Wake Forest is in fifth place entering Tuesday’s final round of a 54-hole men’s tournament at The Dunes Golf and Beach Club in Myrtle Beach.
Wake, eighth after Sunday’s first round, shot 3-under-par 285 Monday to improve to 2-over for the tournament, 16 strokes behind team-leading Auburn. Louisville, Duke and Baylor round out the top five in 16-team field. The Dunes Club will play host to $4-million PGA Tour event in May.
Ethan Evans of Duke shot 66 Monday to grab a three-shot lead at 9-under 135. Wake’s Scotty Kennon is fourth at 139. Nick Mathews of N.C. State, a Mebane native, is at 154.
The UNC Greensboro men’s golf team won their fourth tournament of the 2024-2025 school year, romping to a 16-stroke victory at the Sea Palms Invitational on Saturday at Sea Palms Resort on St. Simons Island, Georgia.
Freshman Jake Lewis led the Spartans with a second-place finish at 9-under-par 204 in the 36-hole tournament. The Spartans’ Jake Marcotte finished fourth at 207.
UNCG’s top player, Kelvin Hernandez, who entered the final round tied with Lewis for the individual lead, tumbled down the leaderboard after shooting 79 to finish at 212.
UNCG shot 21-under 831 — even-par in the final round — to easily hold off second-place Davidson in the 20-team tourney.
The Spartans will stay in the Brunswick Islands to play in a tournament at Sea Island Resort’s Seaside Course on Monday and Tuesday.
Winston-Salem native Anna Howerton won both her matches for High Point University as the Panthers won the Battle of the Triad women’s golf dual match against Elon University on Saturday at High Point Country Club’s Willow Creek Course.
Howerton, who beat Ashley LaFountaine 3 and 1 and Kelly Zhao 2 and 1, had seven birdies on the day with an eagle on the par-5 seventh in the morning.
The Panthers won the match-play format competition 11.5-4.5 in cool, overcast conditions. The players, who rode carts, played in foursomes with two separate matches in the morning before playing in twosomes to speed play in the afternoon.
Swiss freshman Anais Arafi also won two matches for HPU. Annie Wu had one victory and one tie for Elon.
HPU resumes tournament play Friday in an event hosted by Wofford at Moss Creek Golf Club in Bluffton, South Carolina, just off Hilton Head Island. Elon begins Friday at The City of Oaks Collegiate at N.C. State’s Lonnie Poole Golf Course.
UNC Greensboro teammates Kelvin Hernandez and Jake Lewis are tied for the lead at 9-under-par 133 after Friday second round of a 54-hole tournament at Sea Palms Golf Resort on St. Simons Island, Georgia.
As a team, the Spartans hold a formidable 15-stroke lead at 21-under over second-place Villanova in a 20-team field. Richmond is third at 3-under.
Lewis shot a tournament-low 63 and Hernandez carded 64 on Thursday. Both shot 70 on Friday. UNCG’s Jack Marcotte is tied for 10th at 139.
Spence recently completed a renovation of Dunedin, an original Donald Ross design on the Gulf Coast, just north of St. Petersburg.
Forbes focuses on Spence’s discovery of Ross’ original and larger greens complexes and his restoration.
A Missouri native, Spence is regarded as an expert at Ross renovations with experience in restorations at more than two dozen Ross courses.
Locally, the Ross designs he has renovated include Sedgefield Country Club and Forsyth Country Club. He has also completed high-profile renovations at Ross courses such as Roaring Gap Club, Grove Park Inn and Cape Fear Country Club.
Despite a massive slowdown in the design and construction of new courses throughout the country, Spence has stayed busy with high-profile renovations.
Spence has also earned a few high-profile design opportunities. Quixote Club, opened in 2021 in Sumter, South Carolina, has gathered worldwide praise, placing No. 19 on Golf Digest’s list of South Carolina’s top courses. At Quixote, Spence built a new design on the site of modest former course.
With ample justification, Anna Howerton took lofty goals into the “spring” golf season at High Point University.
“I’d love to be a contributor to bringing a Big South Championship to High Point,” Howerton told TriadGolf.com on Tuesday. “I’d like to be the Big South Conference Player of the Year.”
