Men's Golf

UNTLifer · April 24, 2018

Tanking in the third round and don't look like they we make the team match play.

UNTLifer · April 24, 2018

Needed to finish in the top four...finished in fifth, one stroke behind Rice.

GrandGreen · April 24, 2018

As the highest rated team in CUSA, a very disappointing performance.

Side Show Joe · April 24, 2018

What an unimpressive performance at the conference toury. I don't see an at-large bid for us. Not happy with the way this season has gone.

TreeFiddy · April 24, 2018

Going in to the tournament the coach thought they would get an at large bid, if necessary. After this performance, not so sure.

THOR · April 25, 2018

snyman played great...he will make it individually....rice's best guy birdied the last 2 holes to move them ahead...stinks for the boys, but shit happens

shootermcgavin44 · April 27, 2018

Stracke has a terrible reputation with Texas high school golfers. DFW is loaded with talent and produces the best players in the country. Pretty ridiculous Strack.......e has to rely on international players to fill out a team while you can go 30 minutes in any direction from UNT and find outstanding golfers.

Mean Green 93-98 · April 27, 2018

4 minutes ago, shootermcgavin44 said:

Stracke has a terrible reputation with Texas high school golfers.

This is the first I've heard of it.

Why?

shootermcgavin44 · April 27, 2018

6 minutes ago, Mean Green 93-98 said:

This is the first I've heard of it.

Why?

He has been terrible at recruiting and his treatment of local players. Texas kids talk. Why he has to go to far away outpost to get golfers.

UNTLifer · April 27, 2018

So what's the story? As Mean Green 93-98 noted, I have never heard this before and would be curious to know what the issues are.

My concern heading in to the conference tournament was the cocky attitude from the tweets stating how they had home course advantage, etc... Round 1 really hurt them and I think it served as a wake-up call. Unfortunately, it was too late by then.

shootermcgavin44 · April 28, 2018

12 hours ago, UNTLifer said:

So what's the story? As Mean Green 93-98 noted, I have never heard this before and would be curious to know what the issues are.

My concern heading in to the conference tournament was the cocky attitude from the tweets stating how they had home course advantage, etc... Round 1 really hurt them and I think it served as a wake-up call. Unfortunately, it was too late by then.

Home course advantage? There isn't a single course in DFW that comes close to Texarkana CC. La Tech is way closer to TCC than UNT.

You must not be real close to the golf program if you have not heard that players on the team can't stand Strack......e

greenminer · April 28, 2018

12 hours ago, shootermcgavin44 said:

Strack......e

Strange bit. Comes across as the South Park Planet-arium episode.

UNTLifer · April 28, 2018

17 hours ago, shootermcgavin44 said:

Home course advantage? There isn't a single course in DFW that comes close to Texarkana CC. La Tech is way closer to TCC than UNT.

You must not be real close to the golf program if you have not heard that players on the team can't stand Strack......e

Who crawled up your hind quarters? Never said I was close to the program, just stated that your comment regarding Strake was the first I had ever heard. I met him once years ago at a tailgate. He was with a couple of his players and they seemed to be having a good time. Outside of that, you hit the nail on the head regarding my proximity to the team.

I am guessing from your comments/accusations that you are extremely close to the program. Care to expand of those?

Edited April 28, 2018 by UNTLifer

shootermcgavin44 · April 29, 2018

5 hours ago, UNTLifer said:

Who crawled up your hind quarters? Never said I was close to the program, just stated that your comment regarding Strake was the first I had ever heard. I met him once years ago at a tailgate. He was with a couple of his players and they seemed to be having a good time. Outside of that, you hit the nail on the head regarding my proximity to the team.

I am guessing from your comments/accusations that you are extremely close to the program. Care to expand of those?

Can you expand on how a course 4 hours from Denton is a home course advantage

...........e

UNTLifer · April 29, 2018

14 hours ago, shootermcgavin44 said:

Can you expand on how a course 4 hours from Denton is a home course advantage

...........e

No, but that wasn't my comment, it was one tweeted by the team.

Edited April 29, 2018 by UNTLifer

shootermcgavin44 · April 29, 2018

1 minute ago, UNTLifer said:

No, but that wasn't my comment, it was kne tweeted by the team.

The best junior/ high school golf in the country is played in DFW and he can't land any of those kids....... not a coincidence

...............e

TreeFiddy · April 29, 2018

From what I have heard, Stracke is very focused on a player's World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR) and won't give you much attention if you are not ranked. Like a lot of programs, he has started relying pretty heavily on international players, which leaves local juniors without an offer.

I have also heard that Stracke can be very blunt when dealing with players/parents/coaches which has earned him a bit of a reputation, but it is hard to argue with his results. He has attracted some very good international players in the last few years and the team's national ranking has improved quite a bit. He has sent the team as well as several individual players to the NCAA regional tournament in recent years.

