Cullowhee, N.C. – Western Carolina men's golf heads to the golf haven of St. Simons Island, Ga., this week to play host to The Peoples Championship at Sea Palms Resort. This year marks the fifth-straight season the Catamounts have hosted a tournament at the par-71, 6,664-yard coastal Georgia venue.
 
Named to honor and thank Peoples Golf for its continued support of the program, this year's highly anticipated tournament features 20 teams from 11 different states with 120 total men's golfers vying for the team championship and individual medalist honors.
 
The action gets underway with a tournament practice round on Wednesday, March 12, with the three-round, 54-hole event to be played over three days, March 13-15, with 18 holes per day. Each round will feature tee times off both the front and back nine, with both a morning and afternoon wave (subject to change based on weather and course conditions) for a true "Tour experience". Four rules officials are on site helping to heighten the prestige of this second-annual event.
 
Live scoring is available online through LeaderboardKing (leaderboardking.com).
 
Joining Western Carolina in this year's 20-team field are golfers from Belmont, Charleston Southern, Davidson (A&B teams), Drexel, Florida A&M, Francis Marion, Long Island, Marshall, Mount St. Mary's, Murray State, Richmond, Siena, Tennessee Tech, UNCG, UT-Martin, Villanova, Winthrop, Wright State, and Xavier.
 
This spring's 120-golfer field is the second largest in the brief history of the WCU-hosted tournament with two of the three previous team champions – Wright State (2022) and two-time defending champion Davidson (2023 & 2024) – in this year's field.
 
Jacksonville State edged Appalachian State to win the inaugural championship in March 2021 with Wright State cruising to an eight-stroke victory over Radford in the second installment of the tournament in March 2022. Davidson won by 13 strokes over the defending champion Wright State in the 2023 event before defending its championship a season ago in the rain-shortened event in the inaugural Peoples Championship at the Sea Palms Resort.
 
Playing at a par-71, 6,664-yard layout, the Sea Palms Resort (www.SeaPalms.com) is located on St. Simons Island, the largest barrier island of the Golden Isles in coastal Georgia. The island is located between Savannah, Ga., and Jacksonville, Fla., just outside the historic city of Brunswick and just north of Jekyll Island.
 
Originally opened in 1967, the golf course was originally designed by George Cobb and renovated in October 2019. The championship course is framed by live oaks and towering pine trees and is surrounded by the lagoons and salt marshes of the Golden Isles. The facility also includes a driving range and 'the Miracle' practice area.
 
The Peoples Golf Championship at Sea Palms Resort is again the second event WCU men's golf has hosted in the 2024-25 season, contesting the JT Poston Invitational for the first time at the renovated Waynesville Inn and Golf Club back in the fall. Since the COVID-19 altered 2020-21 season, WCU and the Sea Palms Resort have partnered for a spring tournament.
 
"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. "The father of one of my former players was 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. We cannot thank Clark Spratlin, the Director of Golf at Sea Palms, and his entire staff enough as they continue to go above and beyond to make this tournament a success."
 
Owned by Western Carolina alum Will Peoples, Peoples Golf (peoples.golf) furthered its relationship with Catamount men's golf with Eckberg and the program dubbing its spring event The Peoples Championship beginning in 2024. A year later, Peoples and his business, Peoples Golf, inked a five-year commitment to the WCU men's golf program. Founded in 2008, Peoples Golf, including The Peoples Clubs and Tour Stock Putters, 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.
 
"Will Peoples and Peoples Golf have been assisting our Catamount men's golf program over the past four years in any way that they've been able. But with the renewal of his gift to our program, he has taken that relationship to the next level," continued Eckberg. "The naming of our spring tournament in Georgia after Will and his business is another way of thanking him for his continued support and donations to Catamount golf, while also showcasing his company at the event for the players, coaches, and the St. Simons golf community. He and his business are committed to golf at the mid-major level."
 
Eckberg added, "Peoples Golf targets high-level golfers across the world by building clubs to specs that elite players play, as well as offering sales of specialty golf products from Scotty Cameron Circle T to Swag."
 
All nine of Western Carolina's rostered golfers will be in action with five competing together for the team championship and four competing as WCU's 'B' team, essentially as individuals.
 
Junior transfer Callum Waugh leads WCU into the week as the No. 1 seed, coming on the heels of his WCU-best finish in a fourth-place tie at the Gulf Coast Collegiate in New Orleans. A product of Glasgow, Scotland, Waugh shot 2-under par 214 including his second-lowest round of the season at 2-under par 70 in guiding the Catamounts to a third-place finish. Waugh leads WCU in 14th in the SoCon in scoring average at  72.80.
 
Freshman teammate Chase Cline flanks Waugh, one spot just behind in 15th in the conference in stroke average at 72.83. Cline is the highest-ranking freshman on the league's scoring average charts and boasts a pair of Top 10 finishes entering the week. Junior Ivan Ninkovic – a teammate of Waugh at Lindsey Wilson College – is WCU's third seed with a stroke average of 74.06, 26th in the SoCon. Ninkovic finished tied for 12th at the same event a season ago at 1-under par 141 after rain washed out the final 18 holes.
 
Rounding out WCU's scoring five that was set through team qualifying are sophomores Jace Butcher (74.11) and Dalton Payne (73.50). Butcher is tied for 27th in the SoCon in scoring average, while Payne joins WCU's scoring five for the first time this season after competing in three events, each unattached as an individual.
 
Four Catamounts will compete unattached as individuals, comprising WCU's "B" team entered in the event. Senior Kiefer Bulau (75.06) leads the quartet, followed by Andrew Korytoski (76.22), Josh Lendach (79.50), and Michael Bevins (77.36). Bulau came home in a three-way tie for ninth at last year's rain-shortened Peoples Championship with a two-day total of 2-under par 140 as all four of WCU's unattached golfers played the St. Simons Island, Ga., course last spring.
 
Complete recaps from the The Peoples Golf Championship at Sea Palms Resort will be made available online at CatamountSports.com following each round. Live scoring each day is available through Leaderboard Kings (leaderboardkings.com).
 
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).