Lofty goals, yes. Cocky or arrogant? No. Just honest. And realistic given Howerton’s track record, which prompted Big South coaches to pick the Winston-Salem native as their 2025 Preseason Player of the Year.
Howerton was Big South Freshman of the Year last year, with individual highlights including winning the UNC Greensboro Collegiate and finishing third in both the Big South Conference Championship and the 19-team Golfweek Intercollegiate won by the Panthers at Caledonia Golf and Fish Club in Pawleys Island, South Carolina.
Howerton has made a strong start to the current spring season. She went 3-0 in a match-play event with Samford, Gardner-Webb and The Citadel at Charleston (S.C.) Municipal Golf Course and followed with a tie for sixth at 3-over-par 219 as the Panthers won a 14-team event at nearby RiverTowne Country Club. Earlier this month, she tied for eighth individually as HPU finished seventh in a 16-team field in Jacksonville, Florida.
In the first match of the fall 2024 season, Howerton shot a bogey-free (first in collegiate competition) 66 in a return to Caledonia.
“I’m having fun. I’m in a good place,” Howerton said. “I’m really starting to see my potential. I’m really feeling I can do this at an elite level.”
At Reagan High, Howerton often played in the team’s individual No. 1 lineup spot (based on previous scores) on a team was voted the nation’s top prep team by the National High School Golf Association and included Wake Forest star Macy Pate and Virginia Tech standout Morgan Ketchum.
Howerton (right) teamed with Macy Pate (center) and Morgan Ketchum to win two state titles at Reagan High.
“Playing with them, really upped my drive,” Howerton said.
Next up: a duel Saturday with local rival Elon University in “The Battle of the Triad,” at High Point Country Club’s Willow Creek course. Players on each team will play two matches. All eight players on the HPU roster will take part. Elon, which has nine players, have their No. 8 and 9 players play in one match each.
Despite shooting 77 (HPU’s best score) in cold, wet and windy conditions at the final round in Jacksonville, Howerton has a 71.93 scoring average as a sophomore.
“That was a test of my mental game,” Howerton said. “I had to knuckle down and stay level-headed.”
Howerton and the Panthers have about a month to prepare for the Big South tournament at Fripp Island, S.C. That’s where High Point can earn an automatic NCAA regionals berth with a conference title.
As a mid-major, HPU has little chance of receiving an at-large berth. The Panthers enter the match with Elon at No. 94 in the national rankings.
Howerton is No. 254 in the individual rankings. With few, if any, opportunities to play the highly ranked players from power conferences such as the SEC or ACC, moving up the rankings is especially difficult. At 5-foot-3 with a slender, athletic build, she has a solid, all-around game, but doesn’t enjoy a significant distance advantage off the tee.
A “people person” and finance major who maintains that she has no desire for the lonely rigors of the LPGA Tour, Howerton still makes five-hour drives to see instructor Rickey Sullivan at Bulls Bay Golf Club, north of Charleston. After the sessions, she makes the return trip home.
“It’s not something I see myself doing forever,” Howerton said of a potential career traveling alone on the road. “I’m definitely trying to play as well as I can now, but I don’t aspire to do this after college.”
Howerton sees this weekend’s event as a milestone. In past years, HPU has played a similar event with UNC Greensboro, but not at Willow Creek, the Panthers’ “home” course.
“It’ll be a really cool event,” Howerton said. “I don’t think we’ve ever hosted an event at Willow Creek.”
There’s been a major shakeup at one of the Triad’s best-known golf facilities.
The husband-wife team of Eddie and Jane Stephens have left their positions as general manager and food and beverage director, respectively, at Forest Oaks Country Club.
Multiple sources told TriadGolf.com that the couple left their positions a few weeks ago after a falling out with owner Terry Lee, and that director of golf Codey Adams was filling the GM role. While serving as Forest Oaks GM, Eddie Stephens maintained a Greensboro wealth management office.
Eddie Stephens, who grew up as a member of the course, was a catalyst in Lee’s decision to buy the club in 2019 and make improvements. Forest Oaks had suffered instability under the Japanese Nisshin Corp., which hired eight different management groups and neglected the facilities after the PGA Tour’s Greater Greensboro Open returned to Sedgefield Country Club in 2007 after 31 years at Forest Oaks.
