Cullowhee, N.C. – Western Carolina redshirt sophomore and 2026 Southern Conference Men's Golfer of the Year
Tyler Jones today received an at-large berth into the NCAA Men's Golf Bermuda Run Regional. The announcement came on Wednesday afternoon during the special selection show that aired on the Golf Channel.
A combined 81 teams and 45 individuals were selected to compete across six regional sites, including Athens, Ga.; Bermuda Run, N.C.; Bryan, Texas; Columbus, Ohio; Corvallis, Ore.; and Marana, Ariz.
The NCAA Men's Golf Bermuda Regional is scheduled for May 18-20, hosted by Wake Forest at the Bermuda Run Country Club. The top five finishing teams and the low-scoring individual who is not on any of the advancing teams from each regional event will advance to the NCAA Championship finals, scheduled for May 29 through June 2, at the Omni La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, Calif.
Jones is one of three individual men's golfers from the SoCon to garner an at-large bid to this year's NCAA postseason. He's joined in the Bermuda Run regional field by SoCon individual champion Kelvin Hernandez from UNCG, and Furman's Harris Barth. That trio joins the 2026 SoCon tournament champion, Chattanooga, which was seeded 11th in the Bryan, Texas, regional, hosted by Texas A&M.
Jones is just the third Catamount men's golfer to earn an at-large bid into an NCAA regional, and the first since 2015. He joins a select company that includes WCU Hall of Famer Matt Cook and current PGA Tour member JT Poston.
Cook received individual bids in 2006 and 2007, finishing 20th overall in the latter before going with the team in 2008. Poston earned a trio of berths between 2013 and 2015, advancing to the NCAA Championship as a senior in 2015 after finishing in a second-place tie in the regional.
The fourth Catamount to receive Southern Conference Player of the Year honors, Jones was the second-highest-ranked league men's golfer in the NCAA's rankings through the close of the conference championship. He was ranked at No. 186 nationally, and only trailed Chattanooga's Evan Rogers (No. 179) and was just ahead of UTC's Ward Harris (No. 187).
A product of Jacksonville, N.C., Jones was one of just five men's golfers in the SoCon to claim individual medalist honors during 2025-26, leading the league with three tournament titles. He won the 2026 JT Poston Invitational, finished first at the spring-opening Compadres Collegiate in Mexico, and claimed the Wofford Invitational title heading into the conference championship. He also collected seven Top Five finishes, six of which landed him on the podium with two third-place showings and a runner-up finish added to his six wins.
A four-time SoCon Men's Golfer of the Week honoree, Jones led the league with a seasonal stroke average of 70.31, the second-best individual season in WCU men's golf history. He only trails Poston's record-setting 70.27 average from 2013-14. Half of the 32 seasonal rounds for Jones were carded in the 60s, with all 32 recorded in 70s or better.
Along the way this season, he tied for the second-lowest 18-hole score in program history with a 64 on the opening 18 holes of the home JT Poston Invitational at the Waynesville Inn & Golf Club. That round was carded as part of matching the program's best 54-hole individual score of 200 (64-71-65).
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Bermuda Run Regional (14 teams, five individuals):
Seed 1 – Virginia (ACC Champion)
Seed 2 – Ole Miss (SEC Champion)
Seed 3 – Pepperdine (West Coast Conference Champion)
Seed 4 – Georgia Tech
Seed 5 – Southern California
Seed 6 – Wake Forest (host)
Seed 7 – Mississippi State
Seed 8 – Little Rock (Ohio Valley Conference Champion)
Seed 9 – NC State
Seed 10 – Kentucky
Seed 11 – Houston
Seed 12 – Richmond (Atlantic-10 Champion)
Seed 13 – Navy (Patriot League Champion)
Seed 14 – Presbyterian (Big South Conference Champion)
Individuals:
Harris Barth, Furman
Kelvin Hernandez, UNCG (SoCon Individual Champion)
Dewi John, Charleston Southern (Big South Individual Champion)
Tyler Jones, Western Carolina
Emil Riegger, Maryland
