Wilkins hits ground running, has high expectations for TU men’s golf
By Ken MacLeod
A consistent top-25 program that wins the American Athletic Conference championship with regularity advances into regional play and makes appearances in the NCAA Championship are the immediate goals for the University of Tulsa’s new men’s golf coach Brandon Wilkins.
Wilkins, who came to Tulsa from an assistant coaching position at Southern Methodist, said the TU program is uniquely positioned to be immediately successful when it begins play in the 2026-27 season. That timeline gives him a full year to recruit a nine-man roster, which will be the new maximum under rules set forth in the House settlement.
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Making the timing exquisite for Wilkins are a combination of that rule, which limits the ability of existing golf collegiate superpowers like Oklahoma State and Oklahoma to stash players at the end of their roster, plus the support he is receiving from TU and the golf community in Tulsa.
Wilkins has been amazed by the support he’s received since being named head coach Monday. The Tulsa and the northeastern Oklahoma golf community is a proud one, used to hosting major championships and taking pride in the variety and quality of clubs and courses in the area. The decision to drop men’s golf was not popular even among those who are not ardent college golf followers.
Tulsa will again be able to practice at a lineup of superstar courses including Southern Hills, Tulsa Country Club, Cedar Ridge CC, The Patriot, The Golf Club of Oklahoma and The Oaks. Few teams in the country enjoy a better situation.
And with the program now fully endowed at a $9 million level thanks to the generosity of former TU players, future fundraising at each course in that rota can go toward all the extras that make a program able to attract top talent, including permanent practice facilities.
“We believe Tulsa is a great golf community with access to a number of incredible courses,” said TU Director of Athletics Justin Moore. “There is not another college golf program that has the ability to play this many high level courses on a consistent basis, and different types of courses that allow the coach to get the team prepared for different styles of play”
“This is going to be something that’s really special,” Wilkins said. “Just talking to people in the community, they are really excited. And I think I’m the right guy for the job.”
Wilkins has hit the ground running. He played one of the future courses in the TU rota when he, TU football coach Tre Lamb, women’s golf coach Mike Roters and former TU golfer and Cedar Ridge member Robby Laird played Cedar Ridge Tuesday. Lamb made an ace on the second hole using a 7-iron from 195 yards, then birdied the next two holes, leaving Wilkins in wonder at Lamb’s golf prowess. But beyond that round, he has been extremely busy making contacts with area PGA professionals and has even told several high level juniors he would like them to help be the cornerstones of the new program.
Wilkins coached Tulsan Will Sides, one of the nation’s top collegians, at SMU and before that Tulsan Carson Griggs at Denver and knows the level of talent now being produced across Oklahoma. He hopes his future teams will have a strong local presence while supplementing from the powerful Texas junior ranks, as well as keeping his eye out nationally and internationally.
“As a mid major program, you have to be creative and open minded and we will do that (in recruiting). We did that at SMU and if you don’t you’ll get beat, it’s that simple.”
“There’s not a better time in the history of college golf to be restarting a program. There’s not much precedent for what’s going on so you have to evolve and understand the transfer portal.
“The amount of community support in the last two days has been incredible. Everyone has been so, so excited. I mean, we don’t even have a team yet and they are just so pumped that it’s coming back. I could not have understood that impact until I got here . . . . Now we’ve got to keep our foot on the gas and keep that excitement rolling.”