DAHLONEGA – The Golf Coaches Association of America (GCAA) announced University of North Georgia head men's golf coach Bryson Worley as the 2023-24 NCAA Division II Dave Williams National Coach of the Year presented by Golf Pride Grips on Tuesday morning. 

Worley's historic accomplishments continue after earning the first National Coach of the Year honor of his career. He is a three-time Peach Belt Conference Coach of the Year and the only coach in conference history to win the award in three consecutive seasons. Last year, he was a finalist for the Dave Williams National Coach of the Year award before winning the honor this year. 

It's no surprise Worley was honored as the nation's coach of the year after the 2023-24 season he led his team to. It was a year in which the Nighthawks played in 12 tournaments. They won a staggering six, a program record, and finished third or better in 11 of them. As a team, UNG ranked No. 1 in the nation in the GCAA Bushnell/Golfweek Coaches poll for nearly 40 consecutive weeks during the season. The Nighthawks also held the top spot in the Scoreboard powered by Clippd National Rankings for the entirety of the 2023-24 season.

Worley's team started the year with a bang at the Cateechee Fall Invitational in early October. At Cateechee Golf Club in Hartwell, Ga., the Nighthawks completely obliterated the program's previous 54-hole team scoring record. They win the event by 16 strokes with a team score of 815 at 37 stokes under par. All four UNG golfers with counted scores finished four-under or better while junior Ethan Day made his mark with the best 54-hole individual score in UNG men's golf history at 13-under. By the end of the season, Worley's squad had accounted for the three lowest 54-hole team scores in program history. Day, along with graduate student Jack Vajda and senior Stephen Kinsel also combined for five different outings of either 18-hole or 54-hole UNG record scoring marks.

In postseason play, the Nighthawks dominated the PBC Championship, winning the event for the first time in program history. They did so with the 54-hole tournament record team score of 846, beating the field by a stunning 18 strokes. UNG broke a 19-year-old tournament scoring record in the historic win. Vajda himself recorded the third-lowest 18-hole score and second-lowest 54-hole score in PBC Championship history on his way to individual medalist honors.

A few weeks later, Worley and company followed it up with the program's first ever win in the 2024 NCAA South/Southeast Regional Tournament. Hosted by the Nighthawks in Gainesville, Ga. at Chattahoochee Golf Club, UNG won the event by beating out 15 of the nation's top-25 teams by a dominant 10 shots. Vajda won individual medalist honors again.

On an individual basis, Worley coached two PBC All-Conference selections, three GCAA All-Region selections and 2 GCAA All-Americans, the latter of which made the Nighthawks the only school in the country with multiple all-america selections this year. On top of that, Vajda was one of five finalists nationwide for the 2024 NCAA Division II Jack Nicklaus Award.

The GCAA elected to name its coach of the year award after the legendary University of Houston golf coach Dave Williams who won 16 National Championships with the Cougars from 1951-1987. The GCAA extended Williams' honor by naming a coach of the year at each level of collegiate golf (D-I, D-II, D-III, NAIA, NJCAA D-I, NJCAA D-II). Moreover, the GCAA is the only coaches association in America that has given the namesake of its award to one person for every collegiate level of competition. 

Golf Pride Grips will present this year's six selected coaches with their awards during the Hall of Fame Banquet at the GCAA National Convention on December 10. All six GCAA selections of the 2023-24 coaches of the year are as follows:

Division I - Nick Clinard, Auburn
Division II - Bryson Worley, North Georgia
Division III - Steve Conley, Methodist
NAIA - Ben Rickett, Dalton State
NJCAA Division I - Brad Stracke, Odessa
NJCAA Division II - Brad Thornton, Mississippi Gulf Coast