WARREN, OHIO — North Georgia and Georgia Southwestern battled to the final hole but failed to make the cut in the final round of stroke play at the 2023 NCAA Men’s National Golf Championship at Avalon Lakes Golf Course. The Nighthawks finished 11th while Georgia Southwestern was 12th; the top eight teams in the league table advanced to the group matches.
The Nighthawks were in and out of the top eight all day, finishing the final round with a team score of 297 (+9) with a three-round score of 15-over-par.
Hughes Threlkeld led the final round for UNG with a score of one over par in the third round. He charged another eagle, this time on the 14th hole, for his second of the tournament. North Georgia finished the 14th hole with three birdies and an eagle in the round, helping to get UNG back in the hunt late in the round.
Noah Zediker finished second on the team in the third round on a two-over-par card, scoring three birdies over the back nine holes. Evan Thompson and Will Chambless finished tied at three over par in the round, with Chambless leading the team in the tournament, finishing tied for 26th.
Stephen Kinsel rounded out the Nighthawks in the lineup for the day at four-over-par, but avoided big numbers for most of the tournament to finish tied for 47th.
North Georgia finishes the season with three tournament wins, three Peach Belt All-Conference selections, two Ping All-Region selections, a PBC Coach of the Year award, and a Dave Williams National Coach of the Year finalist.
The Hurricanes had two players in the Top 20 of the 108-man field.
Chase McLain finished the third day at 3 over par 75 and finished the tournament at 1 under par tied for 11th place. McLain holed the front nine and holed the back nine. He fired bogeys the day that subtracted three shots from his score.
Erik Fogel also shot a par 75 from 3-for-18. Fogel got off to a slow start, hitting two bogeys on his first three make-up holes and birdieing his sixth hole and finishing the front nine 1-over. He hit three bogeys and birdied the back nine, finishing the championship tied for 18th.
Payne Sells struggled on his first two holes and started the day 4-over, calming down and birdied two holes, but double-boogieed the final hole of the front nine. Sells performed much better on the back nine, birdieing three holes and finishing the back nine at 1-under, giving him a 3-over-the-day result and finishing the championship tied for 46th.
Jack Tharrington struggled on the front nine and shot a 4-over-par. Tharrington had a much better round of nine finishing 2-over finished the day 6-over par 78 birdied his fourteenth hole.
Trey Odom finished the day 14-over and birdied two holes that finished the championship 44-over in 106.
GSW had a great year. They won two events this season, were Peach Belt Conference champions, and finished the season ranked in the top 10.
Oklahoma Christian was the only team to finish the first 54 holes under par, posting a final score of 854 to take the top seed into the match play tournament. The other seven qualifiers for match play were Barry, defending national champion Lee, West Florida, Grand Valley State, Nova Southeastern, Sonoma State, and Simon Fraser, winners of a three-team playoff for the final medal game spot.
Palm Beach Atlantic’s Andrew Riley, playing individually, won the national title with a score of 12-under-par 204 to edge out Western Washington’s Jordan Lee by two strokes.
