• The KillerFrogs

TCU Golf 2019-2020

JogginFrog

Active Member
Shout out to Tom Hoge, who is grinding to keep his PGA Tour card for next year.

The new version of the PGA Tour Q School is the Korn Ferry Tour Finals Series. It's three events among 125 players (those ranked 126-200 on the PGA Tour plus those ranked 25-75 on the Korn Ferry Tour). The top 25 point-getters earn a card.

Through 30 holes in event 1, Hoge was +3 and two shots off the projected cut line. He birdied four of the last six holes in round 2 to make the weekend, where he shot 68-67 to finish T7. With one player finishing above him already qualified through the Korn Ferry regular season, Hoge now sits T6 in the Finals Series. Two more weeks to go.
 

JogginFrog

Active Member
Hoge birdies his last four holes in Boise for an opening 65 (T3). A top-five finish this week should lock up his Tour card for next year.

Edit: Hoge's approach to 18 makes the very short Korn Ferry highlights vid:
https://www.pgatour.com/korn-ferry-...s-from-round-1-from-albertsons.html?ootime=17

Update: Hoge with a 69 in round 2 to get to -8. Currently he's tied for the lead, though he's likely to get passed by a couple of players in the afternoon wave.
 
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Annoying Group of 20

Active Member
Coming in way late here, but the Tech coach Greg Sands played at TCU in the late 90s and was Coach Montigel’s GA. I always thought we’d hire Greg back when Coach retires, but he’s done such a good job that I don’t know we could get him.
 

JogginFrog

Active Member
Coming in way late here, but the Tech coach Greg Sands played at TCU in the late 90s and was Coach Montigel’s GA. I always thought we’d hire Greg back when Coach retires, but he’s done such a good job that I don’t know we could get him.

I didn't realize that. That connection sheds light on why TCU has been the landing spot, without sitting out a year, for a couple of players that had trouble finding the starting lineup in Lubbock.

I have heard that, besides being a Doak design, the Rawls Course is a super facility for college golf. And Sands keeps pumping out top-15 teams. Unless his family wants to escape Lubbock, seems like he'd be a tough get.
 

JogginFrog

Active Member
Tom Hoge finishes T20 in Boise. He had a final-round 67 after tumbling out of the top five late Saturday with back-to-back doubles. He is now 11th in the Finals 25, which leaves him mostly assured of earning back his Tour card. (Last week's T10 missed the cut this week and dropped to 18th.) But every slot higher in the rankings means a higher-priority slot for tournament entry, so he'll want another good finish in next week's Korn Ferry Tour Championship.

Update: This looks-like-he's-just-about-got-a-card-locked-up eyeball analysis has now been confirmed by people who earn money doing analysis. The site https://datagolf.org/korn-ferry-finals shows Hoge as having a 100% chance of earning his card based on his performance over the past two weeks. Congrats to Tom!

Update 2: With his card locked up for next year, Hoge chooses not to play the KF Tour Championship.
 
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JogginFrog

Active Member
TCU women are 22nd in the Golfweek preseason rankings, which projects the Frogs as battling OU (21st) and Tech (29th) for second in the Big 12 (Texas is ranked 4th).

TCU's two freshman, Trinity King and Jennie Park, should get playing time right away--in fact, there are only six players listed on the women's roster, so let's hope the Frogs stay injury free. Season schedule is yet to be posted at GoFrogs; last year's opener was at the Golfweek Conference Challenge near Vail--this year's edition is slated for Sept. 23-25.
 

JogginFrog

Active Member
TCU men start the season tomorrow at Pebble Beach Golf Links for the Carmel Cup. It's a small-field event--same eight teams as last season--and a unique play-six-to-count-five format that puts a premium on consistency and allows coaches to get a look at an extra player.

The Frogs posted their lineup yesterday, which features three freshmen and a transfer. Getting their first start for the Frogs will be the trio of international frosh, Mateo Fernandez de Oliveira, Gustav Frimodt and Aymeric Laussot. Joining them will be Thomas Allkins, junior transfer from Tech, junior Trevor Brown, and sophomore Justin Gums.

Not many surprises here--Allkins played in this tournament last year; Brown played well in his limited starts last year, as did Gums, who is a NorCal guy. Fernandez de Oliveira had a great summer and will play in the 1-slot for TCU this weekend.

The main surprise is that sophomore Alejandro Aguilera didn't crack the top six. He came in like gangbusters last year and posted a pair of 67s at Pebble in the opener, finishing T13. But he also showed a tendency to let bad holes balloon into bad rounds, and he was out of the lineup by mid-year. His summer play wasn't great, but hoping he can find his way back. Guy can go low.

Frogs will get a good early look at how they stack up against top teams, as they face off against teams ranked 1, 3, 6, 12, and 19 in the preseason poll. Frogs project to place sixth.

Scores will be here beginning Friday: http://results.golfstat.com/public/leaderboards/gsnav.cfm?pg=teamPlayer&tid=18208
 

JogginFrog

Active Member
Happy football season, everybody!

If you can't be at ACS, Pebble Beach is a nice alternative. Which is true even if your team is in last place at the end of Day 1, as the Frogs were yesterday.

Better news today. TCU improved its score by 18 shots from Day 1 and moved up to T5, passing or tying a couple of other young teams in Vanderbilt and Oklahoma State. Four of six Frogs have bettered par at least once, but none is higher than T18 on the individual leaderboard.

