NINETY SIX, S.C. – Gardner-Webb's Zack Byers shot a low round of 66 on Friday through 18 holes and won a three-hole playoff to win medalist honors at the 2022 Big South Men's Golf Championship.

Byers (Shelby, N.C. / Shelby HS) won a three-hole playoff – and shot par on each of those holes – to defeat Campbell's Henrik Lilja for the title and the Big South's automatic individual bid to the upcoming NCAA regionals. The field will be announced in two weeks.

The senior is the first golfer in Gardner-Webb's NCAA Division I era – since 2001 – to win an individual title and quality for the NCAA regionals.

Friday's magical run started early, as Byers birdied six of the first seven holes of the morning to charge into the lead. That offset a bogie on No. 2 and he finished the front nine with a 32. He fell back into a tie for third after the turn, but came alive again with consecutive birdies on the 13th and 14th.

He shot par over the next two holes and sank a clutch birdie putt on the 17th to draw even. A par putt on the 18th sealed the chance to play further and break the tie with Lilja. Byers sank nine birdies overall on Friday and finished with a tournament-best 18 birdies over 54 holes.

Byers finished the tournament at 9-under par (207), which is his second-best tournament score of a spectacular 2022 season.

Byers was far from the lone bright spot for the Runnin' Bulldogs, as head coach Tee Burton's squad shot a combined 282 on Friday to finish second in the team standings – pushing the team into Saturday's match play semifinals against Campbell.

The 'Dogs finished just three strokes out of first place and had the lowest team round of any participant on Friday. It was the lowest team round of the entire tournament.

None of the five GWU golfers finished more than two strokes over par on the 7,103-yard layout, and came through with several clutch putts on the more difficult back nine.

Miles Albright finished in a tie for 10th individually, shooting a 73 on Friday with three birdies. Albright (72-70-73-215) played consistently all week and finished with 10 birdies over his 54 holes. 

Jules Bondil came through with a critically important round on Friday, lowering his score by 10 strokes from Thursday's second round. He shot 1-under par (71) to move into a tie for 19th individually. He sank key put on the 18th to pull GWU within three strokes of Charleston Southern. 

Bondil (70-80-71-221) was just six strokes behind Albright by the end of the day.

Peech Bunnadodee (74-76-72-222) was 2-under at the turn and finished even par to pull into a tie for 21st. He had five birdie putts on Friday, including three consecutive on the 12th, 13th and 14th holes.

Max White (81-74-74-229) matched his second round score with a 74 and had four birdies on Friday – including a birdie on the 18th. He finished in a tie for 38th individually.

Charleston Southern held off Gardner-Webb's Friday surge to win the team stroke play title (281-290-285-856). Campbell was six strokes behind Gardner-Webb in third and Radford tied Winthrop for fourth place – with that pair of teams eight strokes behind the lead trio.

Match play rounds begin on Saturday morning at 8:00 am, beginning with the semifinals. The winning team from Saturday's action will receive the Big South's automatic bid to the NCAA Regionals.

Gardner-Webb will tee off at 8:05 am on the 10th hole.