Cullowhee, N.C. – Stemming from his third individual medalist honors of the 2025-26 season, redshirt sophomore transfer Tyler Jones was today named the Southern Conference Men's Golfer of the Week for all events played between April 8 and April 14. Jones carded a trio of rounds in the 60s to post a three-round score of 9-under par, 204, to claim a three-stroke victory at the Wofford Invitational, hosted at the par-71, 6,720-yard Country Club of Spartanburg.
 
With his fourth weekly honor of the season, Jones headlines three Catamounts who have combined for six weekly awards from the league office spanning this season's two semesters. He's been joined by Andrew Korytoski (Oct. 1) and Jace Butcher (March 18) as weekly honorees. Jones collected his first honor back in September before tallying two in February to go along with today's honor. His four weekly awards are the most by a Catamount men's golfer in a single season in program history. He also tied former Catamount JT Poston, who earned plaudits a combined four times in his WCU career, including three in 2015.
 
The SoCon began awarding weekly honors in both the fall and spring semesters in 2019-20. Jones is one of seven SoCon men's golfers since 2001 to be recognized four times.
 
Jones is one of just three golfers in the SoCon this season to have collected multiple awards, doubling up on Furman's Harris Barth and Kelvin Hernandez from UNCG who have both earned two honors apiece.
 
Selections of the conference's players of the week are made by the league office from nominations submitted by the media relations or communications professionals at each conference affiliate.
 
Jones is also the first Catamount to collect multiple weekly plaudits from the league office in the same season since Pierre Viallaneix earned two back in the COVID-19-shortened 2019-2020 campaign. Jones is on a WCU list that includes five others  – Viallaneix, Poston, Magnus Pedersen, Matt Cook, and Tripp Morrow – to have earned multiple weekly awards in their WCU career.
 
Jones carded all three rounds at the Wofford Invitational in the 60s, including a 4-under par 67 in last Sunday's opening round, before shooting 3-under par 68 on Monday to move atop the leaderboard. He closed the tournament appearance with a 2-under par round of 69, bookending his tournament with blemish-free rounds by charting four birdies and 14 pars on day one and 16 pars with a pair of birdies over the event's final 18 holes. Jones won by three strokes, posting a three-round score of 204.
 
Jones scored 6.34 strokes lower than the field average on the first two days and finished an average of 5.89 strokes better than the field for the tournament. He led the field with 41 pars and was tied for the team lead with 11 birdies, matching Butcher as the top two among the Catamounts' scoring quintet and two individuals. Jones also led the field in Par 4 scoring (3.82) and was second in Par 3 scoring (2.92).
 
This season, Jones leads the Southern Conference with a 70.24 scoring average over 29 rounds, just ahead of the program's single-season record of 70.27 carded by Poston in 2013-14 (33 rounds, 2,319 strokes). Jones has shot 15 rounds with a score in the 60s to date. In addition to his three medalist performances, Jones has finished second or third three times.
 
According to the latest stats through the conference, only four men's golfers – Jones and Jace Butcher from WCU, Harris Barth from Furman, and Chattanooga's Evan Rogers – have secured individual medalist honors this season.
 
Western Carolina now turns its attention to the 2026 Southern Conference Men's Golf Championship, scheduled for April 27-29, at the Solina Golf Club in West Columbia, S.C., the site of last year's women's championship. The Catamounts enter the conference championship event boasting the top team scoring average in the SoCon this season at 287.0, averaging  71.75 per round to date. WCU is tied for the SoCon-best with eight Top 10 finishes, including six top-three performances.
 
The winner of the 2026 SoCon Championship will garner the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Men's Golf postseason, with the individual medalist, if not a part of the victorious team, earning an at-large individual bid to the postseason.
 
Live scoring for each round is available online through the Scoreboard app, powered by Clippd.
 
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).