(AUGUSTA, Ga.) – With a dominant performance that saw the Nighthawks lead the field by a whopping 18 strokes, the No. 1 University of North Georgia men’s golf team won the 2024 Peach Belt Conference Championship for the first time in program history.
After finishing in third place in the event two years ago and second place last year, head coach Bryson Worley and his team finally broke through Sunday to hoist the PBC trophy. The Nighthawks not only won the tournament for the first time but they did so in historic fashion.
At 18-under-par, UNG broke the PBC Championship 54-hole record with a team overall score of 846. The team broke USC Aiken’s record of 852 strokes set back in 2005 on its way to the wire-to-wire win.
Graduate student Jack Vajda also made history with his performance in the tournament, both within UNG and PBC Championship ranks.
With a final-round, even-par 72 on Sunday, Vajda ran away with the tournament and earned individual medalist honors at 12-under-par, finishing five shots ahead of the next closest competitor.
After back-to-back rounds of six-under 66 in the first two days of the tournament, Vajda continued his hot start with three straight birdies right out of the gate on Sunday. It wasn’t until the fourth hole, Vajda’s 40th hole of the tournament, that he made his first bogey of the entire weekend. He responded with back-to-back birdies at holes 5 and 6.
As weather conditions worsened with both wind and rain on the back nine, Vajda fell back a few shots with some bogeys, ending the round at even par.
Vajda’s wire-to-wire win and 54-hole score of 206 strokes is the second-lowest individual score in tournament history. It’s also the second-lowest 54-hole score in UNG men’s golf history, one shot shy of junior Ethan Day’s performance at the Cateechee Fall Invitational.
With back-to-back rounds of 66 in the opening two days, Vajda also made history with the third-lowest round in PBC Championship history. Those same performances tied the second-lowest individual round in Nighthawk history as well.
After earning medalist honors, Vajda was the lone Nighthawk named to the 2024 PBC Championship All-Tournament Team. The win comes as his second of the season and his sixth top-10 finish as he led the Nighthawks in both such categories this season.
Following behind Vajda were juniors Hughes Threlkeld and Ethan Day. The pair each finished in the top-10 of the championship as Threlkeld’s two-over 74 round on Sunday landed him alone in sixth place in the event. Back-to-back rounds of three-under 69 on Friday and Saturday helped Threlkeld to a four-under tournament score of 212 and his second top-10 finish of the season.
At T10, Day used four birdies on Sunday to go one-under with a final round 71. He ended the tournament one-under with a total score of 215, marking his third top-10 finish of his junior campaign.
Graduate student Will Chambless followed a few shots behind at T14 overall after posting an even-par 72 on Sunday. On a day loaded with inclement weather and difficult, changing conditions, Chambless’ final round scorecard resembled the back-and-forth nature of Sunday’s weather. With four birdies and an eagle at the par-5 11th, the Macon, Ga. native battled to even par to finish with a tournament score of 217 in the top-15.
Rounding out the individual performances for the Nighthawks was sophomore Hunter Smith who finished T20 overall after a two-over 74 on Sunday. The first year Nighthawk ended his first outing in the PBC Championship with a 54-hole score of 220.
With the program’s first victory in the PBC Championship, the Nighthawks have earned an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament. The at-large selections in the tournament will be announced later this week.
