – 83 = 155 (+11)
T73 – Pablo Hernandez – 74 – 83 = 157 (+13)
T73 – Josh Lendach – 77 – 80 = 157 (+13)
T77 – Kiefer Bulau – 81 – 78 = 159 (+15)