In terms of local vs international players, we have 5 Texas kids and 5 international players. However, if you look at our 'starting five' each week the international players are dominating the local players when it comes to playing time and tournament results.

shootermcgavin44 · April 29, 2018

1 hour ago, TreeFiddy said:

From what I have heard, Stracke is very focused on a player's World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR) and won't give you much attention if you are not ranked. Like a lot of programs, he has started relying pretty heavily on international players, which leaves local juniors without an offer.

I have also heard that Stracke can be very blunt when dealing with players/parents/coaches which has earned him a bit of a reputation, but it is hard to argue with his results. He has attracted some very good international players in the last few years and the team's national ranking has improved quite a bit. He has sent the team as well as several individual players to the NCAA regional tournament in recent years.

In terms of local vs international players, we have 5 Texas kids and 5 international players. However, if you look at our 'starting five' each week the international players are dominating the local players when it comes to playing time and tournament results.

Texas A&M University ranked #2 in the country, spent most of the year ranked #1. Zero international players and 4 out of their top 5 are from TEXAS.

University of Texas, 2nd place finish at the Big 12. Zero international players and 2 players from DFW in their top 5.

Baylor, ranked #10 in the country and their coach has 3 national titles on his resume. 100% of his players are from TEXAS! McGraw is a former high school coach and understands the importance of having good relationships with high school programs (........e does not)

SMU finished 2nd in the AAC with Zero international players. They brought in the #1 player in the country at semester from and he is from CORINTH TEXAS. 2 of their top 5 are from DFW.

UTA finished 2nd in stroke play at the Sun Belt Tournament. All the top 5 are from Texas, 2 of those 5 are from DFW.

UNT has zero DFW players in their top 5......

While ......e has had good international players, you can hit a 6 iron from UNT in any direction and find better local players but his reputation and the way he has treated local players/ hs coaches keeps him from getting those players.

Edited April 29, 2018 by shootermcgavin44

TreeFiddy · April 30, 2018

9 hours ago, shootermcgavin44 said:

Texas A&M University ranked #2 in the country, spent most of the year ranked #1. Zero international players and 4 out of their top 5 are from TEXAS.

University of Texas, 2nd place finish at the Big 12. Zero international players and 2 players from DFW in their top 5.

Baylor, ranked #10 in the country and their coach has 3 national titles on his resume. 100% of his players are from TEXAS! McGraw is a former high school coach and understands the importance of having good relationships with high school programs (........e does not)

SMU finished 2nd in the AAC with Zero international players. They brought in the #1 player in the country at semester from and he is from CORINTH TEXAS. 2 of their top 5 are from DFW.

UTA finished 2nd in stroke play at the Sun Belt Tournament. All the top 5 are from Texas, 2 of those 5 are from DFW.

UNT has zero DFW players in their top 5......

While ......e has had good international players, you can hit a 6 iron from UNT in any direction and find better local players but his reputation and the way he has treated local players/ hs coaches keeps him from getting those players.

It seems those top local players are not interested in UNT and the level of local player that UNT can get is not better than the international players that want to come here.

If you bang your head against the wall long enough with nothing to show for it you eventually figure out it hurts less if you don't bang your head against the wall. Stracke seems to have decided that rather than continue chasing after high end local talent only to come up empty handed, he would rather pursue the international golfers almost exclusively.

Seems to be working out ok for him. He has 3 conference championships and 5 regional appearances so far in his 9 years (fingers crossed for #6 this year with an at large bid).

Stracke may rub some people the wrong way, but hard to argue with his results.

UNTLifer · April 30, 2018

12 hours ago, shootermcgavin44 said:

Texas A&M University ranked #2 in the country, spent most of the year ranked #1. Zero international players and 4 out of their top 5 are from TEXAS.

University of Texas, 2nd place finish at the Big 12. Zero international players and 2 players from DFW in their top 5.

Baylor, ranked #10 in the country and their coach has 3 national titles on his resume. 100% of his players are from TEXAS! McGraw is a former high school coach and understands the importance of having good relationships with high school programs (........e does not)

SMU finished 2nd in the AAC with Zero international players. They brought in the #1 player in the country at semester from and he is from CORINTH TEXAS. 2 of their top 5 are from DFW.

UTA finished 2nd in stroke play at the Sun Belt Tournament. All the top 5 are from Texas, 2 of those 5 are from DFW.

UNT has zero DFW players in their top 5......

While ......e has had good international players, you can hit a 6 iron from UNT in any direction and find better local players but his reputation and the way he has treated local players/ hs coaches keeps him from getting those players.

Sounds like you have a personal axe to grind.

THOR · April 30, 2018

10 hours ago, UNTLifer said:

Sounds like you have a personal axe to grind.

or he points out how top teams in the state all have local players...facts are facts...stracke has chosen his route to building his team, nothing wrong with it, but other top golf schools in texas don't need to do that.

UNTLifer · April 30, 2018

10 minutes ago, THOR said:

or he points out how top teams in the state all have local players...facts are facts...stracke has chosen his route to building his team, nothing wrong with it, but other top golf schools in texas don't need to do that.

