Baylor Golf Facilities
Baylor teams play on two of the finest golf courses in the state and have their own state of the art practice facilities.
Short-Game Practice Center at Baylor School
To enhance the performance of the school’s golf teams and provide a site for instructional golf, a $300,000 short-game practice center was opened on the Baylor campus in 2003. The practice area features seven stations for hitting shots from inside 145 yards; a 4,000 square-foot chipping green; and a 4,200 square-foot putting green.
Designed and installed by Tour Greens of Georgia, the main hitting stations are synthetic turf grasses, and the grass between practice areas is Bermuda. The short-game center has four practice bunkers and lighting to facilitate putting practice at night!
The putting green overlooks Baylor Lake and sits astride the Golf Gazebo where displays house golf memorabilia and highlight the accomplishments of Baylor golfers.
The short game center is dedicated to three of “golf’s greatest” not only in Baylor golf, but also in terms of golf in America. Those individuals are the late Lew Oehmig, class of 1935; John T. Lupton, class of 1944; and Betty Probasco who was married to Scott L. Probasco, Jr., class of 1946. Over the years, the three competed from the local to the national level and won numerous United States Golf Association championships.
Black Creek Golf Club
The home course for Baylor Golf is the Black Creek Golf Club. Designed by nationally recognized architect, Brian Silva, this “neo-classical” course is patterned after the architecture of C. B. MacDonald and Seth Raynor. Since opening in 2000, Black Creek has hosted three PGA Nationwide Tour events and was the second qualifying course for the 2005 USGA Mid Amateur.
Within a year of its opening, Black Creek was named to Golfweek’s “Top 100 Modern Courses,” and the course is now ranked in the “Top 25 Golf Developments in the USA” by Golfweek.
A Black Creek “student membership” program is available to Baylor’s boarding students in the off-season that entitles students to full membership privileges. The “student membership” is $185.00 per month.
Additional information about this nationally acclaimed course is available here .
The Honors Course
John T. Lupton, Baylor class of 1944, is the founder of The Honors Course established in 1983. Located just north of Chattanooga, The Honors is a magnificent sanctuary built to honor amateur golf. During the past 20 years, many of the world’s finest amateurs as well as professionals have walked the course’s fairways. Situated just north of Chattanooga, The Honors spans 460 acres of land and is recognized by the Audubon Society as being a wildlife habitat preservation site.
Frequently, Baylor’s golf teams have matches at The Honors with archrivals McCallie School and Girls Preparatory School teams. Baylor golfers are most fortunate to find themselves playing on this course as team members or as individuals.
Additional information is available here.
Moccasin Bend Golf Course
Located just minutes from the Baylor campus, the Moccasin Bend Golf Course is the home course for Baylor’s junior varsity and lower school golf teams. The 18-hole bent grass course was built in 1966 but remains a good public course that’s very convenient for Baylor golfers.
The layout is primarily flat which makes walking a pleasure. Moccasin Bend Golf Course has a driving range, practice putting green, practice chipping area, and a snack bar in the clubhouse.
Baylor golfers “who rise through the ranks” have many great memories of “grinding it out” at Moccasin Bend with their friends! Many junior varsity and lower school team matches are also played at this course.
Additional information is available here
Baylor golf coach Gary Partrick reviews the data recorded by the GCQuad launch monitor with a Baylor player.
Technology Keeps Baylor Golfers on Cutting Edge
With 40 state championships (20 for girls, 20 for boys), the fact that Baylor golf is a high school sports dynasty is no secret.So, what could make Baylor golfers even better?
According to Gary Partrick, Baylor’s champion coach for over a decade, the recent acquisition of state-of-the-art technology and the new practice facility at Black Creek Golf Club will be a big help.
A Baylor golfer hits in front of the GCQuad launch monitor. The data is instantly displayed on the monitor screen.
Technology is nothing new in golf swing analysis and coaching, and the GCQuad® launch monitor is one of the latest high-tech tools. Using a combination of four high speed, high-resolution cameras and infrared object tracking technology, the small device can precisely measure 13 aspects of clubhead and ball launch performance. “It’s portable so we can take it out on the course to help fine tune a swing, particularly in wedge play, which I think is most important,” explains Partrick. “I can tell a player, ‘Hit the ball 70 yards.’ The monitor may tell her she hit it 85 yards. Then I say, ‘That leaves you a 45-foot putt. That’s not good enough.’ The instant feedback will help the player develop the feel for different distances on wedges.”
The device is housed in one of the two new practice bays which are open on end to the driving range at Black Creek. Also in the facility are two 65-inch television screens that display data from the GCQuad and videos from an available JVC video editing system. In the other practice bay, Baylor golfers have access to Black Creek Club’s Trackman® technology, a radar-based system that has been the gold standard for many years. Partrick hopes to add simulator technology in the future.
The device's portability makes it easy to take right out on the course. In bad weather, the new practice center has bays that are open to the driving range.
“Devices like the GCQuad are used by most college programs and every pro golfer,” says Partrick. “Any good golf club almost has to have one. And the better high schools are starting to get them. But even if a high school has the technology, they may not have the facility that allows them to use it during bad weather or in the winter. Hitting indoors, having the monitors and screens, plus being able to see the ball you hit, versus hitting into a net, is just a perfect practice setup. The numbers don’t lie, and the ball flight doesn’t lie. We can get both.”