Men's Golf

By Steven Bartolotta, September 10, 2009, 12:04 a.m. 

It was picture day a few weeks ago for the North Texas men's golf team and afterwards Coach Brad Stracke had his team practice out a Lantana Country Club for the upcoming season.

As I drove around with him on a golf cart (tough life, I know) I sensed in him an excitement that rivaled that of a little boy about to unwrap a new Red Rider BB gun at Christmas. 

His first chance to fire that BB gun comes this Friday as the men's golf team begins its new season out in New Mexico.

As we continued driving around on the golf cart, we came upon two of his newcomers, Carlos Ortiz and Rodolfo Cazaubon. He uttered something in Spanish to the two of them.

"I don't know a lot of Spanish, just a little and a few words I probably shouldn't," said Stracke as he shared a laugh with his two newcomers.

Ortiz and Rodolfo are just a few of the reasons to get excited about the future of the golf program. He's also brought in Peter Fallon, a transfer from Baylor and freshman Curtis Donahoe from Clear Creek HS.

Stracke was brought to North Texas in between the fall and spring seasons and he has embraced the rebuilding project head-on.

Full disclosure here because former coach Jim Bob Jackson is still one of my favorite coaches I've ever dealt with on and off the course. I love the guy. But something had gone amiss with the men's golf program. Nobody will say this publicly but I will. Coach Jackson had lost the team. Nobody knows when and most of the time you don't even know that it's happened. But it did.  It happens all the time in sports though. The team needed a new voice, a fresh start, a new beginning.

Stracke has been that voice. As we drove around, he spoke about his new players glowingly. He wants to win, now. Stracke doesn't want to rebuild and in a few years win. He's talking tomorrow he wants to start beating the best and being the best.

Stracke also took on a problem that most schools have as well. Where to practice? At Florida where Stracke came from he told me they had their own course. The big boys have that and who wouldn't want to have that luxury of your own facility. Great recruiting tool right? Not for Stracke.

A new course is great, but when it's the only course your playing on.....well that new car smell wears off pretty quick with 20-year olds these days. They want to be playing on the best courses in the country and often. I meant it when I said courses, one just won't cut it anymore.  

So instead of looking for his own "home course", Stracke went out and cut deals with 14, count them 14 of the best course from around the DFW area.

From Stonebriar in Frisco to Tour 18 in Flower Mound, the men's golf team practices in style these days. Stracke isn't done there. He dreams of one-day hosting a tournament in the area, and not at just any course. He wants to host it at the TPC-Four Seasons. Yes, the same club that hosts the Byron Nelson Championship every year.

It won't happen overnight, but Stracke has big plans for the golf team once known as "the Notre Dame" of collegiate golf.

Stracke doesn't mince words and he doesn't hide his intentions. He wants to be a winner now and come Friday he gets his chance to see how far his team has come.