In what is one of the absolute best tournaments of the year, with one of the strongest fields of the year (just like the Cabo Collegiate), the Coogs wrapped up play at the Valspar Collegiate played at The Floridian yesterday in 12th place (out of 15 teams) shooting +4 for 3 days.
The Coogs threw together a strong opening round of 279 (-5), and followed it up with back to back over par rounds. 286 (+2) in round 2, and closed the event with a 291 (+7). A tough event against an elite field, the Coogs did not manage a Top 20 finish by a member of the team. Marcus Wochner led all players shooting 68 - 70 - 73 for a -2 overall finish.
The Coogs lost to 1 unranked team (Duke), and every other team that finished ahead of them was ranked inside the top 32. If this was the CFP, the Coogs would have just notched 10 “quality losses” this week.
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#10 Pepperdine : -34
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#25 Florida State : -20
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#20 Wake Forest : -15
- NR Duke : -14
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#6 Arizona State : -13
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#33 Ohio State : -12
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#4 North Carolina : -11
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#32 South Florida : -5
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#5 Texas Tech : -5
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#21 Clemson : -1
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#17 Texas A&M : E
- NR Houston : +4
- NR Marquette : +9
- Southern Cal : +14
- Minnesota : +20
Overall, a tough event for our Coogs. Still seeing a lot of bright spots, and I truly believe they are rounding into some nice form as they gear up for the AAC Championships in late April. With 2 events remaining (include one in Conroe), the top 5 should be well solidified. The Coogs are currently ranked 64th (per Golfweek) and are just a few wins over .500 (this is key to get a bid to Regionals).
Fortunately, the Coogs get a few days off and then are back at it again at The Aggie Invitational April 9th and 10th. While this may be Masters weekend, I’d encourage all of you to head over to College Station and cheer on those Coogs. They need some momentum to finish the year out!
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I admire your support of the program but wish I could share your optimism on where we are going forward. Kudos to you.
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Very disappointing that 3Amigos didn’t give a SHSU/UH update. I don’t care if they were in the tournament. I’m keeping score at home and my wife wants to know why I carry a clipboard around the house.
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Truth be told, I had a blurb mentioned about the knuckleheads and our shot differential.
Holding steady at 55 shots this spring. Bayou City up next.
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Obviously it’s not secret I played for the men’s team.
College golf is absolutely brutal. Period. When Dismuke took the team over, the program had all but been forgotten. The budget was so low, and so poor, that he had to choose between playing an extra event, or outfitting the team with pants and shorts. So he x’d the shorts and the team wore pants all year.
Over the last decade, the program has won tournaments, a conference championship, been to NCAA’s 3 times, and has qualified for regionals 7 times. In that time, we’ve had the Dave Williams Golf Center built - which has been a huge value add in recruiting. Are there things we could do better? Yes. I think it’s also important to realize that while golf is different, and a conference doesn’t matter, kids still want to go to big time schools.
Currently, there is only ONE school ranked in the top 30 that is not part of a Power 5 conference. Pepperdine. That’s it.
I could go on and on about this, but I can tell you this much, we have the right guy and the right staff leading this program. I am optimistic. I have been and will continue to be.
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3, what years did you play? I had a HS friend that played in the 80’s.
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Nice! Much, much later than that. Played in the 00s for Jarrett and Diz.
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What did u mean by brutal?
Are you talking about pressure to perform? Competition? Or travel?
Or the amenities vs other sports?
Do you think the socio-economics of top high school golfers is hurting us? I know golf is back to more of an everyman’s sport now but I would guess most top prospect are still kids from wealthier families who probably have parents that went to private universities or the “big name” universities.
That said, no excuse if Texas Tech is ranked 5th in the country and Sam Houston is better than us 
. On the women’s side for us it has been the internationals leading the way.
Scholarships - you only get 4.5 in Division 1 Men’s Golf. Women get 6. It’s hard to get some of the top guys, regardless of socioeconomic status. Lot of factors in play.
I can tell you this, our schedule is not one of them. If you think about Houston, and going after the best players, UH competes against UT, A&M, and TTU (all ranked in top 16). SMU, Baylor, and TCU are all in between 50 and 60.
It’s awfully hard, unless you’re a blue blood, to be consistently ranked in the top 25 year in and year out. Those are the teams that get the best juniors every year. We sometimes have to go after the “diamonds in the rough”. Kids that were overlooked because their parents didnt spend 200 kajillion dollars playing junior events, kids that stayed local, etc. Or, international kids.
When I was being recruited, Texas was where All-Americans went to die. They got the best players year in and year out and couldn’t do anything. It was until they got Cody Gribble, Jordan Spieth, Dylan Fritelli that the tide started to turn.
Just have some patience. We are getting better. We’ve got the money. We’ve got the facilities. We’ve got the coach.
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Thanks for that input. I didn’t know all that.
(Well, I knew about the DW Golf Center, but not the other stuff.)
One other question:
Is there real golf instruction (technical swing instruction) at the college level or is it basically broad brush stuff like team construction, scouting courses, managing player issues, etc?
Played golf a short while back with a retired golf coach from a well known private school in Houston. He jokingly said, that with all their private lessons and swing coaches, his main duty as coach was to make sure they didn’t miss the bus. 
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The old guard - the bus drivers are being pushed out for younger coaches who can actually coach. It used to be “Just pick the 5 best and get em there”. Now, it’s changed.
My first coach in college was a bus driver. My second, not at all. And worked with me to help me actually understand my swing. I still use drills we worked on to this day.
All of these kids have swing coaches, but, with these coaches living in other parts of the country, many of them rely on their college coach to help be the eyes.
A lot of it is team construction. How do you pick your 5 best week in and week out? Sure, you can exempt guys from week to week, but qualifying is another animal. Often times you may have guys that crush it in qualifying that can’t handle a 3 round tournament, and vice versa.