April 20, 2008
Cullowhee, N.C. - The Western Carolina men's and women's golf teams open their respective quests for the Southern Conference Championships on Sunday morning in the Palmetto State. The women open play at par 72, 6,022-yard The Links at Stono Ferry in Hollywood, S.C., on Sunday morning, while the men tackle the par 72, 7,062-yard Country Club of South Carolina in Florence for the 72nd annual championship event.
Both tournaments run Sunday through Tuesday, with the all-conference squads and automatic bids to the NCAA Championships rewarded on the final afternoon. Live scoring for each event can be found at www.golfstatresults.com.
On the men's side, Chattanooga is looking to secure its second-consecutive SoCon crown after winning its first league title in 20 years last season. The Mocs, currently rated fifth nationally by Golfstat, have won a school-record four tournaments this season and boast five of the top eight rated golfers in the conference.
UTC junior Jonathan Hodge, runner up in the event in 2007, has claimed three individual tournament titles this season, including a wire-to-wire victory last month at the 24-team Furman Intercollegiate in Greenville, S.C.
Also entering the tournament with a top 100 rating nationally is Western Carolina, ranked No. 80 in the country. The Catamounts and standout senior Matt Cook have one tournament title to their credit this season and boast the league's third best stroke average behind College of Charleston.
Behind Cook, the 2006 SoCon Men's Golfer of the Year, the Catamount men will look to improve on last season's sixth-place finish. Junior Andres Cuenca, who has two top five finishes including a win at the WCU Invitational, ranks 12th in the SoCon individual rankings entering the event. WCU will also look to junior transfer Dustin Furnari, sophomore Ricky Stout and freshman Caleb Marsh to dethrone the Mocs.
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In the Lowcountry, nine teams will compete for the SoCon crown, including defending champion Western Carolina, which claimed a four-stroke victory over Furman in last season's rain-shortened event at Patriot's Point Golf Links in Mt. Pleasant, S.C. The Catamounts are led by sophomore Desiree Karlsson who has two top-five finishes under her belt this season. The Ljunghusen, Sweden, native was last year's SoCon Freshman of the Year.
WCU, a two-time SoCon Champion (2003, `07) enters the championship event minus its two seniors, both out with injury. Senior Malin Fryk missed the entire season with a nagging wrist injury, while Kandy Carland - last year's co-individual medalist - missed the last handful of events due to injury.
Furman, the league's top rated team in 2008 according to Golfstat, will be looking to break a two-year drought at the event, it's longest such dry spell since the SoCon first held a women's golf championship in 1994. The Lady Paladins are led this season by Blair Lamb, the 2007 SoCon Tournament champion, who is the third-rated individual in the league this season with a 74.43 stroke average.
Chattanooga, which will be participating in its first-ever SoCon women's golf tournament, boasts the league's top-rated golfer in freshman Emma de Groot (73.43 stroke average). The Lady Mocs have claimed a league-best four team titles.
Also participating in the event is the host school, College of Charleston, which is rated second in the SoCon heading into the tournament. The Cougars' top player, junior Steffi Kirchmayr, is the reigning league Player of the Year, and she has claimed two tournament titles this spring.
Western will look to ride its underclassmen - including Karlsson and classmate countryman Elin Mickelsson, both of which were on last year's championships squad - and a pair of freshmen in Katja Dammann and Josefine Sundh to repeat as champions.
Six Southern Conference teams are ranked in the top 100 of Golfstat's ratings, including Furman (41), College of Charleston (57), Elon (62), Chattanooga (66), UNC Greensboro (80) and Western Carolina (87).
The winner of the women's SoCon Championship will earn the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, an event in which a record three SoCon schools competed in 2007.
Fans can follow all of the action from both championship events live by visiting www.golfstatresults.com. Full recaps of the event will be posted online at www.SoConSports.com, as well as www.CatamountSports.com.