Still, the freshmen seem legit (Laussot and Fernandez de Oliveira lead the Frogs at Even), and the upperclassmen flashed the ability to go low (Allkins a 67 and Gums a 68 today after each struggled yesterday). So, we might have something with these guys down the road. But I would expect a lot of internal competition week to week.
 

JogginFrog

Active Member
On day 3, the Frogs post five rounds of par or better, win their playing group (4 teams) for the second straight day, and finish solo 5th at the Carmel Cup (-8 for the day, Even for the tournament). That's something to build on, especially as they beat two top-five teams in Oklahoma State and Vanderbilt. This finish is likely to look better as the season goes on.

On the other hand, the Frogs didn't beat any of the top four teams on any of the three days of the tournament, and lost by 35 shots. So, room to grow for a very young team.

Individually, Justin Gums shot his second straight 68 and finished T17, tied for the team lead with Mateo Fernandez de Oliveria.

Next up for TCU is the Hartford Hawks Invitational in Connecticut, Sept. 16-17.
 

JogginFrog

Active Member
By the way, if you can get your daughters into golf, by all means do so. If they're good enough, they'll not only go to college for free, but their travel itinerary can include (as TCU's does) Vail, Cabo, Oahu, Miami, Puerto Rico, Austin and Napa. TCU may not have the best on-campus facilities, but I'm pretty sure coach is selling something else to recruits.
 

JogginFrog

Active Member
TCU alumna Emmy Martin and Annika Clark were among 359 hopefuls who plunked down $2,500 to take part in Stage 1 of the LPGA Tour/Symetra Tour Q School Stage 1 in Palm Springs last week. Both made the 54-hole cut (150 plus ties); unfortunately, both came up just short of advancing to Stage 2. The score to advance was +5; Martin finished at +7 and Clark at +9.

Still, making the cut apparently gives them some status on the Symetra Tour for 2020, so they can continue to chase the dream.

https://www.lpga.com/news/2019-final-notes-lpga-qualifying-tournament-stage-i
https://www.lpga.com/-/media/files/qualifying-tournament/2019/2019-qschool-fast-factsfinal071719.pdf
 

JogginFrog

Active Member
Mackenzie Tour finale this weekend in Montreal will decide player of the year. TCU alum Paul Barjon tops the Order of Merit and is second in scoring, but four players have a chance to win player of the year, per this piece: https://www.pgatour.com/canada/en_us/news/2019/08/28/player-of-the-year-race.html

After two rounds, the race has tightened, as the #4 player on the Order of Merit, Pendrith, is just a shot out of the lead (still on the course), and Barjon may miss the cut (he is in at -3; cut line is shifting back and forth between -3 and -4 as the last players finish).

Meanwhile, #2 Knapp is T26--if Barjon misses the cut, Knapp needs to finish solo 12th or better to top the Order of Merit. Chan, #3, is currently T12 and will likely win the scoring title; he would top the money list with a second-place finish.

Pendrith, if he wins, can't quite pass Barjon on the Order of Merit, but he would probably get the nod for Player of the Year. Why? In a tight race with three players having a pair of wins each, a bunch of top-10s, and nearly equal winnings, he holds the ultimate tie-breaker: He's Canadian.

Follow scoring here: https://www.pgatour.com/canada/en_us/leaderboard.html

Update: The cut falls at -3, and Paul lives to play the weekend. Pendrith now T1 at -13; Chan drops to T24.
 
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JogginFrog

Active Member
There is 1 more event after this week for Paul in Canada.

Ha. Missed that little detail. Thanks for the correction.

Pendrith wins by 8 to jump to 2nd on the Order of Merit. Paul shoots a Sunday 64 to earn a backdoor top-20. That keeps him in the race for the scoring title, but next week will have some drama. A win for Barjon, Knapp, Chan, or Pendrith will clinch player of the year. If someone else wins, it'll be up to the voters. All four are assured of advancing to the Korn Ferry Tour, with the last spot still up for grabs.
 

JogginFrog

Active Member
Four of six PGA Tour experts picking Viktor Hovland to contend or win this week's PGA stop at The Greenbrier in West Virginia.
https://www.pgatour.com/expert-pick...cks-2019-military-tribute-the-greenbrier.html

Last time Hovland teed it up at the Old White TPC course, he finished second in a 50-man field at the 2019 Big 12 Championship. The guy who beat him was TCU's Hayden Springer. As a result of that win, Springer earns his second PGA Tour start on Thursday. His prior start came at the 2016 FedEx St. Jude Classic, where he missed the cut by 6.

Springer tees off at 12:55 Central with Brits Tom Lewis and Ben Taylor, both of whom earned their cards at the recent Korn Ferry Tour Finals. Good luck to Hayden!

Follow progress here: https://www.pgatour.com/leaderboard.html

 

JogginFrog

Active Member
Hayden Springer finishes 36 holes at A Military Tribute at the Greenbrier at -1. Not bad, but it will not be good enough to make the weekend--the cut is projected at -3 or -4. Going +1 on par-5s over two days is what hurt, along with 3-4 missed putts in the 4-7-foot range.

One highlight: He nearly made a hole-in-one on the 211-yard third hole today, knocking it to 3 inches.

Tom Hoge and J.J. Henry are both still on the course; Hoge currently at -4, Henry at -1.
 
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