Top 20 College Golf Programs

[golfday]

I was explaining how the D1 NCAA golf tournament worked to a few friends this weekend and afterwards one asked who the top D1 men's programs of all time are. I more or less know the biggest names, but am not sure I could put an accurate top 10 together, much less a T20 or T25. After googling around I didn't find any reputable or researched articles on it (where as there a million for basketball and football). The only stat about programs that's even easy to find is the # of national championships they've won, but that leaves out a program like Georgia Tech that I know has had a lot of good players and must be a highly regarded program despite not having one yet. 

 

So what say the boards? Are there any college golf experts on the board that have any insights or would venture to send their thoughts? 

[Abh159]

Any list is going to vary based on what criteria you use to rank programs.

 

NCAA success? I.e. number of championships, postseason appearances, and etc.

Or

Most PGA Tour success?

 

There would be some crossover between those two - Stanford, OK State, and Houston immediately come to mind. However, there would also be a lot of differences.

 

One good example is Georgia Tech which you mentioned. They might show up on a list if it was only based on PGA Tour success, but they wouldn't if it was based on NCAA success.

Edited May 30, 2023 by Abh159

[hollabachgt]

By any criteria: Houston and Oklahoma State would be near the very top of the list. With Texas, Stanford, and Wake Forest being the next 3 on the list.

[kekoa]

To me, the top program would be the ones with highest number that go on to the PGA tour.  From this criteria, I'd have to say ASU, Texas, and OSU take the cake.  

[golfday]

This is kind of the problem I was running into. Oklahoma State, Texas, Houston, Wake Forest, Arizona State, Stanford immediately come to mind so maybe they're Tier 1. After that it gets really hard because it's so hard to find information.

 

I was thinking about Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Georgia Tech, Clemson, and Oklahoma as a tier 2. Maybe Illinois, Pepperdine, Vandy, UCLA, USC, Oregon, LSU, UNLV, and Arkansas are tier 3.

 

I'm admittedly guessing though. Curious how one might shift these or add / subtract teams. 

 

To rank them I'd want use criteria of (most important to least important): team national championships, team conference championships, player success on the PGA tour, other strong results in national championships (i.e. 2nd place finishes, top 5's, etc.), individual player college success (# of individual national champs and # of players making AA teams). I'd also weight the past 30 years more heavily than further out success. 

[leezer99]

By State:

 

By College

 

[leezer99]

15 hours ago, kekoa said:

To me, the top program would be the ones with highest number that go on to the PGA tour.  From this criteria, I'd have to say ASU, Texas, and OSU take the cake.  

 

Everyone sleeps on Georgia which has produced Bubba, Erik Compton, Kevin Kisner, Brendon Todd, Chris Kirk, Brian Harman, Patrick Reed, Harris English, Russell Henley and Hudson Swafford.

[hollabachgt]

Minnesota, Illinois, Syracuse, and Pittsburgh all rank in the top 10 in NFL hall of fame inductees, would you put those programs in the top 10 of best college football programs of all time? I can understand using pro success as part of a formula, but that has to be weighted behind collegiate success. How can you judge the quality and success of a college program and ignore the actual performance of the teams in college?

 

All of the following criteria should be used before looking at a programs professional successes.

• National Championships
• Top-8 Finishes in the National Championship
• Regional Wins
• National Championship Appearances
• Conference Championship Wins
• Tournament Wins
• All-Americans
• US Am / British Am wins
• Walker Cup appearances
• All-Conference

Then you can look at criteria such as:

• Major wins
• PGA Tour wins
• Major starts
• PGA Tour starts

You can't look at money because that biases too much towards recent success. You also can't look to favorably towards tour /major success alone as it can bias great players over great programs. Texas has produced 6 major champions, while Ohio State has only produced 2. Yet because of Jack Nicklaus, Ohio State has won 10 more major championships than Texas.

[Abh159]

1 hour ago, leezer99 said:

By State:

 

By College

 

 

 

I love how Coastal Carolina cracked the Top-15 literally because of one single person. Their entire "earnings" is from DJ and no one else 😂

 

1 hour ago, leezer99 said:

 

Everyone sleeps on Georgia which has produced Bubba, Erik Compton, Kevin Kisner, Brendon Todd, Chris Kirk, Brian Harman, Patrick Reed, Harris English, Russell Henley and Hudson Swafford.

 

You forgot about Keith Mitchell, Greyson Sigg, Sepp Straka, and Davis Thompson. It's shocking they only won 2 championships when you consider the talent that has come from that program. 

 

[hollabachgt]

1 hour ago, leezer99 said:

 

Everyone sleeps on Georgia which has produced Bubba, Erik Compton, Kevin Kisner, Brendon Todd, Chris Kirk, Brian Harman, Patrick Reed, Harris English, Russell Henley and Hudson Swafford.

 

Can you really call Reed a Georgia guy? While he did attend there for a period, I'd think his 2 NC's at Augusta State would shift his collegiate connection. Would you call Cam Newton a Florida guy over Auburn?

[Dawg Duffer]

2 hours ago, leezer99 said:

 

Everyone sleeps on Georgia which has produced Bubba, Erik Compton, Kevin Kisner, Brendon Todd, Chris Kirk, Brian Harman, Patrick Reed, Harris English, Russell Henley and Hudson Swafford.

 

[Dawg Duffer]

Hold on just a second there. You are NOT going to blame The University of Georgia for Patrick Reed. He spent one semester in Athens, was dismissed, ended up at Augusta St. 

 

Sepp Straka and Keith Mitchell are Georgia grads and Tour winners. Davis Thompson is on the list, a rookie who will win on Tour.