MCCORMICK, S.C. – The No. 2 University of North Georgia men's golf team dominated the 2024 Bearcat Fall Invitational this week, opening the season with a tournament win. The Nighthawks have now won the opening event of a season for three straight years, all of which have been Lander's fall invite. 

On Tuesday, UNG was led by senior Ethan Day who purely tore up Monticello Golf Club in the final round of the tournament. His efforts helped the Nighthawks finish 28-under-par, standing head and shoulders (seven shots clear) above the 19-team field, half of which are currently ranked in the Golf Coaches Association of America (GCAA) top-25. 

Day's final round started with a birdie on the first hole. He would repeat that fate on the third, but his first bogey of the day came on the very next hole, the par-3 fourth. After two more birdies, Day made the turn at three-under for the round and seven-under for the tournament.

He stumbled out of the turn, bogeying the par-4 10th hole. What happened next immediately became one of the most impressive runs of the season despite it being the leadoff tournament. Day birdied five of the final eight holes on his way into the clubhouse. He ended the day with a seven-under 65, finishing the invitational at 11-under, one shot shy of individual medalist Cooper Tendick of No. 4 West Florida. 

As has been par for the course in recent history for UNG men's golf, Day and the team made room for themselves in the record book on Tuesday. Day's seven-under 65 is tied for the second-lowest round in program history. His 11-under finish over 54 holes puts him all alone in third place for the best tournament score in school history. As a team, the Nighthawks' startling mark of 28 shots below par is the second-best 54-hole score in program history, besting last year's Bearcat Fall Invitational mark of 23-under. 

While Tuesday was highlighted by Day's performance, other names helped UNG dominate the golf course as well. Senior Hughes Threlkeld finished two shots and two places behind Day at nine-under. Last season, Threlkeld had one top-5 finish in the 14 tournaments he participated in. At Monticello, Threlkeld was clearly comfortable and in control of his game, shooting nine-under in the first two rounds before finishing with an even-par 72 on the final day. 

A new name and face stood out as UNG's third-best finisher on Tuesday. Sophomore Colby Bennett finished in 10th place at four-under-par which included a three-under second round and one-under final round. Bennett played just 10 rounds over four events last season. He averaged 72.8 strokes per round and his best finish was T13 at the Cateechee Fall Invitational. The Bearcat Invitational was perhaps a coming out party for a golfer who is another example of the talent and depth head coach Bryson Worley has stockpiled on his roster. 

Coming in behind Bennett was graduate student Jack Vajda who shot even-par Tuesday, finishing in 22nd place at two-under in total for the tournament. 

With the win, UNG has now won 10 of its last 29 tournaments dating back to the 2022-23 season. In other words, the Nighthawks have better than a 30 percent chance to go out and win a given event. In those 29 events over the last two plus seasons, UNG has finished worse than fourth place just twice. The two times it did were fifth and sixth place finishes. 

The levels of dominance the Nighthawks are accomplishing has reached jaw dropping levels. It's arrived at the point where this level of success has become not only the expectation but the standard in Worley's program. Returning to the National Championship for the second year in-a-row will be no easy task. However, the Nighthawks made a statement Tuesday. If anybody's prepared to conquer the difficult tasks, it's them.