gohornedfrogs
Tier 1
TCU is one of the few major golf programs that does not have a dedicated practice facility for their men's/women's teams. Most of these facilities include launch monitors, video, climate-controlled indoor hitting bays, putting greens with both tiff/bermuda hybrid and bentgrass surfaces, multiple bunkers and chipping greens, as well as numerous "course-like" target greens, as well as many other amenities like locker rooms, kitchens, study rooms and lounge areas. Some of them are setup up so you can play a 3-4 hole loop, where you can hit multiple balls without interrupting play on a real golf course.Thanks for this info. But it makes me wonder, what kind of "new facilities" are needed? Offices for the coach? We've got a nearby pretty good Country Club. What else do we need?
And to boot, more often than not, these facilities are located on a golf course that the school either owns or controls, so access is never an issue.
Colonial, Shady Oaks and Mira Vista are all fantastic places, but the players don't have free reign at those places like players do at other schools. Because of all of the above, we are getting heavily out-recruited.
There is simply no way on earth places like Kansas and Texas Tech should ever have better golf programs than TCU. Yet here we are...
Furthermore, we are also getting out-recruited, in my opinion, because we have a coach who is primarily an administrator and a motivator. When you contrast TCU with places like Tech with Greg Sands, Baylor with Mike McGraw, and many others, you will see they have coaches that have administrative and motivational skills, but also have high-playing level and teaching skills. This is true about nearly every one of our competitors.
Bill Montigel was hired in 1987 after Bill Woodley left to go coach Arkansas (who had John Daly on their roster). Montigel was an assistant basketball coach at the time for Killingsworth, but when Killingsworth retired, Montigel had no place to go. Enter the illustrious Frank Windegger and Mel Thomas. In typical form, they back-handed the hiring of a new coach by filling it with an easy solution -- Montigel.
He had zero golf experience, but he did bring a unique way of motivating and cultivating players' minds with him. He relied heavily on his relationship with Mike Holder from Oklahoma State to form his blueprint for coaching, which was a great move on his part. His first few years were rough. But in my opinion, he succeeded way beyond anybody's expectations, and he deserves all the credit for that. Anybody inside the program back then would have bet that his tenure wouldn't last more than 3-4 years at best.
If you want to see what a truly good golf coach is like these days, I suggest you watch the special on the Stanford women's team on YouTube. I can't tell you how much more advanced and professional golf coaches are today than during the Woodley/early Montigel eras.
A Week in the Life: Stanford Women's Golf
On Edit: By the way...Bill Woodley's salary at TCU when he left -- $28,000. That ought to tell you how much emphasis TCU had on golf at the time.
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