• The KillerFrogs

TCU Golf 2022-2023

JogginFrog

JogginFrog

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Macnab is T1 through 36 holes in San Marcos after a 66-72 day. Eight players are within 3 shots of the lead, so still plenty of work to do if she is to win her second event of the fall.

As a team, the Frogs are in 6th place; they are 8 shots back of 2nd, so there's still a lot to play for. Macnab's morning 66 carried the team; in the afternoon Sabrina Nguyen and Lois Lau both shot two-under 70s. Lau is T15.
 
JogginFrog

JogginFrog

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Caitlyn Macnab with a near miss at defending her title at the Jim West Challenge; she finished a shot back of first after a final-round 71.

Lois Lau posted another top-20 finish.

Frogs finished T7 as a team--middle of the pack.

There was a bit of wind today, but I think the folks in San Marcos decided to set up Kissing Tree a little tougher this year than last, when Oklahoma State won at -39. Cowgirls won again this year, but at -9. Frogs were +5 this year (-32 last year).

Women will head to Cabo later this week to finish their fall slate. Nice to see the international events back on the schedule after a couple of years off.
 
JogginFrog

JogginFrog

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TCU fall golf will wrap with this weekend's women's Battle at the Beach. The event at San Jose del Cabo's Club Campestre returns after a two-year absence--nice to see international tournaments happening again. TCU is the event host.

Frogs have good history in this event, finishing 2nd in 2018 and 3rd in 2019, but the only current Frog to have played there is Trinity King, who finished T36 as a freshman.

It's a cross-sectional event with a lot of ACC and SEC teams, so a good finish will be meaningful to TCU's ranking (currently 43rd). Five of the 7 top-20 SEC teams are in the field, including #5 Ole Miss, which is paired with the Frogs tomorrow.

Frogs will start Macnab, Lau, Sá, Nguyen and King, with Cattaneo playing as an individual. Follow progress here: https://m.birdiefire.com/tournament/134152/
 
JogginFrog

JogginFrog

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TCU women get another fantastic performance at the top of its lineup--3 players in the top 6, all with sub-70 scores. Of the other top-3 individuals, 2 are top-50 amateurs (including 2nd-ranked Ingrid Lindblad).

But that fourth counting score was a killer again today for the Frogs. TCU posts 68-69-69-79, leaving the team at +1 (T3 with LSU, 3 shots back of Ole Miss).

A tie for third in a strong field is a good first-day result, but the Frogs will feel that they deserved to lead the tournament.

Golf is an exception among NCAA sports in allowing mid-year transfers with a coach's release (though many are opposed to it). This is one of those seasons when a mid-year grad transfer could make a big difference in the Frogs' postseason prospects.
 
JogginFrog

JogginFrog

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I doubt that TCU players react to anything we post here, but Trinity King is playing like she took my last comment personally. She opened round 2 in Cabo birdie-birdie-birdie and is -2 through 13 holes. That has helped lift TCU to the top of the leaderboard (-9 for the day!). Macnab is solo 3rd and Lau solo 4th.
 
JogginFrog

JogginFrog

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Frogs shoot 10-under 274 today, which may set a new school record for single-round stroke total. Hard to keep track of the records anymore. And credit to King and Nguyen for both shooting counting scores today.

Frogs lead #17 LSU by 5 and #5 Ole Miss by 7 going into the final round. They are up double digits on top-20 squads Miss State, Vandy and Arkansas. That's top-shelf playing.

Lois Lau shot a bogey-free 65 today to lead the Frogs. May be her personal best. Lau is -9 overall, solo 2nd, two shots back of Lindblad (who has won 5 of her last 11 college events and posted a top 10 in a major over the summer).

Caitlyn Macnab is also in the top 5 again (T3); she had a 66. Just a matter of time before she moves into the top 20 in WAGR.
 
JogginFrog

JogginFrog

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Lois Lau shoots 68-65-69=202 (-11) to become the third different TCU player to break the school's 54-hole scoring record in the past two seasons. She and the Frogs both finish runner-up in the Battle at the Beach.

