TCU Golf 2020-2021

[flyfishingfrog]

Coach Montigel appears to be tightening his lineup as the season gets later, reserving himself three selections for this week's tournament, The Goodwin, at Stanford Golf Club. Chris Berzina is among the two auto-qualifiers.

This will be Chris' fifth event of the year, which leads among the domestic players. He has been a consistently good final-round player, averaging +2 across stroke-play events. He has been terrible in second rounds, averaging +8.

Haven't yet seen a final field for The Goodwin, but it traditionally has been a large-field event, with 24 teams playing in morning and afternoon waves.

Heard Chris found something and really shined during qualifying this time around - had to finish top 2 to make the van and did it

 

[JogginFrog]

Heard Chris found something and really shined during qualifying this time around - had to finish top 2 to make the van and did it

Happy for Chris--hope he has a great tournament.

I also hope they're not really taking the van to Palo Alto.

 

[Frognosticator]

The 5 that played in Austin were all foreigners. Should never happen here.

Who gives a crap? They're all horned frogs. And for that, I like and support them.
Take your xenophobia to a different thread, troll.

 

[flyfishingfrog]

Happy for Chris--hope he has a great tournament.

I also hope they're not really taking the van to Palo Alto.

just an old expression for making the squad that plays this week....

 

[JogginFrog]

Just playin. In high school, we piled into the bed of coach's pickup for the 40-mile round trip from school to the course. A different era.

Augusta National Women's Am has bios up on the field for next week's event. Here's Sabrina Iqbal's: https://www.anwagolf.com/en_US/players/player_88928.html

Tournament is 54 holes with the first two rounds at Champion's Retreat. All players get a practice round at Augusta National, but only the top 30 will compete in the final round there.

 

[JogginFrog]

TCU men begin play tomorrow at Stanford Golf Club. Coach Montigel played it straight and started the top five in qualifying: Fernandez de Oliveira, Oleson, Frimodt, Berzina and Spencer Ball, who earns his first start of the spring.

The 26-team field features a bunch of west coast schools that didn't play in the fall, and that have not fared well against cross-regional opponents in the spring. As a result, there are a bunch of traditional powers that are outside the top 50 and in danger of missing the NCAAs. Current rankings:

55 - USC
66 - Stanford
69 - Oregon
88 - Cal
94 - UCLA​

Of those, Stanford has young talent and will probably play well at home. They were top-30 until they had to go to San Antonio when a Cabo tourney was relocated due to Covid. The Texas teams cleaned their clock and their ranking plunged.

As for the others, it won't be easy to move up much unless one of the top-20 teams in the field (Arizona State, Pepperdine, SMU) has a bad week.

The same is true for the Frogs, which project as the 5th-best team in the field. They are on the right side of the bubble at 45 and will need a good showing just to hold their ground.

Scoring here: http://results.golfstat.com/public/leaderboards/gsnav.cfm?pg=team&tid=21218

 

[JogginFrog]

Paul Barjon gets a PGA Tour start this week in the opposite-field event in the Dominican Republic. Paul sits 13th on the Korn Ferry Tour points list, so he is still in good shape to get promoted to the big tour, but he'll probably need at least one more good finish to clinch his spot.

But this week is about playing for a real paycheck.

Check out the action on Golf Channel or follow scoring here: https://www.pgatour.com/competition/2021/corales-puntacana-resort-club-championship/leaderboard.html

Edit: Barjon is on fire early. -5 through 8 holes -- top of the leaderboard!

Edit2: Well, that disintegrated quickly. Paul shoots 31-44=75 with a quad on the finisher.

 

[flyfishingfrog]

TCU men begin play tomorrow at Stanford Golf Club. Coach Montigel played it straight and started the top five in qualifying: Fernandez de Oliveira, Oleson, Frimodt, Berzina and Spencer Ball, who earns his first start of the spring.

The 26-team field features a bunch of west coast schools that didn't play in the fall, and that have not fared well against cross-regional opponents in the spring. As a result, there are a bunch of traditional powers that are outside the top 50 and in danger of missing the NCAAs. Current rankings:

55 - USC
66 - Stanford
69 - Oregon
88 - Cal
94 - UCLA​

Of those, Stanford has young talent and will probably play well at home. They were top-30 until they had to go to San Antonio when a Cabo tourney was relocated due to Covid. The Texas teams cleaned their clock and their ranking plunged.

As for the others, it won't be easy to move up much unless one of the top-20 teams in the field (Arizona State, Pepperdine, SMU) has a bad week.

The same is true for the Frogs, which project as the 5th-best team in the field. They are on the right side of the bubble at 45 and will need a good showing just to hold their ground.

