Texas Tech Men's Golf Ready for Championship Challenge
May 28, 2015 | Men's Golf
Texas Tech practices on the 15th hole at The Concession Golf Club, Thursday during its practice round at the 2015 NCAA Men's Golf Championships.
May 28, 2015
Practice Round Gallery
Championship Notes
Season Stats
Championship Central
Live Scoring
By Travis Cram / Texas Tech Athletics Communications
BRADENTON, Fla. -- The Texas Tech men's golf team finally got a chance to see what everyone was talking about for the past week while following the Tech women's golf team through its NCAA Championships run - just how tough this golf course is.
The ninth-seeded Red Raiders arrived at The Concession Golf Club Thursday morning for the practice round before they will tee off alongside Oregon and LSU.
"It's always exciting to play for a championship - whether it's the Big 12 Championships or the NCAA Championships - that's what we've been working all year for," Tech head coach Greg Sands said. "So the guys are really excited and we're ready to get out here tomorrow and get after it."
The team stopped off at famed Isleworth Country Club near Orlando for a round on Tuesday after watching the Lady Raiders in match play that morning on TV. Then held another practice session Wednesday morning before heading out to the team hotel in Sarasota, Fla.
But Concession is not exactly the same as what Sands and the Red Raiders may have seen on the Golf Channel while watching JoJo Robertson and her crew advance to the match play quarterfinals.
The layout for the men's tournament will be extended more than 1,000 yards than how the women played it (6,468 to 7,483 yards). The women's average score per player on 18 holes was 77.82 - nearly 6-over par on average. There were 2,219 bogeys, 520 double bogeys and 165 "others" during four rounds of stroke play at the women's tournament to only 962 birdies among 132 players. That's less than two birdies per round per player.
But the look of each Tech player's face on Thursday was anything but scared. The team was excited to test their skills on each tee shot, approach and especially around the greens.
Afterall, this is a championship.
"I think it's going to really separate the teams and that's what you want in a championship golf course," Sands said. "The greens are really difficult. Pretty hard to get a good feel of where exactly the pins are going to be with just having one practice round, but we did the best we can and we're looking forward to (Friday)."
THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME ... OR IS THERE?
If there's another thing Texas Tech can be thankful for, it's the fact that its home course layout and greens may prove to be the perfect practice for the Red Raiders as they prepared for the NCAA Championships this week.
The Rawls Course, a Tom Doak design, does have similar multi-tier greens and cross bunkering that mimics a lot of The Concession Golf Club - designed by Jack Nicklaus and Tony Jacklin.
Although the course will play longer, it doesn't necessarily mean the Red Raiders will hit driver each time. The intercepting bunkers in fairways, hazards and natural vegetation that no sane person would venture into for a ball, means playing smarter shots to specific spots with a 3-wood, hybrid or even an iron.But the toughest test will certainly be on the greens, which can fall off back to the fairways or greenside bunkers if a player is not careful on his chip, approach or even a putt.
"I think the green complexes at home serve us well here," Sands said. "I think these will be some of the most difficult greens we've seen and we'll have to be sharp around the them, but that's the same way at The Rawls Course. If it gets firm, it's a little bit similar. The tee balls look a little visually different, but I think with the bunkering and different things there's definitely some similarities there."
GOOD LUCK NOTES
There was plenty of communication this past week between the Texas Tech men's and women's golf teams as the women made an amazing run to not only qualify for the 15-team, final round of stroke play, but also the top eight in match play quarterfinals.
Head coach Greg Sands and his guys followed every shot, tweet and moment captured on camera during the fourth round and then even made the attempt to follow the match play action from 30,000 feet.
As Sands and the Red Raiders flew to Orlando on Tuesday, the head coach purchased WiFi on the flight to try and watch the action through the Golf Channel online.
"We didn't want to miss any of it," he said.
So when the women's team finished up and heard about the guys rooting them on - even in the air - they wanted to reciprocate the gesture.
The women's team left behind its pull carts for the guys to use the first couple of days at Sands' request - mainly to keep from tiring early on in the Florida heat. When the team arrived at The Concession Golf Club on Thursday morning to grab the carts from the locker room they were being kept in, there was an added surprise.Each member of the women's team left a note in the top compartment of the pull carts to wish a men's player good luck. "It meant a lot what they did," Sands said. "All the guys were kind of giggling and cracking up at some of their notes. It probably meant more than they will admit because it meant a lot for the girls to do that."
And expect many more tweets and support to follow this week should the men advance and make a run similar to the women.
There are only 10 schools that had both their men's and women's golf teams qualify for the NCAA Championships. Out of those 10, only five - USC, Duke, Texas Tech, Stanford and Washington - advanced to the match play quarterfinals.
If the Tech men qualify for match play, it could be historical, since this is the first season match play has been part of the women's championships.
"We're just trying to follow in their lead," Sands said. "They really played great and we're just really happy for them and what they've accomplished. Hopefully we can give them something to cheer about as well next week."
Greg Sands @Sandsman14 & others talk @Concessiongolf w/ @GolfChannel #WreckEm #NCAAGolf http://t.co/6mJizVBMRY pic.twitter.com/htdpCyZ3ik
- Travis Cram (@traviscram) May 28, 2015