No. 20 UNG Set To Host 11th Annual LeeAnn Noble Memorial
DAHLONEGA – The No. 20 University of North Georgia (UNG) women's golf team is set to host the 11th Annual LeeAnn Noble Memorial Golf Tournament at Achasta Golf Club in Dahlonega beginning on Monday, Oct. 7.
The 17-team event will start with 36 holes at Achasta GC beginning with an 8:30 a.m. shotgun start. The 2024 edition of the tournament features seven of the Women's Golf Coaches Association (WGCA) top 25 teams nationally including five top-10 teams. The Nighthawks were ranked No. 20 in the latest WGCA poll, earning their highest ranking since August of 2021.
The LeeAnn Noble Memorial is held annually in loving memory of the late LeeAnn Noble, a former member of the UNG women's golf team that passed away in 2014. It is a collegiate stroke play event with low four scores from a five-person team. Monday will feature 36 holes of play with the final 18 holes on Tuesday. Tournament awards will be presented to the top two finishing teams and a five-person All-Tournament team including an individual medalist and runner up.
Noble, a 20-year-old student-athlete on the Nighthawk women's golf team passed away in 2014 at Emory University Hospital after a lengthy battle with heart complications. Noble was a member of the women's golf team and a nursing student. She received a heart transplant when she was just 12 years old. In January of 2014, Noble experienced a heart attack from which she was unable to recover.
In addition to being a leader on her team, Noble was a member of the Student Athlete Advisory Committee and was an active member in the UNG community. Prior to arriving at UNG, Noble was a standout golfer at nearby Gainesville High School where she graduated in the top of her class and was named the 2011 Hall County Player of the Year.
Noble and her teammate Bridget Sandy were featured as the cover story of the NCAA's Champion Magazine. The four-page spread and accompanying cover detailed the girls' early childhood battles with a heart transplant (Noble) and leukemia (Sandy) and how their parallel lives came to a fortunate intersection at UNG.
This year, head coach Sierra Campbell and the Nighthawks are coming off back-to-back top-5 finishes in their first two tournaments of the season. UNG has finished third or better in five of its last seven tournaments dating back to last season. The Nighthawks are still in search of their first ever team win at the LeeAnn Noble Memorial. Only Megan Sabol who earned individual medalist honors in 2019 has been crowned a champion for UNG in the event's history.
As the proud home of the Nighthawk golf program and the LeeAnn Noble Memorial, Achasta GC is a natural, classic Jack Nicklaus Signature golf course that is only two miles from the UNG campus. Achasta blends with the surroundings and is located in the foothills of the North Georgia Mountains along the Chestatee River with the river coming into play on over half the holes. The course was named in 2020 as the No. 6 rated course in Golfweek's Best Courses You Can Play (Georgia) and has been home to UNG Golf since the program started in 2009.
Play in the 11th Annual LeeAnn Noble Memorial begins Monday morning and concludes with 18 holes on Tuesday, Oct. 8.
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