Most of the significant accomplishments in the Wofford College golf record book belong to William McGirt or Andrew Novak.

The two PGA Tour professionals hold the records for tournament victories, scoring average and their names appear on just about every page in the book.

Except one.

Neither McGirt, Novak, or any of the other outstanding past Terrier golfers were able to win the Wofford Invitational.

Ryan Marter became the first and only Terrier in the 32 year history of the championship to claim medalist honors.

“I didn’t know I was going to be the first Wofford guy to win this tournament,” said Marter. “I’m probably going to be thinking about this for a few years,” he said.

The Terrier junior trailed his Wofford teammate Matthew Larkin by 3-shots after the first round of the 54 hole championship.

The teams played 36 holes the first day and the second time around The Country Club of Spartanburg course, Marter matched his first round score of 3-under par 69 and took the lead.

“I got off to a hot start in the first round, then cooled off and got it back towards the end,” he said.

Marter made 3-birdies in his first five holes. On the back nine he ran into trouble on number 13, but after a pair of bogeys he ran off 3-birdies before a final hole bogey left him behind his teammate.

Marter’s second round included an early eagle on his 5th hole and three birdies on the back nine to give him a 1-shot lead over three golfers.

Pierre Viallaneix and Preston Richardson from Western Carolina along with Max Dupree from Upstate were all tied for second with six other golfers within 4-shots of the lead going into the final round.

Marter started his final round with a birdie, but bogeyed two holes on the front to fall into a tie for the lead, but not with the golfers who started closest to him.

Georgia State’s Maxence Mungnier eagled his first hole to come from four behind Marter to within two shots of the leader.

Mungnier’s birdie on the 5th hole followed by Marter’s bogey on number 6 gave the Georgia State golfer the lead.

Both golfers finished the front nine even, but Marter would jump back into the lead with a birdie on the 10th hole.

“I didn’t have it all today. I didn’t make many putts and some of the positions I was in, it was tough to make pars,” he said.

Mungneir got back even with Marter rolling in a birdie on the 11th hole, but a double bogey on number 13 put Marter back on top during a see-saw back nine.

While the Wofford golfer struggled on some of the early holes, his favorite part of the golf course was now in front of him.

“I really like playing 15 through 18. I always play them well in qualifying,” said Marter.

A birdie on number-15 followed by another on 16 gave Marter a three shot lead over Mungnier, but with two holes to play the battle for medalist honors wasn’t over just yet.

On the difficult par-5 17th hole Mungneir carded his second eagle of the day while Marter settled for a par.

The two would play the final hole with Marter holding a 1 shot lead.

Both golfers played the hole well, neither had much of a birdie chance and Marter was able to hold off Mungnier by a shot for the first win by a Terrier in their own tournament.

“This was my first win in four years. The last time I got a win was back in high school. The nerves almost got to me today,” Marter admitted.

The tournament victory follows a strong individual finishes at the recent Furman Intercollegiate where Marter shot a 5-under par final round.

It moved him up from 24th place to a tie for third and established a new personal best score for a tournament with his 211 finish and his first top-10 of the season.

“I shot 5-under to sneak into the top-3 and that gave me a lot of confidence for this tournament. After the way I played at Furman I knew I could go out here and get it done,” he said.

Viallaneix fell back into a third place tie with Francis Marion’s Grant Sellers at 211. USC Upstates’s Dupree and Western Carolina’s Richardson finished in a tie for 5th place.

Larkin, who had the first round lead, finished in a tie for 7th place helping the Terrier’s finish in a tie with Western Carolina for second place.

After trailing the Catamounts after the first round Georgia State took control of the tournament. The Panthers went on to claim an impressive 12-shot victory for the team title.

The Wofford Invitational is the last regular season event for the Terriers. Wofford will begin play in the SoCon men’s championship on Monday April 19th at Reynolds Lake Oconee in Greensboro, Georgia.

With a second and third place finish in their last two tournaments the Terriers hope they can continue the momentum into the SoCon tournament.

“I’m not sure who the favorite will be, Furman or ETSU, but I feel like our guys can compete with them. We got things clicking, We can be there, ” concluded the only Terrier to ever win the Wofford Invitational.

Complete scoring for the Wofford Invitational is available at GolfStat.

http://results.golfstat.com/public/leaderboards/gsnav.cfm?pg=team&tid=21238