TCU Golf 2025-2026

[FrogBall09]

If in fact true, this is good to hear.

I don't know if minimalist/maximalist matters as much as just making better golf courses. 7.800 yard courses that are miles wide and have huge greens are boring. And they massively favor bombers too, which I don't think the vast majority of people want. Everyone like to hate on TPC Sawgrass (mostly because #17 is gimmicky, and it is), but it tests ball striking almost like no other. I know that course cost a fortune to build and isn't easy to replicate, but that course's shot values should be the blueprint for design IMO. Not overly long, much more exacting targets, small greens, etc.

its funny you use TPC Sawgrass as your example - a course that to date has had exactly 31 revisions from initial opening design and was hated when it opened....but yet you bash Colonial every change you get in year 2 of redesign as if courses don't need to evolve

and I still bet you have never played it...

 

[Wexahu]

its funny you use TPC Sawgrass as your example - a course that to date has had exactly 31 revisions from initial opening design and was hated when it opened....but yet you bash Colonial every change you get in year 2 of redesign as if courses don't need to evolve

and I still bet you have never played it...

The changes to Sawgrass over the years have been subtle, with a few exceptions (#12 most obviously). Drop this exact course back to 1985 and they would still hate it back then, because it was so different. It still generally plays the same.

I've walked the new Colonial and played the pre-renovation version many times. I think it was about as uninspiring a renovation as could be given what went into it. It's not a bad course at all, I would still like to play it just like I always liked playing Colonial, but in my opinion the layout is arguably worse than before. You look at the changes to some of the holes and think, really, that's supposed to be better? That's the best they could come up with? And there's nothing really memorable about it from a TV/spectator standpoint, they definitely made it worse on that front. I think there was too much effort put in to bringing back the original design (which I've never really understood) instead of just making the course better.

 

[gohornedfrogs]

The changes to Sawgrass over the years have been subtle, with a few exceptions (#12 most obviously). Drop this exact course back to 1985 and they would still hate it back then, because it was so different. It still generally plays the same.

I've walked the new Colonial and played the pre-renovation version many times. I think it was about as uninspiring a renovation as could be given what went into it. It's not a bad course at all, I would still like to play it just like I always liked playing Colonial, but in my opinion the layout is arguably worse than before. You look at the changes to some of the holes and think, really, that's supposed to be better? That's the best they could come up with? And there's nothing really memorable about it from a TV/spectator standpoint, they definitely made it worse on that front. I think there was too much effort put in to bringing back the original design (which I've never really understood) instead of just making the course better.

I know it's anecdotal at this point, but scoring has not been higher since the renovation. Not that it really needs it. Around twelve under usually wins or is close, so it plays as one of the harder courses outside the majors each year. Without any ability to make it longer, you'd think they might have made other challenges to make it more difficult, though. Lowering greens is the exact opposite of making it more challenging, in my opinion, which may not amount to much. You want the ball to bounce further away from the green on a missed approach if you're trying to make it more difficult. Raised greens are harder to run the ball up onto, as well.

 

[Wexahu]

I know it's anecdotal at this point, but scoring has not been higher since the renovation. Not that it really needs it. Around twelve under usually wins or is close, so it plays as one of the harder courses outside the majors each year. Without any ability to make it longer, you'd think they might have made other challenges to make it more difficult, though. Lowering greens is the exact opposite of making it more challenging, in my opinion, which may not amount to much. You want the ball to bounce further away from the green on a missed approach if you're trying to make it more difficult. Raised greens are harder to run the ball up onto, as well.

Scoring has as much to do with par (having only two par-5's makes all the difference in the world for scoring relative to par for pros, as you know) and firmness of the greens and depth of rough than design, so I don't even pay attention to that really. But raised greens do exactly what you say, and they also look a hell of a lot better.

If the strength of a course is all it's subtleties, you're really getting close to just flat out boring. And it can be really hard to birdie a boring hole, so the difficultly is irrelevant. I challenge anyone to look at the changes to the green complexes at #4 and 5, for example, and think that was the best that could be done.

 

[JogginFrog]

Lowering greens is the exact opposite of making it more challenging, in my opinion, which may not amount to much. You want the ball to bounce further away from the green on a missed approach if you're trying to make it more difficult. Raised greens are harder to run the ball up onto, as well.

