Waynesville, N.C. – Things could not have started much better for redshirt sophomore Charlotte transfer
Tyler Jones in his first month with the Catamount men's golf team. A third-place finish in his debut with his new squad, capped by the first weekly honors handed out by the Southern Conference the next day, left Jones a strong candidate for having the "best week ever."
This week, however, the stakes were raised.
Jones rearranged the final finishing order over Tuesday's final two holes of the 2025 JT Poston Invitational with an impressive run of 3-under par, charging to the top of the leaderboard at the par-72, 6,720-yard Waynesville Inn & Golf Club. He capped the strong finish with a second eagle on the back nine on the 18th to claim individual medalist honors by three strokes, delivering Western Carolina its first home-event medalist since 2016.
Southern Mississippi (827) claimed the 2025 JT Poston Invitational Championship by a stroke over the former WCU head coach, Bryant Odom-led Kennesaw State Owls, who posted the best final-round team score of 273 to record the area code of a final score, 828. Behind medalist, WCU took third at its home fall tournament, four strokes off the pace at 9-under par 831. Another former Catamount skipper, Carter Cheves, led his James Madison squad to fourth, four strokes within WCU in the final pecking order.
Rounding out the top five teams were UT-Rio Grande Valley and Xavier, tied for fifth with matching scores of 840.
Spurred by a hole-in-one on the par-3 seventh on Tuesday, Kennesaw State's Shaun Cook led much of the final round. However, he received company after Jones birdied the par-3 17th, sticking his tee shot inside of three feet from the pin to set up the drama.
Having stalked the top of the individual leaderboard for most of the three-round tournament, Jones stumbled earlier in his final round on the par-5 12th with a bogey and what proved to be the lone blemish of his final 18. Then on No. 13, things again didn't seem to be in the cards as he was putting for eagle on the short par-4, but had to settle for a par after a three-putt, with two attempts circling the cup but not falling.
Fortune seemed to swing on the par-3 17th as Cook left his iron drive short on the larger landing area of the green, while Jones stuck his drive and subsequent roll to within a couple of feet of the pin. This time, Jones sank his birdie putt, while Cook managed par that tied the two for first with just 565 yards on the par-5 18th to play.
On the green in just two shots, Jones had to watch as the other two in his threesome made their final plays. Cook landed short in front of the green in a small bunker, and his blast out went awry, giving Jones the opening he needed. The Jacksonville, N.C., pounced, draining his short eagle putt with a large gallery looking on to claim the medalist honor with a 54-hole score of even-200, matching former Catamounts Dylan MacQueen and Jake Peacock for the lowest 54-hole score in program history.
Cook slipped to third with a double-bogey on No. 18, finishing the day with a 1-under par 69 and a three-day score of 204. Jorge Martin Sampedro matched the lowest round of the event with a program-low final round score of 63 to vault 15 positions into the runner-up spot with a 7-under par 203.
TJ Jones gives WCU its first individual medalist since Jake Peacock won the season-opening EKU Intercollegiate in the fall of 2021, though
Dalton Payne finished first at the 36-hole Appalachian Individual last season. It was the first time that a Catamount hoisted the most unique trophy in college golf – a purple mailbox on a pedestal, alluding to the nickname of the tournament's namesake, JT "The Postman" Poston – that was introduced in 2021. This year, in dramatic fashion, the team and individual trophies were "delivered" by a US Postal Service courier, driving down the No. 18 fairway to the post-tournament ceremony.
Jones is WCU's first fall home tournament winner since Dylan MacQueen claimed the weather-shortened Hummingbird Intercollege – the predecessor of the JT Poston Invitational – in the fall of 2016.
WCU senior
Ivan Ninkovic posted a Top 10 finish, shooting 2-over par 72 on Tuesday for a three-round score of 207. A double-bogey on the ninth negated a third-hole birdie to send the Croatian-born striker to the back nine at 1-over par. He moved back to even with a second birdie on No. 12, but bogeys on holes No. 14 and No. 17 left him at 2-over. Ninkovic matched Jones with a pair of eagles over the three-day tourney.