With its somewhat isolated location in southeast Guilford County, Forest Oaks was unable to sustain itself as an entirely private club and accepted outside golf play in recent years.
Forest Oaks was actually locked and closed in 2014 due to unpaid debts. Lee purchased the club the land sits on for $1.2 million.
With Stephens as GM and limited partner, improvements were made to amenities such as the swimming pool and tennis courts and a simulator room was added for members. Last year in a cover story in Triad Golf Magazine, Stephens said that management with his family and the Lees had “hit our stride.”
Reached Wednesday, Stephens texted, “All I can say is … ‘I wish them the best.'”
The University of North Carolina women’s golf set a school record Tuesday by posting a 31-under-par total for 54 holes to romp to an 11-shot victory over Kansas in the 12-team Yale Invitational West at PGA West in LaQuinta, California.
Ing Iadpluem finished second in the individual race for the No. 15 Tar Heels at 11-under 205 after a final-round 71. Helen Yeung was fourth at 208 and Reagan Southerland was fifth at 209.
Virginia Tech, with Triad natives Morgan Ketchum and Emily Mathews in the lineup, finished fourth at even-par for the tournament. Both shot 72 in the final round. Ketchum tied for 19th at even, one shot ahead of Mathews. The Hokies finished two shots better than the fifth-place team, No. 12 Vanderbilt, the highest-ranked team in the field.
A small city at one edge of the Triad has a new golf professional at one club and one on the way at another.
Veteran Triad golf professional Andy Cardwell is the new pro at Mt. Airy County Club. Cardwell told Triad Golf Magazine that he would take over his new duties on March 24.
Currently the golf professional at Deep Springs Country Club in Stoneville, Cardwell previously served as general manager at Oak Valley Golf Club in Advance.
Less than a mile down the road (Greenhill/Country Club roads) from Mt. Airy CC, Timmy Brant has left Cross Creek Country Club and taken a sales position with an out-of-town company, Triad Golf Magazine has learned. A replacement has not yet been announced by the club.
Brant, a Mt. Airy native, was brought back to Cross Creek after Skip and Cathy Eckenrod bought the club in October 2020. The Eckenrods own Interlam, a Mt. Airy-based designer and manufacturer of sculpted wall panels.
Brant had worked at several N.C. courses, serving as head pro at High Meadows Club in Roaring Gap before going to Cross Creek, which has an 18-hole Joe Lee design open to public play with several amenities for members.
Triad golfers Morgan Ketchum and Emily Mathews made strong showings with the Virginia Tech women’s team on Monday at the Yale Invitational West at PGA West at LaQuinta, California.
Ketchum shot 2-under-par 70 and Mathews posted 71 for the Hokies, who are in seventh place. North Carolina is running away from the field with a 10-shot lead at 22-under 554. The Tar Heels, ranked 15th in the nation, are one of five top-30 teams in the 12-team field, led by No. 12 Vanderbilt.
Ketchum is in 20th place in the individual standings at even-par. Mathews is in 26th at 1-over. Ing Iadpluem of UNC leads the individuals at 10-under.
———————————–
Guilford College tied for eighth and Greensboro College placed 12th in the 20-team field at the Tiger Invitational, which concluded Tuesday at Forest Creek Country Club’s North Course in Pinehurst.
Methodist, ranked No. 2 in Division III won the event at 9-under-par 567 in the 36-hole event, beating second-place Babson College by nine 11 strokes. Sewanee, Emory and Hampden-Sydney rounded out the top five in the team race at the Tom Fazio-designed layout.
Chase Watts of Methodist was medalist at 10-under 134. Triad native Evan Mendyk, ranked 12th in Division III, tied for 29th at 148, for Guilford. Luke Wise finished at 151 for the Quakers. Triad native Ethan Cuddeback and Brevin Knight led Greensboro with 152.
————————————-
Elon was in seventh place after the opening day of the scheduled, 54-hole Babygrande Donald Ross Collegiate at Mid-Pines Golf Club in Southern Pines. Chattanooga led the 20-team field at 10-under, 18 strokes ahead of Elon and five on top of second-place George Mason, when play was suspended in Monday afternoon’s second round due to darkness.