Scoring here: http://results.golfstat.com/public/leaderboards/gsnav.cfm?pg=team&tid=21218

Well that was not what the boys wanted day 1 I would guess - hoping the pull it together tomorrow now that they have seen the course during tournament conditions

 

[gohornedfrogs]

Heard Chris found something and really shined during qualifying this time around - had to finish top 2 to make the van and did it

You keep referring to “the van” and I chuckle. When I played, “the van” was a 16-passenger Ford Econoline with TCU HVAC DEPT stickers on the side. Yep, it was borrowed from the HVAC Dept. They had to dig the seats out of storage before we could take a trip in it. We finally started taking our personal cars and paying for our own gas after a while.

Thanks for nothing, Windegger.

Now they have a Mercedes Van.

 

[JogginFrog]

Well that was not what the boys wanted day 1 I would guess - hoping the pull it together tomorrow now that they have seen the course during tournament conditions

22nd out of 28 is pretty bad, but when they were +11 just 5 holes in, I thought sure they would finish +20 or worse. They pulled it together on the back nine, and with an early start on Friday they may make up some ground.

 

[gohornedfrogs]

All foreigners for the mens team. Terrible.

I hope that what you mean to say here is that TCU should be able to find plenty of local and Texas talent to fill a highly competitive roster. I don't entirely disagree with that.

But I think you have to realize that TCU is at a recruiting disadvantage these days because there is no dedicated course and practice facility. The kids in Texas know this. In my opinion -- and this is just an opinion -- the foreign players may not put as much of an emphasis on those kinds of things. They don't grow up as "spoiled" (and I use that term reluctantly) as their American counterparts. I'm proud of what golf has become in America -- the facilities, the opportunities, the quality of the courses and practice facilities. At the same time, it's created an arms race in college golf and we fell behind back in the 2000s.

I know there has been a lot of thought and effort put into trying to remedy this situation. They've made the most of it. But the days of telling recruits you get to play Colonial and Shady a few days a week is no longer enough. Weekend access to the better courses is still an issue, especially when the days get short.

If you don't believe this, look no further than Texas Tech as an example. All things being equal, there is no way they should have a better program than TCU. The weather up there sucks. It's cold and/or extremely windy for a good portion of the time that they are preparing for tournaments. They had, until recently, no history of success. They were a total bottom feeder in the SWC and then the Big 12 until they built the Rawls Course in 2003, which was built by one of the premier designers of our time, Tom Doak. They shifted the advantage when they built that course.

All in all, I think Montigel made a pretty wise choice to look abroad for some of the talent.

 

[gohornedfrogs]

I'd like to add to all of this that TCU has some extremely talented players who work very hard and they should be proud of what they do...and as fans, we should be proud of them.

The level of competition in college golf is incredible. These kids are really, really good. I say that as someone who spent 25+ years working around PGA Tour and LPGA players.

 

[froggolf65]

I hope that what you mean to say here is that TCU should be able to find plenty of local and Texas talent to fill a highly competitive roster. I don't entirely disagree with that.

But I think you have to realize that TCU is at a recruiting disadvantage these days because there is no dedicated course and practice facility. The kids in Texas know this. In my opinion -- and this is just an opinion -- the foreign players may not put as much of an emphasis on those kinds of things. They don't grow up as "spoiled" (and I use that term reluctantly) as their American counterparts. I'm proud of what golf has become in America -- the facilities, the opportunities, the quality of the courses and practice facilities. At the same time, it's created an arms race in college golf and we fell behind back in the 2000s.

I know there has been a lot of thought and effort put into trying to remedy this situation. They've made the most of it. But the days of telling recruits you get to play Colonial and Shady a few days a week is no longer enough. Weekend access to the better courses is still an issue, especially when the days get short.

If you don't believe this, look no further than Texas Tech as an example. All things being equal, there is no way they should have a better program than TCU. The weather up there sucks. It's cold and/or extremely windy for a good portion of the time that they are preparing for tournaments. They had, until recently, no history of success. They were a total bottom feeder in the SWC and then the Big 12 until they built the Rawls Course in 2003, which was built by one of the premier designers of our time, Tom Doak. They shifted the advantage when they built that course.

All in all, I think Montigel made a pretty wise choice to look abroad for some of the talent.

I have no problem with looking abroad if you need a player or 2 every now and then. But when you sole focus in international and your only local players are underrated fliers, that's not how you build a good program. It should be very easy for TCU to get 1 or 2 great local players every year. You can use facilities as an excuse but that ultimately falls on the head coach who hasn't done any fundraising for a facility.