Junior
Jace Butcher slid into a four-way tie for 33rd overall, shooting 3-over 73 in the final round, charting three birdies. Butcher finished with 11 birdies at the home event.
Redshirt senior
Josh Lendach had a day, posting a career-low round of 1-under par 69 to climb 24 positions over the final 18 holes, coming home tied for 39th overall. Opening on the front nine, the Raleigh, N.C., product had a blemish-free opening nine with nine consecutive pars. He moved to 1-under with a birdie on the par-5 10th, carrying that through 14 with four more pars that followed. Lendach moved to 2-under par with a birdie on the par-4 15th before consecutive bogeys had him even-par through 53 holes. He then closed the round with a third birdie.
Rounding out WCU's scoring five was junior
Andrew Korytoski, who advanced 12 spots on Tuesday with a 1-over par 71 to shoot a three-day total of 219, tied for 65th. Korytoski countered five bogeys with four birdies, giving him seven for the event.
Junior
Dalton Payne led five Catamounts playing unattached as an individual, matching Lendach in a tie for 39th overall with a three-round score of 215 (73-69-73). Payne had a busy final round, using five birdies to counter three bogeys and a pair of double-bogeys. Freshman
Charlie Coe book ended his final round with birdies in shooting 4-over par 74 to finish tied for 48th (217). Coe finished the tournament tied for the tournament-high with 40 pars over the 54 holes.
Freshman
Connor Williams finished tied for 57th in his collegiate debut with a three-round score of 218, with junior
Michael Bevins finishing 84th (224) and true freshman
Hayden Magnussen in 90th (249), shooting his best round on Tuesday.
Western Carolina men's golf returns to action at the Nemacolin Invitational, hosted by West Virginia University, Sept. 29-30 at the Mystic Rock Golf Course in Farmington, Pa.
3 – Western Carolina – 275 – 279 – 277 = 831 (-9)
1 –
Tyler Jones – 64-71-65 = 200 (-10)
T9 –
Ivan Ninkovic – 72-63-72 = 207 (-3)
T33 –
Jace Butcher – 68-72-73 = 213 (+3)
T39 –
Josh Lendach – 73-73-69 = 215 (+5)
T65 –
Andrew Korytoski – 71-77-71 = 219 (+9)
T39 –
Dalton Payne (ind.) – 73-69-73 = 215 (+5)
T48 –
Charlie Coe (ind.) – 71-72-74 = 217 (+7)
T57 –
Connor Williams (ind.) – 75-71-72 = 218 (+8)
84 –
Michael Bevins (ind.) – 73-77-74 = 224 (+10)
90 –
Hayden Magnussen (ind.) – 84-83-82 = 249 (+39)
JT Poston Invitational – Team Results
Final Results
1 – Southern Miss – 275-276-276 = 827 (-13)
2 – Kennesaw State – 277-278-273 = 828 (-12)
3 – Western Carolina – 275-279-277 = 831 (-9)
4 – James Madison – 285-275-275 = 835 (-5)
T5 – UTRGV – 283-280-277 = 840 (E)
T5 – Xavier – 283-277-280 = 840 (E)
7 – Drexel – 273-285-284 = 842 (+2)
8 – Virginia Tech – 277-285-282 = 844 (+4)
9 – Elon – 286-284-276 = 846 (+6)
10 – Abilene Christian – 289-281-283 = 853 (+13)
11 – Wofford – 286-272-298 = 856 (+16)
12 – Lipscomb – 287-286-284 = 857 (+17)
13 – Jacksonville – 289-288-287 = 864 (+24)
14 – Morehead State – 289-281-306 = 876 (+36)
15 – Francis Marion – 293-291-294 = 878 (+38)