Hanse admitted as much. Not sure if it was in The Fried Egg's vid or elsewhere, but he acknowledged that green heights and bunker depth didn't make much difference to the pros but would make it more accessible to members. Okay, but I think guests want to feel a bit of intimidation when taking a crack at a Tour course.

And lowering the greens only makes strategic sense if you can restore the shot values from 1941. That would require lengthening holes by 40-60 yards--no room for that at Colonial. Hanse raised the 13th green, but a flip 8 or 9 for the pros is a long way from the drawn long iron required in 1941, played over the creek because a tree blocked a fade approach. And the mirror-image 8th is a nice idea...if you could make the pros play it opposite-handed with hickories. That's the only thing that would bring the barranca into play.

Even mid-handicap players won't opt for a run-up approach on most holes...and I can't see Colonial putting up with scruffy conditioning to support it even if players wanted to. May as well leave the higher targets that repel misses and provide visual interest instead of making a flat course flatter.

At least they made sure viewers won't be treated to the drama of wondering when a pro's ball will stop rolling down a concrete spillway. Not sure that justified Hanse's fee, but his involvement did ensure media features on the Tour website, Golf.com, NLU, etc., and when people are questioning whether the event will stay on the Tour calendar, that's not nothing.

 

[gohornedfrogs]

Scoring has as much to do with par (having only two par-5's makes all the difference in the world for scoring relative to par for pros, as you know) and firmness of the greens and depth of rough than design, so I don't even pay attention to that really. But raised greens do exactly what you say, and they also look a hell of a lot better.

If the strength of a course is all it's subtleties, you're really getting close to just flat out boring. And it can be really hard to birdie a boring hole, so the difficultly is irrelevant. I challenge anyone to look at the changes to the green complexes at #4 and 5, for example, and think that was the best that could be done.

TPC Sawgrass is considered a pretty hard course. They just shot 13 under on a par 72. That's 8 more par 5s over four days. Given that they play those at about 4.5 avg. (1/2 shot a hole), that's four shots over four rounds. So adjusting, they likely would have been around -9, maybe -10, on a par 70 course. I think Colonial stands up pretty well to that, but must point out that it rarely has many of the top 10 players there.

For what it's worth, I played Baltusrol last year. Fantastic course, and I'm going back again this year and can't wait. But if I had one criticism, it's that their greens are too low, too. It lacks definition from the approach shots.

 

[JogginFrog]

On a much calmer day in Austin, the TCU women move up a spot and finish 6th, which is exactly where they were projected. Camille Min-Gaultier earns another top-10 finish.

 

[JogginFrog]

For what it's worth, I played Baltusrol last year. Fantastic course, and I'm going back again this year and can't wait. But if I had one criticism, it's that their greens are too low, too. It lacks definition from the approach shots.

Assume you played the Lower; curious if you played the Upper as well and how the green style works on hillier terrain.

 

[JogginFrog]

Since we're talking about playing some famous courses, curious if anyone is opting for the golf package that's tied in with the Frogs' Ireland trip. Waterville, Tralee and Ballybunion Old is a pretty good lineup, though I've heard TCU's partners take a very healthy cut and some may opt to organize their own golf on the side.

 

[Rose Bowl]

The women didn’t play very well well this week but hopefully got better.

 

[JogginFrog]

I was unable to post last week while traveling in Southeast Asia. Either KF.c's Cloudflare didn't care for IP addresses from that part of the world, or Malaysia & Singapore don't care for websites with the word "killer" in their name. Could've tried a VPN, I guess.

TCU men and women both had meh outings with poor play out of the gate. At Stanford, the Frogs were +13 over their first five holes and finished +14 for the tournament. At Colonial, the women were +16 over their first 9 holes with zero birdies.

Had each team played those stretches even par, they would have finished 8th--the men in a large, 30-team field and the women in an exceptionally strong 13-team field. As it was, the men finished T17 and the women 12th. But no real harm done for either team's postseason chances. The men are still over .500 by 22 places with two events left. The women won't fall much because their field featured 7 of the top 11 teams in the country.

