Swift Sits In Second, Bears Tied For Seventh After First Round Of Golfweek Fall Challenge

Sunday, September 6

Pawleys Island, S.C.

All Day

Mercer University

Round 1

Swift Sits In Second, Bears Tied For Seventh After First Round Of Golfweek Fall Challenge

9/6/2026 6:50:00 PM | Men's Golf

By: Rylee Bamberger, rylee.m.bamberger@live.mercer.edu

PAWLEYS ISLAND, S.C. – Nothing goes together better than Phillips Swift and the opening round of the Golfweek Fall Challenge. For the second straight year, the sophomore led the Mercer men's golf team after the first day of play.

Swift, a native of Macon, Georgia, sits tied for second individually after carding a five-under 67 in the first round of the 2026 Golfweek Fall Challenge in Pawleys Island, South Carolina.

The Bears headed into the clubhouse at True Blue Golf Club tied for seventh after shooting two over on the day. Freshman Cooper Franklin finished as Mercer's second-best leading scorer with an opening round of 72. As a unit, Mercer carded the second-most pars (63) of the 16 teams in the field.

Round two of the Golfweek Fall Challenge begins on Monday, September 7. Lukas Lautrup will start the day at 7:30 a.m., with each of his fellow Bears following behind in nine-minute increments.

TEAM LEADERBOARD
Pos.	Team	+/-	Rd 1	Rd 2	Rd 3	Total
1	Georgia Southern	-16	272			272
T2	Troy	-7	281			281
T2	Georgia State	-7	281			281
4	Old Dominion	-4	284			284
5	Eastern Kentucky	-2	286			286
6	Tennessee Tech	E	288			288
T7	Mercer	+2	290			290
T7	UT-Martin	+2	290			290
9	Presbyterian	+4	292			292
10	West Georgia	+7	295			295
T11	Radford	+8	296			296
T11	USC Upstate	+8	296			296
13	Central Arkansas	+9	297			297
14	Murray State	+10	298			298
15	Bellarmine	+11	299			299
16	Missouri State	+13	301			301
MERCER INDIVIDUAL SCORES
T2	Phillips Swift (1)	-5	67			67
T48	Ethan Dufresne (2)	+3	75			75
T26	Cooper Franklin (3)	E	72			72
T72	Lukas Lautrup (4)	+6	78			78
T58	Ryan Curran (5)	+4	76			76