NORTH MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. – The 2022 Southern Conference Women’s Golf Championship will be played Sunday, Monday and Tuesday at Barefoot Landing Resort’s Dye Golf Course in North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. This will be the first year the tournament will be played at the par-72, 6,004-yard Pete Dye-designed course.
 
After playing 54 holes over two days in 2021, this season’s tournament returns to the traditional format of one round a day over three days.
 
The league’s nine teams – The Citadel, ETSU, Furman, Mercer, UNC Greensboro, Samford, Chattanooga, Western Carolina and Wofford – will be competing for the SoCon tournament title and an automatic bid to the NCAA Regionals. The individual medalist will also earn an automatic regional qualification if she is not on the winning team.
 
ETSU is the defending champion after winning its first SoCon title last season, at Oak Point Golf Course in Johns Island, South Carolina. The Bucs posted a 12-over-par 876 to claim a 1-stroke victory over runner-up Furman, ending the Paladins’ run of five straight titles. ETSU had four players finish in the top 10, with Tereza Melecka tying for third, Grace Chin finishing sixth, Julia Goodson taking seventh and Warda Amira Rawof tying for ninth.
 
Chin, a sophomore, is the lone returner at this year’s tournament for the Bucs, who bring three freshmen to North Myrtle Beach, including Sera Hasegawa, who is second in the SoCon this season with a 72.75 stroke average. ETSU’s lone upperclassman competing this weekend, Hollie Muse, is sixth in the league with a 73.73 stroke average.
 
Furman senior Sarah-Eve Rhéaume is the defending individual champion. Rhéaume shot a 4-under-par 212 last season to edge teammate Madison Moosa by one stroke for her first career title and is back in the field this season seeking to become just the fourth back-to-back SoCon champion all-time and the first since Furman’s Stefanie Kenoyer won in 2008 and 2009.
 
The Paladins enter this year’s tournament as the No. 45 team in the Golfstat rankings, with No. 66 ETSU and No. 78 Mercer, which finished third at the SoCon tournament last season, joining them in the top 100.
 
Furman’s Anna Morgan, who leads the league with a 71.88 stroke average, is the top-ranked individual player in the SoCon this season, as she enters this weekend’s tournament ranked No. 32 nationally. ETSU’s Hasegawa is also in the top 100 at No. 99.
 
Six of the SoCon’s nine squads – ETSU, Furman, Mercer, Samford, Western Carolina and Wofford – have won tournaments this season. Six players in this year’s field – ETSU’s Muse and Sophie Bert, Furman’s Morgan, Samford’s Sophie Membrino, Chattanooga’s Dorota Zalewska and Wofford’s Becca Earl – have earned individual titles during the 2021-22 campaign.
 
The Southern Conference Women’s Golf Championship was first conducted in 1994. Furman owns the most team titles with 18, including the first nine, while Chattanooga has won five titles, all consecutively from 2010-14. Western Carolina owns two team titles (2003 and 2007) and ETSU (2021) and former SoCon member College of Charleston (2006) boast one each.
 
The Paladins have produced a league-best 17 individual medalists, while Chattanooga has six and UNCG and Western Carolina and former members App State and College of Charleston claim one each.
 
The tournament tees off with threesomes at 8 a.m. Sunday. Live stats can be found here.