Cullowhee, N.C. – Hosting two of its 10 scheduled tournament appearances including a venue change for its long-standing home event in the fall, Western Carolina head men’s golf coach Tim Eckberg today announced his squad’s 2024-25 schedule. The slate includes four team tournaments in the fall and six in the spring semester.
 
The Catamounts open the campaign in September on the coast of South Carolina with the schedule culminating with the 2025 Southern Conference Men’s Golf Championship at Reynolds Lake Oconee in Greensboro, Ga., with the league champion garnering the SoCon’s automatic bid to the NCAA postseason.

“The schedule this year has come together so nicely. It’s going to test our guys from start to finish, traveling the country and even internationally to play against the best on some incredible golf courses,” said Eckberg, who returns seven members from last year’s squad including three of its top five scorers, and SoCon All-Freshman team selection, Jace Butcher. “.This crew is ready. It’s a group filled with experience and potential. After a sour finish to last season, we are all hungry to get back at it. This year has the makings to be one of the best in the history of this program.”
 
Western Carolina opens the year at the Myrtle Beach Golf Trips Intercollegiate, hosted by Coastal Carolina at the Grande Dunes Resort Golf Club in Myrtle Beach. It’s the second consecutive year that WCU opens the year at the coast.
 
The following week, the Catamounts return to western North Carolina to host its first event of the year with the annual JT Poston Invitational. For the first time since 2007 – minus the COVID-altered 2020-21 season – this year’s fall tournament will be contested somewhere other than the Country Club of Sapphire Valley. Beginning as the WCU Intercollegiate in 2004 before being rebranded the Hummingbird Intercollegiate in 2008, the fall tournament for the Catamounts took its current name honoring one of its best-known alum in 2019.
 
“It was hard to say goodbye to Sapphire Valley. That club and its membership have meant so much to this program over the past 20 years. But, we understood them wanting to take a step back as golf continues to boom on the mountain,” said Eckberg about the movement of its traditional home event in the fall.
 
This year’s three-day, 54-hole event is being held at the renovated, redesigned, and reconfigured Waynesville Inn and Golf Club. The historic course dates back to 1926 with some of the original layouts created by famed golf course designer Donald Ross. What was once three, nine-hole courses to comprise a 27-hole layout has been reworked into an 18-hole Championship course, along with a full practice facility that reopened in July 2023.
 
“Getting the chance to move the event to our new home, the Waynesville Inn and Golf Club, is a dream. The ownership, staff, and membership have been so welcoming to our program. Having the ability to say ‘thank you’ to all of them, and showcase this amazing property on the national stage is very exciting,” Eckberg said about bringing the tournament to Haywood County. “We’re also using the reach of this event to do something very unique in college golf. Working closely with the owners, Grey Raines and David Tart, we’re using this event to support their newly created WIGC Charitable Foundation, one that is very dear to both the tournament’s namesake, JT Poston, and me. This foundation is designed to support junior golf and grow future leaders in western North Carolina.”
 
A combined 16 teams will converge on Waynesville for the early-fall tournament. The week begins with a Collegiate-Am event on Saturday, Sept. 14, followed by 18 holes of championship golf each day starting on Sunday. The tournament is open and free to the public, Sunday through Tuesday.
 
The fall portion of the schedule continues with a pair of team tournaments in October beginning with the Carolina Cup, hosted by USC Upstate at the Carolina Country Club in Spartanburg, S.C., Oct. 6-8. WCU returns to the event after a year hiatus, finishing third at the same venue back in 2022. The Catamounts close the fall season with a split-squad tournament appearance, sending a scoring side to the Furman Intercollegiate in Greenville, S.C., with individual golfers competing at the App State Individual at the Cedar Rock Golf Course in Lenoir, N.C.
 
Western Carolina’s spring semester opens in early February as the Catamounts go international, heading south of the border for the Los Vaqueros Intercollegiate at the Playa Paraiso Golf Club in Playa Del Carmen Mexico. It marks the first international competition for the Catamount men’s golf team with play spread over Feb. 2-4.
Back stateside, WCU travels to the Big Easy for the Gulf Coast Collegiate on Feb. 24-25, hosted by the University of New Orleans at the English Turn Golf and Country Club.
 
A pair of tournaments in March opens with WCU hosting its second event, the Peoples Golf Championship at Sea Palms in St. Simons Island, Ga. It’s the fifth-straight year the Catamounts have hosted in coastal Georgia and the second that Peoples Golf has been the presenting sponsor. On March 23-25, WCU travels to the Bulls Bay Golf in Mount Pleasant, S.C, for the 54-hole Hootie at the Bulls hosted by the College of Charleston.
 
In the penultimate event of the season, the Catamounts head to State College, Pa., for Penn State’s Rutherford Intercollegiate hosted at the Penn State Golf Course on the Blue Course. It is the first time for WCU to compete in the event.
 
The 2025 SoCon Men’s Golf Championship returns to the Reynolds Lake Oconee for the three-round, 54-hole league-champion crowning event. The team champion and the top individual if not on the championship squad garner automatic bids into he NCAA postseason.
 
Paced by junior Ivan Ninkovic, the top returning scorer from last season at 72.52, WCU has seven golfers back on this year’s roster. Jace Butcher, who collected SoCon All-Freshman plaudits, was fourth on the Catamount squad last year with a 74.12 stroke average, the fifth-best in the conference by a freshman last year. Five of the returners each saw action in at least three tournaments last season. Canadian-born Kiefer Bulau is the lone senior on the squad with juniors Ninkovic and Josh Lendach.
 
Eckberg signed a pair of newcomers in heralded freshman Chase Cline from Chapin, S.C., and junior transfer Callum Waugh from Glasgow, Scotland, who transferred from Lindsey Wilson College where he was a teammate of current Catamount Ivan Ninkovic. Waugh was a two-time NAIA All-America selection, one of just three in LWC’s program history.
 
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).
 
Western Carolina Men’s Golf – 2024-25 Schedule:
Fall 2024
Sept. 8-10 – Myrtle Beach Golf Trips Intercollegiate – Grand Dunes GC (Myrtle Beach, S.C.)
Sept. 15-17 – JT Poston Invitational – Waynesville Inn and GC (Waynesville, N.C.)
Oct. 6-8 – Carolina Cup – Carolina CC (Spartanburg, S.C.)
Oct. 19-20 – Furman Intercollegiate – Furman University GC (Greenville, S.C.)
Oct. 19-20 – App State Invitational (individuals only) – Cedar Rock GC (Lenoir, N.C.)
 
Spring 2025
Feb. 2-4 – Los Vaqueros Intercollegiate – Playa Paraiso GC (Playa Del Carmen, Mexico)
Feb. 24-25 – Gulf Coast Collegiate – English Turn GC (New Orleans, La.)
March 13-15 – Peoples Championship – Sea Palms GC (St. Simons Island, Ga.)
March 23-25 – Hootie at the Bulls – Bulls Bay GC (Charleston, S.C.)
April 12-13 – Rutherford Intercollegiate – Penn State GC – Blue (State College, Pa.)
April 20-22 – SoCon Men’s Golf Championship – Reynolds Lake Oconee (Greensboro, Ga.)