JOHNS ISLAND, S.C. – The 2021 Southern Conference Women’s Golf Championship is set for Monday, April 19, and Tuesday, April 20, at the Oak Point Golf Club at Kiawah Island Golf Resort in John’s Island, South Carolina. This is the first time the tournament will be held at the par-72, 6,006-yard course.
 
This year’s championship will include 54 holes over two days. The first of Monday’s two rounds will begin with threesomes going off at 8 a.m. before the final round tees off on Tuesday, also at 8 a.m. Live stats can be found here.
 
The conference’s nine teams – The Citadel, ETSU, Furman, Mercer, UNCG, Samford, Chattanooga, Western Carolina and Wofford – will compete for the 2021 Southern Conference Women’s Golf Championship crown over the two days. The team that wins the tournament will earn the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA Regionals. The individual medalist will also earn an automatic regional qualification if he is not on the winning team. 

The 2020 championship had been scheduled to take place at Moss Creek Golf Club in Hilton Head, South Carolina, but was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
 
Furman, the five-time defending champion, will seek its sixth straight and 19^th overall championship title as the team is led by three-time coach of the year Jeff Hull. Sophomore Anna Morgan leads the Paladins with a 73.17 scoring average over 12 rounds this season and is ranked No. 44 nationally, as the only SoCon golfer among the top 100 players in the country. The Paladins had three top-10 finishes in 2019 and three individual medalists in the SoCon’s last five championships.  
 
The Paladins also boast senior Madison Moosa (74.40 stroke average), giving Furman two of the top five active players in the conference in terms of stroke average this season. 
 
Mercer enters the tournament as the top-ranked SoCon team and is No. 52 in the GolfStat rankings. Furman follows close behind Mercer ranked No. 60, while ETSU is No. 81. Chattanooga is No. 87, UNCG is No. 140 and Samford just missed the top 150 nationally at No. 151. 
 
The Bears won the Mercer Invitational on Nov. 10 and earned four top-three team finishes this year. Senior Payton Schanen leads the bears with a 73.90 scoring average and is one of six SoCon golfers this season to take home an individual gold.  
 
ETSU and The Citadel are the only other two teams in the conference that won a tournament this season. The Bucs opened the season with a 12-shot win at the Terrier Intercollegiate on Oct. 27 and closed the season with a first-place performance on March 30 at the Chattanooga Classic, finishing with a team score of 23-over-par 887. The Bucs’ two first-place titles marked the first time since the 2013-14 season that ETSU has won multiple events.
The Citadel won the Coastal Georgia Dual on Oct. 18, which was its second tournament of the season.
 
ETSU’s Tereza Melecka enters Monday ranked third in the conference with a 73.19 scoring average and a low-round 67 that was shot at the River Landing Classic on March 9.
 
UNCG is paced by SoCon scoring leader Tara Bettle, who enters the tournament with a 73.00 stroke average over 14 rounds this season. The Spartans have been the runner-up seven times at the conference championship as they seek for their first-ever team victory. 
 
Seven SoCon golfers have won tournaments this season, including The Citadel’s Nadia Sandler (Coastal Georgia Dual), ETSU’s Melecka (Chattanooga Classic) and Warda Amira Rawof (Terrier Intercollegiate), Mercer’s Schanen (Reynolds Lake Oconee Invitational) and Lauren Lightfritz (Brickyard Collegiate), UNCG’s Bettle (Pinehurst Women’s Intercollegiate) and Chattanooga’s Dorota Zalewska (Terrier Intercollegiate).
 
Furman has won the SoCon tournament 18 times, most recently in 2019, and won nine straight from 1994-2002. Chattanooga owns five titles, while Western Carolina has won the tournament twice (2003, 2007).
 
The Paladins have produced a league-best 17 individual medalists, while Chattanooga has six and ETSU, UNCG and Western Carolina claim one each.
 
The 2020 Southern Conference Women's Golf Championship was cancelled after the league’s Council of Presidents and directors of athletics unanimously voted to cancel all athletics-related activities due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Furman turned in a 14-shot win over runners-up ETSU and Chattanooga in 2019. Chattanooga's Monica San Juan shot a 1-under-par 215 to claim the four-stroke individual win.