Lau and the Frogs were beaten by a world-class performance from #2 amateur Ingrid Lindblad, who shot back-to-back 64s; she was -17 for the week; the rest of the Tigers +3.

TCU (-8) was the only other team below par for the week. Frogs easily beat the teams ranked 5th, 7th, 14th, 16th, 20th and 23rd. While they had another runner-up finish a few weeks ago, this was against a much stronger field. The result will pay dividends in the rankings all year. I suspect they'll move up from 43rd to 30th or better.

Caitlyn Macnab also posted a top 5 (-7, solo 4th). Frogs had four scores of 72 or better thanks to another good round by Trinity King, who was -2 before dropping a couple of shots late as the team played aggressively to try to catch the Tigers.

Plus, they got to spend a weekend in Cabo. As with the men, a great way to finish the fall!

 
JogginFrog

JogginFrog

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Updated Golfstat rankings came out yesterday. TCU men end the fall ranked 34th; women 31st. I'd say that exceeds expectations on both sides.

The men improved in each of their four events. The strong home-game outcome at Colonial propped up the Frogs in the rankings, but the performance at the Big 12 Match Play backed it up. (I'm still not sure if Golfstat uses match-play results in its rankings model, which would have to make an estimation of stroke differential.) But given the loss of its highest-ranked player to the pros, TCU men get a big attaboy for their vast improvement over last year's performance.

The women got a deserved bump from their strong performance in Cabo. Lois Lau's consistently strong play has been key. She, Caitlyn Macnab, and Sofia Barroso Sá stack up against the top three of almost any school. The re-emergence of Trinity King as a player who can post a subpar score enables the Frogs to show flashes of greatness.

National signing day is a week from today. It will be very interesting to see the golf signings given the number of seniors on the men's side, the non-renewal of Coach Montigel's contract, and silence from the AD's office about TCU's financial commitment to golf. Quality of signees may signal if something is happening behind the scenes.

Speaking of Coach M, congrats to him on being named to the Golf Coaches Association of America hall of fame yesterday. A well-deserved accolade; not many coaches in any sport can boast 8 conference titles and 7 coach of the year honors.
 
JogginFrog

JogginFrog

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By the way, Lois Lau is 28th and Caitlyn Macnab 30th in Golfstat's individual rankings. That makes the Frogs one of only six teams with two players in the top 30. Others are Stanford, Wake Forest, Oregon, Ole Miss, and Florida State; those teams are ranked 1, 2, 6, 8 & 9.
 
JogginFrog

JogginFrog

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The European Challenge Tour's grand final is underway in Mallorca. Those who finish the season in the top 20 on the order of merit earn a DP World Tour card. Three former Frogs have featured prominently on that tour this season:
  • Alexander Knappe has had his card wrapped up for weeks; he is seeking a strong finish to top the points list. He's T6 at the halfway point, which would move him from 3rd to 2nd--but so is one of the guys he is chasing.
  • Jeong Weon Ko is on the bubble, going into the final 20th on the list. A top 10 should secure his card; a finish lower than 15th would leave the door open. He's halfway there--solo 4th through 36 holes.
  • David Ravetto was 37th going in; it would take a top-3 finish for him to have a chance. A first-round 79 sealed his fate, but he is comfortably positioned for a return to that tour next year.
Scoring: https://www.europeantour.com/challe...d-final-supported-by-the-r-a-2022/leaderboard

Meanwhile, Hayden Springer is among a large Korn Ferry Tour Q school field--including a lot of recent college stars--just underway in Savannah. A double-double start leaves Hayden playing catch-up. See how he does at https://www.pgatour.com/korn-ferry-tour/competition/2022/korn-ferry-tour-q-school/leaderboard.html.
 
JogginFrog

JogginFrog

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Former Frog Jeong Weon Ko comes through in what might have been the highest-pressure round of his career.

On a course where the scoring average has been over par, he needed a sub-par final round to ensure promotion to the DP World (European) Tour, where the purses are 8X those of the Challenge Tour. He made the turn at 1-under, then had 3 consecutive back-nine birdies for a T4 finish to wrap up his card. Congrats to him.

