Greensboro, Ga. – Western Carolina men's golf put the finishing touches on a historic run at the 2025 Southern Conference Championship on Tuesday, fending off a hard-charging Chattanooga squad to maintain its third-place podium position as play concluded at the par-72, 7,393-yard Oconee Course at Reynolds Lake Oconee.
 
Catamount junior Ivan Ninkovic capped a strong three-day stay in central Georgia, bookending the event with scores of 3-under par 69 and a 2-under second round to finish at 8-under par 208. This week's 54-hole tally marks the second lowest of his WCU career, and his best since shooting 205 in his first event for the Purple & Gold back in 2003.
 
ETSU clinched the 2025 SoCon Men's Golf Championship on Tuesday, while UNCG's Colin Dutton was the medalist at the event, shooting a 10-under 206 for the tournament.
 
Western Carolina's third-place finish was its best at the conference championship since posting a runner-up tally in the 2021 event held at the same venue. Contested at the Reynolds Lake Oconee for five straight seasons, this year's three-round score of 850 was WCU's best-ever at a SoCon Championship, besting the 2021 squad by nine strokes (859). The 850 score was also WCU's second-best 54-hole team score of the year, second only to the 839 carded at the JT Poston Invitational.
 
Ninkovic carded his best three-round score of the season at 208, which also represented the third-best individual score by a Catamount in the SoCon championship. Ninkovic's third-place tie – the best by a Catamount individual since Louis Theys was the runner-up in '21 – gave the Pula, Croatia, product consecutive top-five finishes in his final two events of the season and was his third individual top 10 posting of the year.
   
Western Carolina received contributions from all five members of its scoring five, as well as senior alternate Kiefer Bulau in a supporting role, during the three-round tournament.
 
Including Tuesday's final round, Ninkovic was a model of consistency throughout the 54-hole champion-crowning event. He paced the tournament field with 43 total pars, including 16 over the final 18 holes in a blemish-free round. Opening on the front nine, Ninkovic shot even par through the first nine holes before making the turn for home. He moved to 1-under par with a birdie on the par-5, 580-yard 10th, followed by six more pars.
 
After carding a birdie on Sunday and shooting a par on Monday on the par-5 17th, Ninkovic joined a select group to chart an eagle, moving to 3-under for the day with just one hole to play. With a strong crowd gathered and looking down at the 18th green, Ninkovic carded his 16th par to put the finishing touches on his tournament.
 
In addition to leading the field in pars, he also finished tied for third in overall par-5 scoring at 7-under par (4.42).
 
Making his first conference championship appearance, freshman Chase Cline came home in a tie for 14th with a 2-under par score of 214. The Chapin, S.C., product bookended his tournament with scores of 1-under par 71 sandwiched around an even-par 72 on Monday.
 
Over the final 18 holes, Cline countered a trio of bogeys with four birdies to cap his championship debut. Seven pars were interrupted by one bogey and a countering birdie on holes No. 3 and 4, to make the turn to the inward holes at even-par. He birdied the par-5 10th for the second time to move to 1-under, only to be relegated to even with a bogey on No. 13. He finished the last four holes with a pair of birdies around a bogey before shooting par on No. 18.
 
WCU's second-round leader and two-round event runner-up Callum Waugh battled through his final round, slipping into a tie for 22nd in the final standings. The Glasgow, Scotland, product carded 11 pars against four bogeys and a pair of birdies, and was poised to finish the day at 2-over par. However, an out-of-bounds tee shot over a Lake Oconee tributary that bounced off the cart path put him behind the sticks on his 54th hole.
 
Waugh, who matched former Catamount JT Poston's best individual round in a conference championship with his second-day 66, ultimately carded a 5-over par on the last hole, relegating him to 79.
 
All told Cline finished tied for third in the tournament field with 14 total birdies, while Waugh was tied for ninth with a dozen.
 
Rounding out WCU's scoring five were sophomores Jace Butcher in a tie for 24th and classmate Andrew Korytoski in a tie for 28th place, with both of their final round scores counting towards WCU's third-round total.
 
