WINTER GARDEN, Fla. – The No. 1 University of North Georgia men's golf team is set to begin competition in the 2024 NCAA Division II National Championship today at Orange County National Golf Center and Lodge in Winter Garden, Fla. 

Making the program's third consecutive appearance in the National Championship, the Nighthawks enter this year's competition with more swagger and pedigree than previous years. 

They arrive in Winter Garden with six wins under their belt this year and only one tournament finish worse than third in the 12 tournaments they participated in this season. Beyond that, UNG also holds the titles of 2024 Peach Belt Conference and South/Southeast Regional Champions, titles previously never held in the program's 15-year history. 

The Nighthawks also boast the nation's top ranking in the Bushnell/Golfweek DII Coaches Poll ahead of the National Championship. After not being ranked as high in the preseason poll, UNG has held the top spot in every poll since the start of the season, spanning over 35 weeks as the team to beat in the country.

Junior Hughes Threlkeld begins the day at 10:26 a.m. for the Nighthawks. Threlkeld enters the National Championship with a pair of top-10 finishes this year, including a T2 finish at the LMU Spring Kickoff back in February. It was there at St. Johns Golf and Country Club that Threlkeld carded three rounds in the 70s en route to the best finish of his career in second place at two-under-par. 

Solidifying depth in head coach Bryson Worley's lineup, Threlkeld has also finished in the top-15 in three different events this year. He's finished top-40 or better in all but one tournament this season, having played in all 12 for UNG.

Following Threlkeld is junior Myles Jones teeing off at 10:37 a.m. While the Cumming, Ga. native has only participated in five events this year for the Nighthawks, he's finished in the top-20 in three of them. 

Most recently, Jones posted three rounds of 70, 74 and 74 to finish T17 in the South/Southeast Regional, marking his second-best finish this season. To make matters worse for the competition, Jones has previous knowledge of Orange County National, having played the course already before. 

After Jones it's standout junior Ethan Day who tees off for UNG at 10:48 a.m. Day has been superb this year for the Nighthawks, being named to the PBC All-Conference Second Team and the PING Southeast All-Region Team. The Dalton, Ga. native has three top-10 finishes this season and made headlines when he etched himself into the UNG record books at the Cateechee Fall Invitational back in early October. 

At Cateechee Golf Club, Day shot a six-under 65 in back-to-back rounds to open the tournament and followed those performances up with a 70 on the final day to finish alone in second place in the tournament. Day's 54-hole score of 13-under-par stands as the new 54-hole individual scoring record in program history. He helped UNG shatter the team 54-hole scoring record in the same event, as the Nighthawks finished a startling 37 shots below par, winning the event by sixteen strokes. 

Following Day is UNG graduate student Jack Vajda who's career accolades read something like a long running receipt with no end in sight. Despite being left off the all-conference team, Vajda joined Day on the PING All-Region Team, just days before he was named a finalist for the Jack Nicklaus Award. Only five golfers across the country are finalists for the award and the winner will be announced June 4 by Nicklaus himself at his annual press conference ahead of the Memorial Tournament in Dublin, Ohio. 

Vajda has been arguably the best golfer in the country since Mar. 25. In that span he's played in four tournaments. He won three of them and finished T8 in the other. Two of those wins came in the biggest tournaments to date this season for the Nighthawks. The first of which was when Vajda finished 12-under-par in the PBC Championship, earning individual medalist honors in the conference championship for the first time in program history.

A few weeks later, Vajda utilized six birdies in his final round at Chattahoochee Golf Club and the South/Southeast Regional to win the event by one shot at eight-under. In total, Vajda has collected seven top-10 finishes and three wins this season. 

Vajda will tee off at 10:59 a.m. as the penultimate golfer in Worley's day one lineup. 

The last Nighthawk on the course today will be graduate student Will Chambless who heads out at 11:10 p.m. 

Chambless, a PBC All-Conference First Team and PING All-Region selection this year, has been one of UNG's most tenacious weapons this season. Hailing from Macon, Ga., Chambless has recorded four top-10 finishes, three top-5 finishes and a win at the GCSU Bobcat Invitational this year. 

At the Bobcat Invitational, Chambless was one of only two players to finish the tournament below par after book ending his outing with a pair of one-under rounds of 69 at the par-70 Golf Club at Cuscowilla on Lake Oconee. 

In the South/Southeast Regional, Chambless went under par in two of his three rounds to finish T11 at even-par in total. 

Today's round marks the first of three from the par-72, 7,388-yard challenge that is Orange County National. A course with small rolling hills, soft bunkers and minimal water hazards poses a unique challenge for players this week. While the rough does not impose too much of a penalty on wayward drives, players will need to be tight and keep the ball straight in order to land in the short grass. 

A key stretch of the golf course comes in the middle of the back nine, setting up for some exciting golf down the stretch. The 523-yard, par-5 14th hole is sandwiched by some difficult par-3s. 13 is listed at 207 yards from the championship tees, while 15 backs players up to an even longer iron at 233 yards. 

After competing in round one, the Nighthawks will make a trip around Orange County National two more times. After 54-holes of stroke play, should UNG be placed in top-8 among the 20-team field, the Nighthawks will advance to the bracket stage of the tournament and compete in medal match play. Teams will be seeded in the bracket based on their finishes in places 1 through 8 in stroke play.