Two individual performances worth noting: Kirstin Angosta beat 16 players in the top 100 of the national rankings and was the top finisher among those outside the top 100. She shot a final-round 69. For the men, Lewis Wright was the Frogs' top finisher, playing as an individual. He has only teed it up twice as a starter but has played well in secondary events, including a co-medalist finish at the DBU Classic in Rockwall in October.

 

[JogginFrog]

Missed commenting in real time about the women playing Trinity Forest on Monday-Tuesday. It was a meh tournament. Sofia Barroso Sá was out of the lineup again and the Frogs just aren't the same without her stringing together good rounds like a metronome. Camille posted a ho-hum top 20 and the Frogs finished T8 (projected 9th). Three players posted an eagle (on three different holes), but that's almost to be expected at TF. On to the Big 12 championship.

Men have their regular-season finale next week in West Virginia.

 

[JogginFrog]

TCU men are on the back nine of Round 1 of the Mountaineer Invitational at Pete Dye Golf Club in Bridgeport, West Virginia. Looks like a fun track.

It's a weird field--3 top-10 teams, then TCU and Clemson in the mid-30s, and then 14 teams outside the top 50. Was probably intended to be a postseason saver in case a team was south of .500 at this point. TCU isn't in danger, so I guess it's a go-for-it kinda event.

The downside of letting guys freewheel is having a guy go double-triple out of the gate.

The upside is having a guy at the top of the leaderboard--Jack Beauchamp is -5 through 14.

Scoring: https://scoreboard.clippd.com/tournaments/238719/scoring/team

 

[Mean Purple]

@JogginFrog , the Western Intercollegiate starts today. Pasatiempo looks like a fun one.

79th Western Intercollegiate – presented by Titleist April 13-15, 2026 at Pasatiempo Golf Club in Santa Cruz, CA

www.westernintercollegiate.golf

 

[Wexahu]

@JogginFrog , the Western Intercollegiate starts today. Pasatiempo looks like a fun one.

79th Western Intercollegiate – presented by Titleist April 13-15, 2026 at Pasatiempo Golf Club in Santa Cruz, CA

www.westernintercollegiate.golf

Got to play it a few years ago, it is a very fun course. It's got some greens that the purists would say are mickey mouse (and honestly, they are), but that's part of what makes it fun.

Might get a little more credit than it deserves because Alister Mackenzie designed it and lived on the course but I don't think anyone would play that course and say it was boring.

 

[Mean Purple]

Got to play it a few years ago, it is a very fun course. It's got some greens that the purists would say are mickey mouse (and honestly, they are), but that's part of what makes it fun.

Might get a little more credit than it deserves because Alister Mackenzie designed it and lived on the course but I don't think anyone would play that course and say it was boring.

11 green is crazy. They have the pin in that back left spot today. So about an 8 foot area to stop the ball or it rolls back down. It’s like a roller coaster.

Some kind from Zona stuck well.

 

[Mean Purple]

11 green is crazy. They have the pin in that back left spot today. So about an 8 foot area to stop the ball or it rolls back down. It’s like a roller coaster.

Some kind from Zona stuck well.

And a BYU coog just drained it from the lower level.

 

[Mean Purple]

Got to play it a few years ago, it is a very fun course. It's got some greens that the purists would say are mickey mouse (and honestly, they are), but that's part of what makes it fun.

Might get a little more credit than it deserves because Alister Mackenzie designed it and lived on the course but I don't think anyone would play that course and say it was boring.

Can you see out to the ocean from those elevated parts of the course?

Always see the tv view of it, but this cameras are pretty high.

Have been to Santa Cruz in a long time.

 

[Wexahu]

Can you see out to the ocean from those elevated parts of the course?

Always see the tv view of it, but this cameras are pretty high.

Have been to Santa Cruz in a long time.

I don’t remember any ocean views.

It’s just a really cool place. Has a muni vibe where you don’t feel like they are just trying to take as much money as they can from you (even though it’s not cheap) and an interesting mix of solid and quirky holes. And of course, perfect weather most of the time.

 

[Mean Purple]

Some freshman just shaped a knock down like he was Hogan.

They showed the San Jose St campus as they are the host school. Impressive.