Butcher climbed six spots over the final 18 holes, carding his best round of the event at 1-under par 71. The Kennesaw, Ga., native countered a pair of bogeys with three birdies to give him eight for the tournament. Even through five holes, Butcher charted three birdies against a bogey to make the turn for the clubhouse at 2-under par. He remained at 2-under par with seven consecutive pars before a bogey on the par-5, 542-yard 17th left him at 1-under for the day.
 
Korytoski closed his tournament with a 1-over par 73 on Tuesday to finish at 3-over par 219. Like Waugh, Korytoski fought through his final 18 holes to keep the Catamounts in contention. Back-to-back bogeys on holes No. 2 and 3 were countered by consecutive birdies on holes No. 6 and 7 to sit poised to turn for home at even-par. However, a double-bogey on the par-4 ninth left him plus-2 heading in.
 
Like Butcher, playing in his home state of Georgia, the Cataula product returned to even par with a pair of birdies and four pars on the first six holes of his back nine. He closed the tournament with two bogeys sandwiched around a birdie to shoot 1-under on the back nine and 1-over for the round.
 
Korytoski paced the tournament field in par-3 scoring at 3-under par (2.75). Additionally, three Catamounts carded eagles with one by Waugh and Korytoski over the opening two rounds and Ninkovic on Tuesday.
 
ETSU clinched the 2025 Southern Conference Men's Golf Championship, its fifth-consecutive league title. After entering the day tied with UNCG at 14-under-par, ETSU blistered the course on Tuesday with the tournament's best team round during the final, shooting a 14-under 274 to finish the event with a score of 836 (-28). The Bucs built their lead to double digits on the front nine thanks to 11 birdies and two eagles.
 
The victory marks the second time the program has won five straight championships, with the other occurrence happening between 1979-83.
 
UNCG finished as the runner-up with a tournament score of 18-under 846. The Spartans shot 277 in the first round, 285 in the second round, and were 4-under par at 284 in the final round in trying to keep up with ETSU. WCU (850) matched the Spartans in the final round to finish four strokes in arrears of the runner-up spot to round out the podium. Chattanooga made a run at the Catamounts with a 9-under par 279 over the last 18 holes, though WCU was clear of the Mocs by two strokes, with Furman (858) rounding out the top five.
 
Samford (861) finished sixth with Wofford (865) and Mercer (868) rounding out the eight-team field.
 
UNCG's Colin Dutton was the individual medalist, shooting a 10-under 206 for the tournament to edge ETSU's Yannick Malik (9-under, 207) by a stroke. Dutton was two clear of the two-way tie for third between WCU's Ninkovic and his UNCG teammate Jack Marcotte.
 
Western Carolina concluded its 2024-25 men's golf season with four top-five finishes, including a second-place showing at The Johnson Group Carolina Cup and a pair of third-place tallies at the Gulf Coast Collegiate and the conference tournament.
 
2025 Southern Conference Men's Golf Championship
Reynolds Lake Oconee – Greensboro, Ga. – Par 72, 7,231 yds
1 – ETSU – 280-282-274 = 836 (-28)
2 – UNCG – 277-285-284 = 846 (-18)
3 – Western Carolina – 287-279-284 = 850 (-14)
4 – Chattanooga – 285-288-279 = 852 (-12)
5 – Furman – 288-280-290 = 858 (-6)
6 – Samford – 289-288-284 = 861 (-3)
7 – Wofford – 297-283-285 = 865 (+1)
8 – Mercer – 288-293-287 = 868 (+4)
 
3 – Western Carolina – 287-279-284 = 850 (-10)
T3 – Ivan Ninkovic – 69-70-69 = 208 (-8)
T14 – Chase Cline – 71-72-71 = 214 (-2)
T22 – Callum Waugh – 72-66-79 = 217 (-6)
T24 – Jace Butcher – 75-72-71 = 218 (+3)
T28 – Andrew Korytoski – 75-71-73 =219 (+2)