St. Simons Island, Ga. – Western Carolina sophomore Jace Butcher climbed three spots in the individual standings on Friday with a 1-under par 70 to enter Saturday's final round in a four-way tie for sixth place to lead the Catamounts at The Peoples Championship at the Sea Palms Resort. WCU slid into a tie for 15th after 36 holes, following up Thursday's round of 291 with 294 in Friday's second round, tied with UT-Martin at 585.
 
The final round gets underway at 8:30 a.m. on both the front and back nine on Saturday with both a team champion and individual medalist to be crowned by the end of the day. Live scoring through LeaderboardKing is available online through LeaderboardKing.com (click here).
 
Paired with golfers from Belmont and Marshall, WCU's scoring five tees off on the back nine in the afternoon wave beginning at 1:20 p.m. The four Catamount individuals open the final 18 holes on the back nine in the morning wave at 8:30 a.m.
 
Butcher had a relatively quiet second round on Friday, countering one bogey on the par-3, 198-yard 15th with a pair of birdies for his 1-under round of 70.  The Kennesaw, Ga., product had carded five birdies over the opening 36 holes of the tournament with just one bogey in two days, advancing from a ninth-place tie after the opening round.
 
Butcher leads the tournament field with 30 total pars through the 36 holes over the first two days of competition.
 
Behind Butcher for the Catamounts, Dalton Payne shot 5-over par 76 to slide into a tie for 82nd overall, while Chase Cline knocked five strokes off his first-round score to climb 19 positions into a tie for 87th among the tightly contested field. Cline is one of just 18 golfers in the field to post an eagle-or-better, doing so on Friday with an eagle on the par-5, 484-yard No. 4.
 
Rounding out the scoring five for WCU are Callum Waugh and Ivan Ninkovic in a tie for 95th with matching two-round scores of 152. Waugh was two strokes better on Friday than on the opening 18, shooting 75 over 77 in the first round.
 
For WCU's four individuals, Josh Lendach was among the biggest movers by trimming three strokes off his first-round score with a second-day 1-over par 72 to move into a tie for 60th at 5-over par, 147. The Raleigh, N.C., product had another busy round, carding six total birdies to give him a WCU-best 10 this week, tied for the eighth-most in the field. He is tied with teammate Michael Bevins who improved by a stroke on Friday (74-73).
 
Senior Kiefer Bulau is tied for 87th overall with a 36-hole score of 151, while Andrew Korytoski shot rounds of 76-78 for a 154, tied for 108th overall.
 
First-round leader UNC Greensboro lengthened its lead in the second round, carrying a 15-stroke lead over second place Villanova into the final round after the Wildcats climbed two spots on Friday. Thanks to a tournament-best 50 birdies, the Spartans lead the field with a 21-under par 547 with Villanova in the runner-up spot at 6-under par 562, three strokes clear of third-place Richmond (565). Drexel advanced three spots into fourth with a two-day total of 566, with Mount St. Mary's and Wright State tied for fifth entering the final round with matching 36-hole team scores of 568.
 
UNCG teammates Jake Lewis and Kelvin Hernandez sit tied atop the individual leaderboard after two days with identical scores of 9-under par 133, a stroke ahead of third-place Logan Lutz at 8-under, 134.
 
Tournament play concludes on Saturday with tee times beginning at 8:30 a.m. Live scoring is available online through LeaderboardKing.
 
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).
 
T15 – Western Carolina – 291 – 294 = 585
T6 – Jace Butcher – 68-70 = 138 (-4)
T82 – Dalton Payne – 74-76 = 150 (+8)
T87 – Chase Cline – 78-73 = 151 (+9)
T95 – Callum Waugh – 77-75 = 152 (+10)
T95 – Ivan Ninkovic – 72-80 = 152 (+10)
T60 – Josh Lendach (ind.) – 75-72 = 147 (+5)
T60 – Michael Bevins (ind.) – 74-73 = 147 (+5)
T87 – Kiefer Bulau (ind.) – 74-77 = 151 (+9)
T108 – Andrew Korytoski (ind.) – 76-78 = 154 (+12)