SoCon Women's Golf Championship page
SPARTANBURG, S.C. – The 2016 Southern Conference Women’s Golf Championship will be played Sunday through Tuesday at Savannah Quarters in Pooler, Ga., just outside of Savannah. This is the second year for the tournament at the par-72, 6,116-yard course.
Furman will be looking for its record 15th SoCon title and second in a row after unseating five-time defending champion Chattanooga last year. Backed by individual medalist Taylor Totland and runner-up Alice Chen, the Paladins shot a tournament-record 6-under-par 858 to outdistance the Mocs, who finished 22 strokes back at 880. Furman was rewarded with a sweep of the individual awards, as Totland was named SoCon Player of the Year, Chen SoCon Freshman of the Year and Kelley Hester SoCon Coach of the Year. The Paladins also placed a league-record five players on the all-conference team, with Laura DeMarco, Reona Hirai and Valentina Romero joining Totland and Chen on the squad.
The 2015 edition of the tournament rewrote the SoCon record book. In addition to Furman breaking the team 54-hole scoring mark, Chattanooga, Samford (881), Western Carolina (891) and Wofford (891) all finished under the previous record of 894, set in 2003.
Furman also set new single-round (284) and 36-hole (573) marks in addition to setting records for each round of play.
Individually, Totland and Samford’s Bailey Gray matched the tournament’s single-round record with 68s, while Totland’s 54-hole score of 8-under 208 shaved four strokes off the previous record.
This year should see another tough battle for both the team and individual titles. Chattanooga senior Emily McLennan leads the league with a 72.97 stroke average this season, with the Furman trio of Chen (73.38), Totland (73.58) and freshman Haylee Harford (73.63) and ETSU freshman Hee Ying Loy (73.70) right on her heels.
In the team race, 22nd-ranked Furman is coming off a second-place finish in a strong field at the Clemson Invitational. The Paladins won a pair of tournaments in the fall and finished in the top three in three of their four spring events. Furman paces the SoCon with a 293.46 team stroke average.
Chattanooga, ranked 65th nationally according to Golfstat, has posted seven top-three finishes this academic year, including a win each in the fall and spring. The Mocs are second in the league with a 296.44 stroke average.
ETSU also checks in with a top-100 ranking at No. 93 nationally. Led by Loy, who has posted top-three finishes in two of her last three outings, the Bucs boast a 299.67 stroke average.
Furman won nine straight SoCon titles from 1994-2002 before earning consecutive crowns in 2004-05 and again in 2008-09. Chattanooga’s five titles came from 2010-14, while Western Carolina has won the tournament twice (2003, 2007) and former SoCon member College of Charleston won in 2006.
The Paladins have produced a league-best 14 individual medalists, while Chattanooga has four and Appalachian State, College of Charleston, Western Carolina and UNCG own one each.
The winner of the 23rd edition of the SoCon Championship will earn the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA regionals. The NCAA field will be announced live on the Golf Channel during “Golf Central” from 6-7 p.m. EDT on Monday, April 25.
The SoCon tournament tees off at 8 a.m. Sunday. Live stats can be found at http://www.golfstatresults.com/public/leaderboards/gsnav.cfm?pg=participants&tid=10048.
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