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SPARTANBURG, S.C. – The 2017 Southern Conference Women’s Golf Championship will be played Sunday through Tuesday at the Country Club of Lexington in Lexington, South Carolina. The Ed Riccaboni course will play at par-72, 6,153 yards.
Tenth-ranked Furman will be looking for its third straight title and 16th overall in the 24th edition of the annual tournament. Chattanooga has five titles to its credit, earned consecutively from 2010-14, while Western Carolina won in 2003 and 2007 and former league member College of Charleston won in 2006.
The Paladins cruised to a 14-stroke win over Chattanooga last year, putting four players in the top five. Alice Chen, who was named SoCon Co-Player of the Year after the tournament, was tied for the individual lead at 2-over-par 218 after regulation but fell to Chattanooga’s Megan Woods in a playoff to settle for runner-up honors for the second straight season. 2015 medalist and SoCon Player of the Year Taylor Totland and 2016 SoCon Freshman of the Year Haylee Harford tied for third, one stroke back, while Valentina Romero tied for fifth. Totland, Chen and Harford, the last three league freshmen of the year, are all back for Furman this year.
Harford is the league’s top-ranked golfer at No. 28 nationally, according to GolfStat, and has tied for medalist honors three times this academic year. Totland is ranked 44th, Chen is 50th and freshman Natalie Srinivasan is No. 86 as the Paladins’ tournament lineup boasts four golfers inside the top 100. Chen also owns a win this year, as she claimed the Central District Invitational in February.
As a team, Furman has finished in the top six in all nine of its events this academic year, with eight top-three finishes. The Paladins earned wins at the Minnesota Invitational in the fall and the Central District Invitational and Brickyard Collegiate in the spring. Furman leads the league with a team stroke average of 289.22.
ETSU (77), Chattanooga (82) and Mercer (90) are also ranked in the top 100 nationally. The Bucs’ Loy Hee Ying, whose 72.15 stroke average is 0.07 strokes ahead of Harford’s for the league lead, is ranked No. 56 nationally. Loy has turned in seven top-10 finishes in nine tournaments this year with a pair of wins, including tying for medalist honors with Harford at the Brickyard Collegiate to end the regular season.
ETSU has finished in the top 10 in each of its nine tournaments, winning the Web.com Intercollegiate the week after a runner-up finish at the River Landing Classic. The Bucs are second in the league with a 298.50 stroke average, just ahead of Chattanooga’s 299.79 mark. The Mocs are led by sophomore Monica San Juan’s 74.76 stroke average. Chattanooga has had five of the last six medalists, and Woods enters the 2017 tournament vying to become first repeat winner since Furman’s Stefanie Kenoyer claimed consecutive wins in 2008 and 2009.
Mercer closed its fall schedule and opened the spring with consecutive teams wins at the Idle Hour Collegiate and JU Amelia Island Intercollegiate, respectively.
The Paladins have produced a league-best 14 individual medalists, while Chattanooga has five and Appalachian State, College of Charleston, Western Carolina and UNCG own one each.
The winner of the 24th 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 at 11 a.m. EDT on Thursday, April 27.
The SoCon tournament tees off at 8 a.m. Sunday.
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