Cullowhee, N.C. – Western Carolina men’s golf is in coastal Georgia this week to host the Peoples Golf Championship at Sea Palms Resort marking the fourth consecutive season the Catamounts have hosted a tournament at the par-71, 6,664-yard St. Simons Island, Ga., venue. This year’s highly-anticipated tournament is presented by Peoples Golf, which was founded in 2008 by WCU alum Will Peoples.
The action gets underway with a tournament practice round on Wednesday, March 6, with the three-round, 54-hole event to be played over three days March 7-9 with 18 holes per day. Each round is scheduled to begin at 8 a.m. with assigned tee times off both the first and 10th tee boxes (subject to change based on weather and course conditions).
Live scoring is available online through Leaderboard King (leaderboardking.com).
Joining Western Carolina in the 22-team field are golfers from Bellarmine, Belmont, Bowling Green, Central Michigan, Davidson, Drexel, Eastern Kentucky, Eastern Illinois, Long Island, Marshall, Morehead State, Murray State, Siena, Tennessee Tech, UT-Martin, UT-Rio Grande Valley, Western Kentucky, Winthrop, Wofford, Wright State, and Xavier.
This spring’s 128-golfer field is the largest in the brief history of the WCU-hosted tournament with two of the three previous team champions – Wright State (2022) and Davidson (2023) – in this year’s 22-team field.
Jacksonville State edged Appalachian State to win the inaugural championship in March of 2021 with Wright State cruising to an eight-stroke victory over Radford in the second installment of the tournament in March 2022. Davidson won by 13 strokes over the defending champion Wright State in the 2023 event.
Playing at a par-71, 6,664-yard layout, the Sea Palms Resort (www.SeaPalms.com) is located on St. Simons Island, the largest barrier island of the Golden Isles in coastal Georgia. The island is located between Savannah, Ga., and Jacksonville, Fla., just outside the historic city of Brunswick and just north of Jekyll Island.
Originally opened in 1967, the golf course was originally designed by George Cobb and renovated in October 2019. The championship course is framed by live oaks and towering pine trees and is surrounded by the lagoons and salt marshes of the Golden Isles. The facility also includes a driving range and ‘the Miracle’ practice area.
The Peoples Golf Championship at Sea Palms Resort the second event WCU men’s golf has hosted in the 2023-24 season, contesting the JT Poston Invitational for the final time at the beautiful Country Club of Sapphire Valley back in the fall. That event will move to the renovated Waynesville Inn and Golf Resort in the fall of 2024. Since the COVID-19 altered 2020-21 season, WCU and the Sea Palms Resort have partnered for a spring tournament.
“During the COVID pandemic, the fall season for most teams was canceled in 2020. With play returning in the spring of 2021, everyone was looking for extra events to play in to pack their spring season as full as they could. I saw this as an opportunity,” said WCU head coach Tim Eckberg. “One of my former player’s dads was part of a group that had taken over management of Sea Palms Resort. A couple of years prior I had visited and played and loved every bit of it.”
Eckberg continued, “Through that continued relationship – and when the thought came to host a spring event – we put something together very fast, hoping to get 6-to-8 teams – we got 17. They all loved the experience, the golf course, the resort, and of course, St. Simon’s Island. Virtually overnight we had a massively successful tournament that I’m proud to continue to host for teams from all over the country.”
Owned by Western Carolina alum Will Peoples, Peoples Golf (peoples.golf) furthered its relationship with Catamount men’s golf by sponsoring the spring tournament beginning in 2024. Founded in 2008, Peoples Clubs is a full-service online golf store specializing in custom-built tour-issue clubs. Will Peoples was an avid golfer growing up and turned his passion into a business.
“Will Peoples and Peoples Golf has been assisting our Catamount men’s golf program over the past three years in any way that he’s able. But with his gift this year to the program, he has taken that relationship to the next level with the sponsorship of our spring tournament on St. Simons Island, Ga.,” continued Eckberg. “The naming of our fourth-annual tournament in Georgia after Will and his business is another way of thanking him for his continued support and donations to Catamount golf, while also showcasing his company at the event for the players, coaches, and the St. Simons golf community.”
Eckberg added, “Peoples Golf targets high-level golfers across the world by building clubs to specs that elite players play, as well as offering sales of specialty golf products from Scotty Cameron Circle T to Swag.”