Oh, I agree and I have no problem with how Stracke has built his program. Considering the program was not performing well when he arrived, I am not surprised he has gone the international route. Maybe with some continued success, he will start attracting some local talent. It appears that shooter has some issues with Stracke's personality, something I have never heard but that isn't surprising since golf coaches don't usually garner a lot of press.

outoftown · April 30, 2018

Definitely a disappointing end to the season. The last two tournaments were no good at all. That said, looking at the past several years under Stracke, they are the exception, not the rule. Missing the top 4 feels bad because we are used to UNT men's golf being perennially in the top 3 of the conference.

With all that said, UNT is now ranked 66th in the golfstat rankings, that may be juust good enough to squeeze into the NCAA regionals anyway. I don't think that this is because or despite its internationally oriented recruiting system. I have my doubts whether UNT would attract Texas A&M or UT kind of talent even if its coach were more locally oriented. UNT is also doing this approach in tennis (usually fairly successfully by the way).

Edited April 30, 2018 by outoftown

DeepGreen · April 30, 2018

Let me get this straight....

Football has had problems recruiting top/really good players for a long time. Now we have a coach/staff that is doing a much better job at recruiting/coaching .

Basketball has had a problem since JJ left (also think before JJ came on board) bringing top players to Denton for years. Coach Mac seems to have that turned around, or at least headed in the right direction.

Womens golf is nonexistent;

Track and field use to be strong at NT; it's missing in action.

Softball is a train wreck.

When you read a sports article on Mean Green Sports, they don't talk about beating a conference foe a golf championship, or winning a conference track meet. No, they write about beating some long standing UNT record. Hard to explain this. We write about beating obscure records/number "within UNT".

I'll get down voted on this, but in some ways Mac may have been right. "It's hard to recruit to UNT". If he was correct "even the slightest", how do we turn this thing around whereby "top" student athletics in these sports "want" to play for UNT? Better coaches?

I have no problem having International players on the golf teams but why won't the good players in our own backyard "want" to play for UNT?

KRAM1 · April 30, 2018

You know what??? John Hedlund is not the most "personable" coach going either and can be pretty tough on players and parents, but his record stands for itself. He CARES about his players and wants them to be the best they can be...and he gets a lot of "local" recruits. Coach Hedlund gets great local players because he has built a winning program. A program that quality local players want to play for during college. It was not always this way. It takes time...it takes a coach that stays long enough to build such a program. It takes resources, it takes work.

This "international student vs local" is always intriguing to me. Take a look at our tennis team if you want to see a program loaded with internationals. Why? Well, I asked Coach Lama that very question...his response? Local (US) players ranked high enough to compete at the level the program would like do not, as yet, want to come to UNT. Why? The program has not won enough and is not "known" enough as yet as a top US program. There are so few highly ranked US players in HS that the top programs can scoop them up leaving the lower ranked US players for programs like UNT at this point. So, you go international and recruit players over the internet based on their international rankings...at least that is where the recruiting game for our international tennis players starts in most cases. The same can be, for the most part, said for golf. UNT used to be a "destination" golf program for the best local golfers around. Not the case right now. However, that IS beginning to change...with the help of a great new facility for golf, some success on the course and some increased support from the Athletic Department (along with some donor support). Once UNT starts winning on a more consistent basis and getting the team...as well as individual golfers...into the NCAA's things will change and more ranked "local golfers" will want to play for UNT. The idea that the coach is tough or rough on players and their parents is a "problem" only for as few. If you think it will be a reason the program never wins you are sadly mistaken...want proof? Check out Okie State's program under Mike Holder. Holder had a reputation as one of the toughest and no nonsense coaches in college golf...tough...very...on his players and parents alike. But, OSU won...still does...and players, both local and international flocked to the program.

Want to read a great golf book that talks about Holder and the OSU program...and a local donor Family and players as well? Check out "The Last Putt" by Neil Hayes and Brian Murphy. The sub title is" Two Teams, One Dream, and a Freshman named Tiger". Great read about the Stanford and OSU golf teams and the stark differences between the two head coaches and their approaches to building championship programs. In it you will also read about "international players". OSU has utilized quite a few (and still does), It traces the 1995 year that changed college golf. Great read regarding the Woods family and the Kuehne family Anyway...the book is out of print, but can probably be found where I found it...Amazon's book search site....if you are interested.

Is Brad Stracke the coach to lead us back to national prominence? I have no clue, but I do know the program has moved in a winning direction since he came to UNT. The internal workings I know nothing about, but I do know that the results, be they due to local or international players, are moving in the right direction once again. Time will tell if Coach Stracke is "the guy" or not. But, if he isn't it will not be because he did not recruit "local players" or that he has a reputation as a "tough coach to deal with" from a HS coach standpoint.

Win more CUSA championships, get to the NCAA's more often, get more of your player to the PGA Tour, etc., and the "gee the local HS coaches and local players don't like him" stuff falls by the wayside because UNT has become a destination program...like Okie State before Holder...during Holder...and after Holder.