The Furman Lady Paladins reclaimed the championship of the Southern Conference with a four-shot victory in the tournament played on the Dye Course at Barefoot Landing in North Myrtle Beach.

Furman won the school’s 19th conference championship as well as the SoCon’s automatic bid to the NCAA Regionals that begin on May 9th.

“It’s really exciting to win this championship,” said Furman head coach Jeff Hull.  “Conditions were tough today, and our players really fought hard,” said the Lady Paladin coach. 

Furman held the highest Golfstat ranking in the conference going into the tournament.

“Going in we felt like we were the best team. We felt if we played our own game and minimized mistakes we would be okay,” he said.

For most of the tournament the Lady Paladins did just that, but in the final round it got close.

“We made some mistakes coming in, but Sarah (Eve Rheaume) got us going on the back nine,” said the Furman coach.

Rheaume, the defending SoCon individual champion, eagled the par-5 12th hole to give the Lady Paladins a little breathing room.

While Furman’s top player, Anna Morgan, had a good tournament finishing in a tie for ninth place, the four other golfers helped the Lady Paladins wrap up the victory.

Sophia Burnett took the opening round lead with a 2-under par 70 and held the lead when the weather delayed second round was completed.

Kyra Cox shot a final round 3-over par 75, but her four birdies in five holes on the back nine tied Morgan for the second best score in the final round and helped keep Furman in the lead.

Freshman Savannah Hylton contributed two counting rounds during the tournament and like Cox finished in the top-30.

“The best thing about today was that everyone contributed. It was a total team effort,” said Hull.

The Lady Paladins finished four-shots in front of Wofford, but not before giving their coach a little scare when three of the Lady Paladins double-bogeyed the final hole.

“The 18th hole was kind of interesting, but we played really solid, and we’re so excited to bring the SoCon Championship back home,” concluded Hull.

Furman was second last year, one-shot behind East Tennessee State. There was no tournament in 2020 because of the pandemic so the victory was Furman’s first since 2019.

Furman will find out their NCAA Regional assignment on April 27th.

SoCon Women’s Championship scores https://results.golfstat.com//public/leaderboards/gsnav.cfm?pg=team&tid=25300