All nine of Western Carolina’s rostered golfers will be in action with five competing together for the team championship and four vying for the individual crown unattached. Fifth-year senior Magnus Pedersen leads the Catamount lineup into the squad’s second event of the spring. The Moss, Norway, product boasts a team-low 70.11 scoring average through 18 seasonal rounds to rank third in the Southern Conference.
Pedersen is flanked by redshirt senior Pablo Hernandez (72.06) and sophomore Ivan Ninkovic (71.78) as the No. 2 and No. 3 seeds with freshmen Jace Butcher (73.67) and Andrew Korytoski (73.72) rounding out the scoring five. Hernandez and Ninkovic both rank inside the SoCon’s individual top 20 in scoring average and posted a Top 10 individual finish in the fall portion of the schedule.
A foursome of Catamounts including redshirt sophomore Josh Lendach, sophomore Kiefer Bulau, and freshmen Dalton Payne and Michael Bevins will each play unattached as individuals. All four competed in at least one tournament in the fall semester with two – Payne and 2022-23 SoCon All-Freshman team selection Lendach – both seeing action in three tournaments.
Complete recaps from the 2024 Peoples Golf Championship at Sea Palms Resort will be made available online at CatamountSports.com following each round.
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).
Website Info: https://peoples.golf/championship.html
2024 Peoples Golf Championship at Seam Palms Resort
March 6-9, 2025 – Sea Palms Resort – St. Simons Island, Ga.
Course Information:
Sea Palms Resort – Par-71 – 6,664 yards
Participating Teams (22, 128 golfers):
Western Carolina (host), Bellarmine, Belmont, Bowling Green, Central Michigan, Davidson, Drexel, Eastern Kentucky, Eastern Illinois, Long Island, Marshall, Morehead State, Murray State, Siena, Tennessee Tech, UT Martin, UT Rio Grande Valley, Western Kentucky, Winthrop, Wofford, Wright State, Xavier
Schedule:
Wednesday, March 6 – Practice Round – 8 a.m.; welcome function/dinner
Thursday, March 7 – Rd 1 – 8 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. – Tee times of No. 1 and No. 10
Friday, March 8 – Rd 2 – 8 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. – Tee times based on position off No. 1 and No. 10
Saturday, March 9 – Rd 3 – 8 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. – Tee times based on position off No. 1 and No. 10
- Team and individual champion trophies awarded following play
Live-Scoring – Thru Leaderboard King https://catamounts.leaderboardking.com/leaderboards/3620/layout_ncaa?game_id=7342
Round 1 Pairings / Start Times (subject to change):
No. 1 – 8:00 am – Western Carolina, Drexel, Davidson, Wofford
No. 1 – 8:50 am – Eastern Illinois, Bellarmine, Drexel IND, Wofford IND
No. 1 – 9:45 am – Marshall IND, Bowling Green IND, Winthrop IND, Xavier IND
No. 1 – 9:55 am – Bowling Green, UTRGV, Morehead State, Marshall
No. 10 – 8:00 am – Western Kentucky, Xavier, Eastern Kentucky, Murray State
No. 10 – 8:50 am – Wright State, Belmont, UT Martin, Long Island
No. 10 – 9:45 am – Wright State IND, Wright State IND, UT Martin IND, Belmont IND
No. 10 – 9:55 am – Central Michigan, Siena, Winthrop, Tennessee Tech
Round 2 & 3 Pairings / Start Times (subject to change):
No. 1 – 8:00 am – Team 12, Team 11, Team 10, Team 9
No. 1 – 8:50 am – Wright State IND, Wright State IND, UT Martin IND, Belmont IND
No. 1 – 9:05 am – Team 8, Team 7, Team 6, Team 5
No. 1 – 9:55 am – Team 4, Team 3, Team 2, Team 1
No. 10 – 8:00 am – Team 16, Team 15, Team 14, Team 13
No. 10 – 8:50 am – Marshall IND, Bowling Green IND, Winthrop IND, Xavier IND
No. 10 – 9:05 am – Team 20, Team 19, Team 18, Team 17
No. 10 – 9:55 am – Team 21, Team 22, Individuals (WCU, Drexel, Davidson)
