WINTER GARDEN, Fla. – The No. 1 University of North Georgia men's golf team tees off in its second round of the 2024 NCAA Men's Golf National Championship today. After finishing Tuesday's play in seventh place with a two-under-par score, the Nighthawks will take to the par-71 Orange County National Golf Center in the early morning hours on Wednesday as they look to make a charge up the leaderboard.
"Not pressing" is going to be a key for UNG in the second round, said head coach Bryson Worley. "It's the National Championship. We're also used to pressure and being in the mix, but you can't worry about that too much on the first morning, the first tee shot."
Course conditions Tuesday made low scores hard to come by for UNG as the team departed the first hole just before noon. High temperatures and consistently strong winds at the relatively unprotected Orange County National were added into the equation for the Nighthawks' five golfers in round one.
However, as junior Hughes Threlkeld heads out in the first tee time today at 7:30 a.m., UNG should have better luck with both the heat and winds in the early hours Wednesday.
Threlkeld starts the day at T12 after posting a two-under 69 in yesterday's round. Threlkeld tied graduate student Will Chambless for the best round of the day among the team. Chambless tees off as the final Nighthawk golfer at 8:14 a.m. today after birdieing three of his final five holes in his opening round.
In the second slot for Worley's team is junior Myles Jones.
Jones utilized five birdies, three of which came on the front nine, in yesterday's round to finish a shot below par and at T19 on the leaderboard. The Cumming, Ga. native tees off today at 7:41 a.m. just behind Threlkeld.
After Jones will be fellow junior Ethan Day who is looking to steady himself after a difficult round of four-over on Tuesday. Day does have some momentum in his clubs after posting the only UNG eagle of the day at the par-4 ninth hole after driving the green and sinking a 12-foot putt.
In the second to last tee-time, ahead of Chambless, is grad student Jack Vajda. The Jack Nicklaus Award Winner finalist shot three-over yesterday after a tumultuous front nine. He paced himself on the back nine, getting aggressive at holes 14 and 18 for a pair of birdies to stay within range of the rest of the field.
Scoring was not difficult for just UNG on Tuesday. The front nine posed numerous challenges for the entire 20-team field on day one. As a team, UNG averaged 35.4 strokes on the par-35 front nine, the entire field averaged 35.7 strokes.
"It's playing really long… long par-3s, long par-4s," said Worley. "The first two holes are tough. You're looking at 480 [yards] and 485 right out of the gate and you have to be okay with making a four or even a five and getting out of there and then taking what the course gives you later on in the day."
The Nighthawks need to remain in the top-8 after Thursday's round to qualify for the match play portion of the National Championship which begins on Friday, May 24.
