Winning national championships in athletics isn’t just a goal at the University of Georgia — it’s the standard. David Spahr and the university’s club golf team lived up to that standard this spring.
With success across so many sports, it’s no surprise that some of Georgia’s athletic accomplishments get less recognition than others. The club golf team, led by Spahr, did something that UGA hadn’t done since 2017 and brought home an NCCGA national championship.
A third-year finance major, Spahr is the treasurer of the club team. He shot a 4-under across both days at the championship, leading the Bulldogs to a come-from-behind victory over schools like North Carolina State, Indiana and Grand Canyon.
The wind was howling in Santa Ana Pueblo, New Mexico, and the team was tied for ninth after Day 1. In the face of that adversity, Spahr and his team surged to the top of the leaderboard, and watched the gusts blow everyone else away.
“By the time we were done, it was gusting like 40 miles per hour. You could barely stand up straight, which I think that actually helped us” Spahr said. “Everybody else kind of fell apart with the wind.”
While many involved saw their victory as a surprise, the team knew what they were capable of.
“We all had it in our minds that we were going to win, we were telling each other that we thought we were the best team,” Spahr said. “It was the first time we had gotten our best eight guys to all go to one tournament, so we were pretty excited about that.”
Spahr, described as “definitely our best player,” by teammate and club secretary Emery Langston, was far from a guarantee to even qualify for the tournament at all, as the final two spots on the team came down to the wire.
“Me, David and another guy had tied for the last two spots, so we had to play an additional 18-hole playoff to decide who would go,” Langston said. “That just goes to show how competitive and elite these guys are, that the club golf national champion still had to play his way in.”
Golf has been part of Spahr’s life since he was young, growing up playing with his father and grandfather. He began playing competitively at Brookfield East High School in Wisconsin, where by his senior year he would earn a third-place finish at the state championship and a few victories at junior tour events in his home state.
The idea of playing golf collegiately was exciting to Spahr, and while he did consider looking at universities where he could compete at the top level, he valued more than just athletics in his college search.
“I just wanted to get a more holistic college experience,” Spahr said. “I like golf, but I don’t need to be playing three hours every day of the week, so it’s a really good balance with club.”
Many UGA students likely haven’t heard of this recent national championship squad, but players like Langston feel that while recognition would be nice, they’d rather put their heads down and keep working.
“It would be great to be appreciated, but I think we can just let what we do on the course talk,” Langston said.
Spahr and UGA Club Golf look to build off of their success in the 2026-27 season, where they expect to win another national championship. After all, that’s the standard.