2011
GAME DAY
TCU Men’s Golf Update The TCU men’s golf team returns three golfers to its lineup this season who helped the squad advance to the NCAA Regional Championships for the 22nd consecutive year last spring. In addition to three-time All-Mountain West Conference selection Johan de Beer (pictured below right), juniors Pontus Gad and Daniel Jennevret also are back for Head Coach Bill Montigel’s program. Freshman Julien Brun, a France native who is one of the world’s top amateur golfers, has already given the Horned Frogs a boost early on this fall.
By Andy Anderson, TCU Media Relations The TCU men’s golf team enters the 2011-12 campaign with a long tradition of excellence on which to build. Last season’s squad advanced to the NCAA Regional Championships for the 22nd consecutive year, by far the longest postseason streak in the history of TCU’s overall athletics program. Head Coach Bill Montigel, who is entering his 24th season guiding the Frogs, is one of only four coaches in the nation to take his team to the regional tournament each of the last 22 years. While making the regional field is a yearly tradition of the TCU program, expectations do not end there. The Frogs have played in the NCAA Championship 12 times in Montigel’s tenure while posting two top-10 finishes, including a ninth-place showing three seasons ago. The Frogs lost one of their top golfers from 2011 in AllAmerican Tom Hoge, who qualified for a PGA Tour event during the past summer, however the amount of returning talent on the squad should help mitigate the departure. The other four individuals who competed for the Frogs in last spring’s regional tournament each return. Leading the returning talent is Johan de Beer, the lone senior expected to see regular competition for the squad this season. A native of Pretoria, South Africa, de Beer has been one of the team’s most consistent performers in its Mountain West Conference era. Last spring, de Beer became the first Frog ever to be named All-MWC three consecutive seasons, while his final national ranking of No. 126 was second only to Hoge’s position (No. 117). Also back on the course this season are juniors Pontus Gad and Daniel Jennevret, natives of Sweden, who filled the No. 3 and 4 holes in TCU’s lineup last season. Jennevret posted three top-10 finishes as a sophomore, while Gad twice placed in the top 20. Both Frogs are expected to take another step forward this season while helping TCU form a consistent lineup.
The fourth returnee from last season’s NCAA Regional team, senior Eli Cole, is doubtful for both the fall and spring seasons after suffering a leg injury during the summer. The Frogs will look to a large group of young golfers to fill the No. 5 spot in the lineup while Cole recovers from injury. Sophomore Ian Phillips has been in the role so far this fall, but others with varsity experience who could also earn opportunities to play include senior Matt Johnson and sophomore Johnny Antle. While Cole’s off-season injury is a blow for TCU, the arrival of freshman Julien Brun should prove to be a major addition to the program. Brun, who hails from Antibes, France, is one of the most highly regarded recruits in Montigel’s tenure. He brings a top-30 world amateur ranking with him to TCU and owns the talent to compete right away for the Frogs at the national level. TCU is already off to a fast start to the 2011-12 campaign, having claimed a pair of runner-up appearances and an individual title in the first two tournaments of the fall schedule. Brun proved that he is ready for college golf in his first event, when he won top medalist honors in early September at the Turning Stone Tiger Intercollegiate in Verona, N.Y.. In the process, he became the first freshman golfer to win the first college tournament in which he competed dating back to Montigel’s arrival with the program. Brun continued his hot start into the team’s second tournament, as he tied for third place at The McLaughlin two weeks ago in Farmington, N.Y. So far in six rounds as a Frog, Brun has shot even-par or better each time out.
par 65 in the final round of The McLaughlin, the best round by a Frog this fall. Jennevret entered the week atop the Mountain West’s leaderboard for stroke average, one spot in front of Brun. As is the case almost every year, TCU has another tough schedule lined up for 2011-12. Two solid tournaments featuring challenging national fields remain this fall in the Jack Nicklaus Invitational Oct. 10-11 in Columbus, Ohio, and the Isleworth Collegiate Invitational Oct. 25-28 in Windmere, Fla. The spring season is highlighted by several warm-weather destinations, with tournaments in locations such as Kona, Hawaii; Jacksonville, Fla.; Las Vegas, Nev.; Augusta, Ga.; and Scottsdale, Ariz. The Frogs’ lone tournament within the borders of the Lone Star State will be in March at the Morris Williams Invitational in Austin. TCU will make its final appearance at the MWC Championship May 3-5 in Tucson, Ariz., before joining the BIG EAST Conference next fall. This year’s NCAA Championships will be played at historic Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, Calif., host of the 1948 U.S. Open and a pair of PGA Championships (1983 and 1995).
While the freshman sensation has experienced a solid start to his career, it is Jennevret who has actually been the Frog with the sharpest game so far this fall. Jennevret leads the squad with a 68.5 stroke average and has finished as the runner-up individual in both of TCU’s tournaments. He fired a six-under
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