SPARTANBURG, S.C. – A chance to defend your home course isn't an opportunity that arises very often in collegiate golf, but USC Upstate women's golf was presented that exact opportunity this week at the Wofford Intercollegiate at Carolina Country Club and the Spartans rose to the task as both the team and redshirt junior Preaw Nontarux took home event championships Tuesday afternoon.
 
Entering the final round sitting fifth on the leaderboard and nine strokes off the lead, Upstate took it upon itself to erase the deficit, doing so with an incredible stretch of golf over the final six holes on a very tough Carolina Country Club course. The stretch of holes (No. 13-18) added an average of 8.3 strokes to individual scores over the three rounds and included three of the toughest holes on the golf course in the final two rounds.
 
Over this stretch, the Spartans finished even par with each member of the team's fivesome carding a birdie on the 18^th hole. Each of the teams Upstate competed with for the team championship (North Alabama, UNC Asheville, Samford, and South Dakota) finished six or more strokes over par over the stretch, allowing Upstate to claim the team title behind scores of 309-302-297-908.
 
Leading to her claim at the top of the leaderboard, Nontarux took the team's lead over the final six holes, as she finished the stretch two-under-par to claim medalist honors. Beginning the 13^th hole, she found herself four shots back from the lead as groupmate Madyson Gold of UNC Asheville held the lead, however, Nontarux matched and exceeded Gold over the stretch and claimed the tournament championship by a single stroke, using scores of 71-74-72-217.
 
Along with Nontarux's first-place finish, Upstate also saw another pair of golfers, redshirt senior Beem Pabsimma and junior Suwarin Yord-in, claim top-15 finishes as both tied for 14^th. Pabsimma claimed the spot as she carded marks of 76-77-74-227 while Yord-in wrote in scores of 79-73-75-227.
 
Scoring Summary
USC Upstate (309-302-297-908) – 1^st
Preaw Nontarux (71-74-72-217) – 1^st
Beem Pabsimma (76-77-74-227) – t-14^th
Suwarin Yord-in (79-73-75-227) – t-14^th
Ashley Looper (83-81-76-240) – t-52^nd
Elin Wahlgren (88-78-81-247) – t-66^th
 
Notable

• Closing the final round on a high note, Upstate was the only team to have each team member card a birdie on the 18^th hole in the same round with only two teams having three birdies on the 18^th hole in the same round over the entire tournament.
• Upstate's final round 297 tied for the lowest team round of the tournament, standing as the lone sub-300 round of Tuesday's final round.
• Leading to her first career medalist honors, Preaw Nontarux finished top-three in the tournament field in three statistical categories, leading the field in Par-5 Scoring (4.75; -3), ranking second in Par-4 Scoring (4.07; +2), and third in total pars (37).
• Suwarin Yord-in brought home another pair of top-five statistical finishes for the Spartans as she tied for the field lead in total birdies with 11 and tied for fifth in Par-5 Scoring (4.83; -2).
• Adding top-10 statistical finishes for Upstate, Beem Pabsimma and Elin Wahlgren tied for ninth in the event field in Par-3 Scoring (3.08; +1) while Nontarux tied for eight in total birdies with eight.

 
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