Cullowhee, N.C. – Western Carolina men's golf opens play at the 2025 Southern Conference Men's Golf Championship on Sunday, April 20, through Tuesday, April 22, on The Oconee Course at Reynolds Lake Oconee in Greensboro, Ga. This season marks the fifth straight year that the conference-crowning event will be played at the par-72, 7,231-yard course.
 
The league's eight teams – ETSU, Furman, Mercer, UNC Greensboro, Samford, Chattanooga, Western Carolina and Wofford – will be competing for the SoCon tournament title and an automatic bid to the NCAA Regionals. The individual medalist will also earn an automatic regional qualification if he is not on the winning team.
 
The tournament will be played with a traditional format of one round a day over three days. The tournament tees off with twosomes at 12:40 p.m. Sunday. WCU's scoring five is paired with Mercer on Sunday, hitting the course on the back nine beginning at 1:30 p.m. Live stats can be found here.
 
Western Carolina's scoring five is led by junior Ivan Ninkovic, who ranks third on the team with a seasonal stroke average of 73.56 – 21st in the SoCon. The Pula, Croatia, product had two Top 10 finishes with a seventh-place tie at the JT Poston Invitational and, most recently, a fourth-place showing at the Rutherford Intercollegiate.
 
True freshman Chase Cline enters his first conference championship tournament leading WCU with a seasonal scoring average of 72.96, 13th in the SoCon. He is also ranked second among all conference freshmen in scoring, trailing only UNCG's Jake Lewis (72.55). Cline has a pair of Top 10 showings, including a career-best runner-up finish at the Los Vaqueros Intercollegiate to open the spring semester.
 
Junior transfer Callum Waugh will lineup as WCU's No. 3 seed, shooting 73.29 over 21 seasonal rounds, 19th in the conference rankings. He, too, has a pair of top finishes, including a season-best fourth-place finish at the Gulf Coast Collegiate.
 
Rounding out WCU's scoring five are sophomore Jace Butcher (73.59, 22nd) and classmate Andrew Korytoski (75.67, 49th). Butcher's best seasonal finish was in a tie for fourth at The Johnson Group Carolina Cup, while Korytoski comes in after a season-best 14th-place finish last time out at the Rutherford Intercollegiate.
 
WCU's lone senior on the squad, Canadian-born striker Kiefer Bulau (75.70), traveled and is available as an alternate that can be subbed into the lineup up to 10 minutes before the scheduled tee time of the individual in question.
 
ETSU will be looking for its fifth straight championship after winning its 24th title last season. The Bucs shot a 30-under-par 834, securing a two-stroke win over runner-up Chattanooga. UNCG also finished under par last season, shooting an 8-under 856. Furman claimed fourth with an even-par 864. ETSU was led by co-medalists, as Mats Ege and Matty Dodd-Berry both finished 13-under-par. Ege, who was the SoCon Player of the Year in 2023 and 2024, claimed medalist honors during each of the last two tournaments.
 
Four SoCon teams enter the 2025 tournament in the top 90 nationally. Furman, who is ranked 57th, leads the pack, with Chattanooga (No. 75) and UNCG (No. 85) after the Paladins. Defending champion ETSU is 90th nationally.
 
Overall, seven different SoCon golfers have claimed medalist honors this season. Three teams have been victorious this season, with UNCG and Chattanooga both grabbing three victories and Wofford winning one.
 
The SoCon Men's Golf Championship has a storied history. It was first contested in 1930 with a 36-hole format, with Alabama winning the title. The championship moved to 54 holes in 1973 and included five players' scores counting from 1969 until 1982, when it moved back to four players contributing to the round score. ETSU has won five of the last seven team championships, dating back to 2015. The 2020 event was not contested due to COVID-19. UNCG claimed consecutive titles in 2018 and 2019.
 
Dating back to 1930, the tournament has produced winners such as Wake Forest's Arnold Palmer (1948 and 1949) and Furman's Brad Faxon (1983), both SoCon Hall-of-Famers, and current PGA TOUR pros Stephan Jaeger of Chattanooga (2012), J.T. Poston of Western Carolina (2014 and 2015) and William McGirt of Wofford (2001).
 
WCU has twice posted runner-up finishes in the SoCon Men's Golf Championship, led by Brett D. Miller and Scott Garrett in 1986, while the 2021 Catamounts were paced by SoCon All-Freshman team selection, Pierre Villaneix.
 
All told, four-time defending champion ETSU owns 24 SoCon team titles, while Furman has 13 and Chattanooga has six to its credit. Furman's last was in 2010, and Chattanooga claimed consecutive titles in 2012 and 2013. The Buccaneers have a league-best 19 individual medalists to their credit, followed closely by Furman with 14. Western Carolina has had five medalists, while UNCG, Chattanooga, and Wofford claim two each.
 
WCU's five individual medalists include Kelly Leonhardt (1987), Bruce Kullman (1991), Matt Cook (twice; 2006, 2008), and JT Poston (twice; 2014, 2015).
 
Complete results of the 2025 SoCon Men's Golf Championship will be made available after play concludes through SoConSports.com and CatamountSports.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).