GREENSBORO, Ga. – The 2022 Southern Conference Men’s Golf Championship will be played April 22-24 at The Oconee Course at Reynolds Lake Oconee in Greensboro, Georgia. This will be the second straight year the tournament will be played at the par-72, 7,393-yard Rees Jones-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 eight teams – 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 he is not on the winning team.
 
ETSU is the defending champion after winning its 21^st SoCon title last season, its first since 2017, at Reynolds Lake Oconee on April 19-20. The Bucs posted a 5-under-par 859 to secure an 8-stroke victory over runner-up Western Carolina, concluding the tournament as the only team to finish under par and ending UNCG’s run of two straight titles. ETSU had three players finish in the top 10, with redshirt freshman Archie Davies claiming medalist honors for the Bucs, nabbing his first collegiate win, and Trevor Hulbert tying for fifth and Jack Rhea finishing seventh.
 
Davies shot a 9-under-par 207 last season to defeat Western Carolina’s Louis Theys by three strokes and is back in the field this season seeking to become just the eighth back-to-back SoCon champion all-time and the first since Western Carolina’s J.T. Poston won in 2014 and 2015.
 
Davies and redshirt sophomore Chartier are the lone returners at this year’s tournament for the Bucs, who bring two freshmen, one redshirt freshman and one sophomore to Greensboro, including Mats Ege, who is ninth in the SoCon this season with a 72.13 stroke average, Algot Kleen, who is 18^th in the league this season with a 73.21 stroke average, and Ben Carberry and Jack Tickle, who are 19th and 29^th in the SoCon with 73.33 and 74.17 stroke averages, respectively. Davies is third in the SoCon with a 70.19 stroke average, while Chartier follows close behind in fourth with a 71.54 average.
 
Western Carolina had two top-10 finishers in 2021, while Furman had two en route to a third-place team finish behind the Buccaneers and the Catamounts. Western Carolina posted a 3-over-par 867 performance, while the Paladins finished with a 14-over-par 878.
 
ETSU enters the 2022 tournament as the top-ranked SoCon team, as the Bucs are 30^th in the Golfstat rankings, followed by UNCG at No. 78. Furman is No. 94, while Chattanooga is No. 136 and Mercer is No. 143, with the league boasting seven teams in the top 150 nationally.
 
ETSU owns 21 SoCon team titles, while Furman has 13 and Chattanooga has six to its credit. Furman’s last was in 2010 and Chattanooga claimed consecutive titles in 2012 and 2013.
 
The Buccaneers have a league-best 16 individual medalists to its credit, followed closely by Furman with 14. Western Carolina has five, and UNCG, Chattanooga and Wofford claim two each.
 
Mercer’s Tobias Jonsson, who leads the league with a 69.96 stroke average, enters this weekend’s tournament ranked No. 77 nationally. Archie Davies sits at No. 36 in the national rankings, while UNCG’s Nick Lyerly is ranked No. 74.

Seven SoCon golfers have won tournaments this season, including ETSU’s Davies (Hootie at Bulls Bay), Mercer’s Jonsson (Wexford Intercollegiate), Chattanooga’s Braedon Wear (J.T. Poston Invitational), UNCG’s Lyerly (WolfPack Intercollegiate, Grandover Collegiate), Western Carolina’s Jake Peacock (EKU Intercollegiate) and Wofford’s Harry Jones (Golfweek Fall Invitational) and Cedric Otten (Wofford Invitational).
 
The Southern Conference Men’s Golf Championship boasts a rich history. Dating back to 1930, the tournament has produced winners such as Wake Forest’s Arnold Palmer (1948 and 1949) and Furman’s Brad Faxon (1983), both SoCon Hall-of-Famers, and current PGA TOUR pros Stephan Jaeger of Chattanooga (2012), J.T. Poston of Western Carolina (2014 and 2015) and William McGirt of Wofford (2001).
 
The tournament tees off with twosomes at 8:05 a.m. Friday. Live stats can be found here.