 

[JogginFrog]

I think a mostly international strategy makes sense for a private school with a 60K+ sticker price. You need a roster of at least 8, and you've got 4.5 scholarships to give to families that will not get much need-based aid. For internationals, the cost difference between public and private options isn't as drastic, so you're on better competitive ground, especially when you can offer a smaller-school environment to those sending their kids across 6 or 8 time zones. And the talent is there.

What I don't understand is why an AD who was given shiny new major-sport facilities wouldn't make fundraising for golf a priority. I'm not sure if the arms race in college golf is healthy, but I'd sure like to see ADJD embrace it. He doesn't have to create a TCU golf club--there's plenty of creative space for other upgrades.

 

[First Tee Frog]

I have no problem with looking abroad if you need a player or 2 every now and then. But when you sole focus in international and your only local players are underrated fliers, that's not how you build a good program. It should be very easy for TCU to get 1 or 2 great local players every year. You can use facilities as an excuse but that ultimately falls on the head coach who hasn't done any fundraising for a facility.

sorry but there aren’t 1 or 2 great local players a year. Dallas maybe but Fort Worth junior golf is terrible and I have multiple theories about why that is. The assertion that there is just an abundance of d1 players every year here is just not correct. Absolutely we ought to be able to get one every now and again but the true difference makers are few and far between locally snd then you’ve gotta beat out the top schools for them.

 

[froggolf65]

sorry but there aren’t 1 or 2 great local players a year. Dallas maybe but Fort Worth junior golf is terrible and I have multiple theories about why that is. The assertion that there is just an abundance of d1 players every year here is just not correct. Absolutely we ought to be able to get one every now and again but the true difference makers are few and far between locally snd then you’ve gotta beat out the top schools for them.

I’m using local very loosely... as in North American or the United States. The majority of guys we get now from the US are barely recruited by other schools. Seems we are afraid to go head to head with a big program to get a guy.

 

[First Tee Frog]

I’m using local very loosely... as in North American or the United States. The majority of guys we get now from the US are barely recruited by other schools. Seems we are afraid to go head to head with a big program to get a guy.

Yeah that’s a pretty terrible definition of local but whatever. Who should we have recruited that we didn’t? Name names we could have gotten if we had just chased them. I’ll tell you this...Berzina had way more contact with big name schools than most know. He committed so early and shut down his recruitment that it cut off a ton of offers but there was a large amount of interest from big name programs.

 

[froggolf65]

Yeah that’s a pretty terrible definition of local but whatever. Who should we have recruited that we didn’t? Name names we could have gotten if we had just chased them. I’ll tell you this...Berzina had way more contact with big name schools than most know. He committed so early and shut down his recruitment that it cut off a ton of offers but there was a large amount of interest from big name programs.

The point I am trying to make it TCU is not a hard school to recruit to for golf. We haven't had an American that has made an impact in years and its due to the coaches recruiting philosophies. Foreigners are easier to get than going after top US junior players.

 

[First Tee Frog]

The point I am trying to make it TCU is not a hard school to recruit to for golf. We haven't had an American that has made an impact in years and its due to the coaches recruiting philosophies. Foreigners are easier to get than going after top US junior players.

It’s a much harder school to recruit for golf than you are giving it credit for.

What qualifies as years since we had an American make an impact? Hayden springer won the big 12 championship in 2019 and beat victor hovland and matt Wolff to do it. That team had 3 Americans and finished 15th at the ncaa championship. Chelso was the us junior runner up to spieth. Hoge was pretty good I guess and that team was 4 Americans and a South African. Then he got Julian and Paul as the next really good players. Should he not have taken a kid who ended up being a 3 time first team all American because he isn’t from the US? They have one job...kid the best players they can get. Period. Doesn’t matter where they are from.

 

[froggolf65]

It’s a much harder school to recruit for golf than you are giving it credit for.

What qualifies as years since we had an American make an impact? Hayden springer won the big 12 championship in 2019 and beat victor hovland and matt Wolff to do it. That team had 3 Americans and finished 15th at the ncaa championship. Chelso was the us junior runner up to spieth. Hoge was pretty good I guess and that team was 4 Americans and a South African. Then he got Julian and Paul as the next really good players. Should he not have taken a kid who ended up being a 3 time first team all American because he isn’t from the US? They have one job...kid the best players they can get. Period. Doesn’t matter where they are from.

Springer was a transfer. Chelso was probably the last big time US recruit. What year was that 2013?

Hard to build a program and fundraise with the current state which is why we have no facilities and can’t get Americans.