Cullowhee, N.C. – Western Carolina men's golf opens its seven-event spring schedule south of the border on Sunday, traveling to Playa Del Carmen, Mexico, for the Compadres Collegiate, hosted by Texas-Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV). The three-day, 54-hole event will be held at the par-72, 6,701-yard Playa Paraiso Golf Club, Feb. 1-3, with 18 holes scheduled for each day.
Live scoring is available online through the
Scoreboard app, powered by Clippd, with the tournament opening with a shotgun start at 8:30 a.m. on Sunday, Feb. 1.
In addition to the Catamounts and host UTRGV Vaqueros, the nine-team field includes golfers from Bellarmine, Drake, Louisiana-Monroe (ULM), Morehead State, Northern Colorado, North Texas, and UTSA.
Western Carolina is slated to have eight golfers in competition in the spring opener, the team's scoring five and a trio of individuals. Junior
Jace Butcher (72.25) is seeded first for the Catamounts, followed by sophomore transfer
Tyler Jones and senior
Ivan Ninkovic, who closed the fall with Southern Conference-leading scoring averages of 69.67. Rounding out WCU's five-man team are junior
Andrew Korytoski (73.17) and senior
Josh Lendach (73.08). Paired with golfers from UTSA and Northern Colorado, WCU's scoring five opens competition between holes No. 5 and No. 8.
Playing unattached as individuals are juniors
Dalton Payne (73.67) and
Michael Bevins (72.67), and freshman
Connor Williams (74.67). Payne (1B) and Bevins (13) are paired in the lone foursomes of the tournament with other individuals, while Williams opens in the second group off hole No. 8, all at 8:30 a.m.
The Catamounts posted a trio of top-five team finishes in the fall semester. WCU opened with a fifth-place showing at the Golfweek Fall Challenge, before placing third at the home JT Poston Invitational at the Waynesville Inn & Golf Club. The squad posted a season-best runner-up showing at West Virginia's Nemacolin Collegiate Invitational, capping the fall with an 11th-place tie at the Phoenix Invitational in mid-October.
"The guys have been looking forward to getting this spring going," said WCU head coach
Tim Eckberg. "We had a great fall, but ended it with a sour taste in our mouths from the final event. We know this week's challenge in the golf course that we are headed to in Mexico, but the team is ready for the test. It's going to be a fun week."
Entering the spring semester, Ninkovic and Jones were the only two to post sub-70 scoring with matching averages of 69.67 over 12 rounds. Ninkovic closed the fall with three straight Top 10 finishes, while Jones had a pair of podium finishes, including individual medalist honors at the Poston Invitational.
Butcher gave WCU a third inside the SoCon's Top 10 at 72.25, with the ninth-best scoring average to date, followed by Lendach (73.08) and Korytoski (73.17), tied for 15th and alone in 17th, respectively.
Western Carolina had five additional golfers see action in the fall semester, with freshmen
Charlie Coe (76.22), and
Hayden Magnussen (83.00) joining classmate Williams, and juniors Bevins and Payne.
Following the Compadres Collegiate, the Catamounts return stateside for the mid-February Wexford Intercollegiate, hosted by Francis Marion in Hilton Head, S.C. WCU again hosts the Peoples Golf Championship at Sea Palms Resort in St. Simons Island, Ga., March 12-14, remaining in the Peach State for the Southern Intercollegiate, hosted by Georgia at the Athens Country Club in Athens, Ga., on Monday, March 16.
The Catamounts head west for the AK-Chin Southern Dunes Golf Course in Maricopa, Ariz., for Wyoming's Cowboy Classic on March 31 through April 1. The squad's final tune-up before the conference championship is April 12-14, at the Wofford Invitational at the Country Club of Spartanburg.
The 2026 Southern Conference Men's Golf Championship is scheduled for April 27-29 at the Solina Golf Club in West Columbia, S.C., where the team champion garners the league's automatic bid to the NCAA postseason.
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).