Alexander Knappe finished T10 to secure his top-3 finish on the Order of Merit. Not only does he earn his card but will have his travel expenses covered next season due to DP World's sponsorship agreement.

With Julien Brun, that will make 3 Frogs playing the top Euro circuit next year.

Filippo Celli managed to get into 9 events on exemptions this season but finished outside of 200th on the Order of Merit, so I think he'll be on the Challenge Tour next season along with Ravetto, Mazzoli and (I think) Castagnara.
 
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JogginFrog

JogginFrog

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TCU men have yet to announce any signings on national signing day. Notable since there are 7 seniors on the roster (though some may take a COVID year).

TCU women's golf announced three signings for 2023. None of the players is as highly ranked as the top players in Coach Larkin's past four classes. The highest-ranked signee is Sofie Dimitrova of Czechia, who is 519th in WAGR. She has been playing in amateur and pro events in eastern Europe and consistently posting scores in the low-to-mid 70s. Looks like she could compete for playing time.

Based on a quick review of scores, the other two signees look like longer-term projects. Kirstin Angosta was a standout as a high school freshman and sophomore in Las Vegas. She was in the top 1,000 in WAGR for a time, but then moved to Texas (Coppell) and hasn't played as well since. This year she is averaging north of 78 per round and is ranked 214th among AJGA juniors. Possible that something impacted her game and coaches anticipate a return to form.

The third signee is Sheridan Clancy of Perth, Australia, who looks like a standard-issue junior golfer. She is 1,176th in WAGR and 12th in Western Australia, and has been as likely to shoot in the mid-80s as in the low 70s. Clancy will be an early enrollee available to play in spring 2023.
 
JogginFrog

JogginFrog

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Here's a surprise: TCU's Gustav Frimodt is the featured guest on No Laying Up's visit to Denmark's Great Northern Golf Club, which dropped today. For those not familiar, NLU is a group of golf "fanalysts" who host one of the most popular golf YouTube channels (114,000 subscribers). Every year they film a buddies golf trip series, Tourist Sauce. This summer's destination was Scandinavia. Gustav is introduced just after the 15:00 mark -- he and his TCU bag get a bunch of screen time through the 30:00 mark, and they talk about Fort Worth at 17:50. He says a lot of Danish golfers develop good swings because the short season means they spend a lot of time indoors in the winter hitting into nets and looking at video.
 
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JogginFrog

JogginFrog

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Those who have clamored for more metroplex golf talent will be happy with TCU announcing 2 more local signees for 2023: Sloan Henggeler (Fort Worth Nolan) and Andrew Petruzzelli (Dallas Jesuit)--both schools that competed in the Texas Catholic Interscholastic League back in the day. (Cue Springsteen's "Glory Days" in recognition of my 8th-place finish at the '83 TCIL state tourney.)

Henggeler notched a pair of top 10s last summer in AJGA events; Petruzelli had 3 AJGA top-20s. The coaching uncertainty gives this class a different look from prior years, but it seems certain that there will be men's golf at TCU in 2023.
 
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JogginFrog

JogginFrog

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Recent TCU grad Sabrina Iqbal is among 175 hopefuls now on the course in Venice, FL, for LPGA's Stage 2 qualifying school, which was delayed a month due to hurricane cleanup. She is among 36 amateurs in the field, which includes Stage 1 qualifiers along with those who finished outside of 150th on the LPGA points list and a bunch of last year's Epson Tour players. It's 72 holes over two courses.

Completing 72 holes will give her some level of status on the Epson Tour; the higher she finishes, the better her status. The top 30 or so will advance to the Q Series to compete for full LPGA status along with those who finished between 101 and 150 on the LPGA points list. (Angela Stanford would be in that group, but I think she still has a year left on her 5-year exemption from her 2018 major win.)

If Sabrina advances, she would have to turn pro to compete in Q Series (new rule this year). Amateurs are allowed to compete on the Epson Tour.

Follow progress at http://scoring.lpga.com/public/QSLeaderboard.aspx.
 
JogginFrog

JogginFrog

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