With a proven first-year coach, a strong start to the fall season and a mix of veteran and young talent, the TCU men’s golf team teed off its spring tournaments at the Arizona N.I.T. on Jan. 29-30. Here are five keys to follow in 2024.

Bill Allcorn’s first year as head coach

After playing professionally for eight years, Allcorn assisted at Baylor, his alma mater, for two years. From there he was hired as Oklahoma’s assistant coach in 2017. In 2021, the Sooners finished as the runner-up at the NCAA Championship and Allcorn was named the Jan Strickland National Assistant Coach of the Year. He earned a spot on the Team USA coaching staff at the 2022 Arnold Palmer Cup in Geneva, Switzerland and was promoted to Oklahoma’s associate head coach for the 2022-2023 season. In his six seasons at Oklahoma, the team won 25 tournament titles and three Big 12 Championships in 2018, 2022 and 2023.

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Allcorn spent the last six seasons with Oklahoma and we are excited to have him as part of the #FrogFam.

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— TCU Men’s Golf (@TCUMensGolf) May 22, 2023

Allcorn said he has found that sustained success comes from competition within the program.

“We’re going to compete,” he said. “They’re going to test their skills against their teammates to find the opportunity to play in tournaments, and then when we’re at our tournaments, that’s our time to really unify and go beat up on other teams.”

A wealth of experience

Individually, seniors Gustav Frimodt, Brandon Massey, Chris Berzina and junior Ethan Dial bring years of tournament experience to the team this spring.

Frimodt is the No. 25 amateur in the world and No. 14 in the latest PGA Tour University Rankings. He has competed in 41 events since arriving at TCU in 2019 and won All-Tournament Team honors at the Big 12 Championship last April.

On February 9, he became one of 40 players highlighted on the 2024 Ben Hogan Award Watch List.

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— TCU Men’s Golf (@TCUMensGolf) February 9, 2024

Frimodt said his personal goal for the spring is to end his college career on a high note by winning a tournament.

“As a team, we’re looking to make nationals,” he said. “From there, I think anything can happen, really. And we have an overall team goal of making it to match play in nationals too.”

Oklahoma made it to match play at the NCAA Championship in five of the six years Bill Allcorn coached there.

Younger players making an impact

On the other end of the experience spectrum, underclassmen Jack Beauchamp, Toby Wilt and first year player Andrew Petruzzelli stood out for the Frogs in the fall.

Petruzzelli has played in all five tournaments this season. He had two top 20 finishes in the fall and won three out of five matches at Big 12 match play in October.

After playing in four events last year, Beauchamp has also played in all five tournaments this season.

Expectations set early

The Frogs finished in second at their first event of the fall season, shooting 856 as a team, -8 strokes under par, at the Valero Texas Collegiate in San Antonio. The strong field at that tournament included current No. 3 Vanderbilt, No. 13 Virginia and No. 15 Oklahoma.

Frimodt earned co-medalist honors after finishing the tournament tied for first.

Coach Allcorn said those results show that his team is talented enough to contend.

“I really hope our guys stay positive and stay confident that their games are good enough to win some of these tournaments that we’re in,” he said.

Learning from the Fall

After a strong start to the fall, the Frogs struggled with consistency. At the William H. Tucker Collegiate in New Mexico, the Frogs shot one over 865 and finished 10th out of 20 teams. The next week at the Ben Hogan Invitational in Fort Worth, the Frogs shot 30 over 870 and finished 15th out of 15 teams.

Coach Allcorn said the team must master the basics before they can be a consistent team.

“Whether that’s with putting, chipping, tee balls, iron play, wedge play, there’s some things that we will just continue to hammer on so that we get better as a team,” he said. “We’re going to have ups and downs, and I know that, but the more that we can hammer out the details of the basics, the more consistent we will be throughout the spring.”