Buhler’s Taryn Torgerson goes from unrecruited to WSU’s best golfer

The first time Taryn Torgerson reached out to Wichita State, Torgerson said women’s golf coach Tom McCurdy told her there wasn’t room for her on the team.

Entering her senior season at Buhler, Torgerson had no offers and little interest from Division I programs. She says she was overlooked because of where she came from and also that she rarely played in the marquee junior golf events during the summer when high school golfers are most visible to college coaches.

“Golf is such an international game now that it’s hard to get your name out there coming from a town like Buhler, where there’s 1,500 people,” Torgerson said. “I knew I had potential, but I didn’t have a lot of big tournaments on my resume. I kept telling coaches that I know when I can spend 12 months that I can grow and grow and grow.”

Finally, the phone rang for Torgerson the week before the high school state tournament. It was McCurdy offering a scholarship. The next week, Torgerson would sink a 40-footer on the No. 18 green to win the individual title in Class 4A before signing her letter of intent to Wichita State.

Now Torgerson, a senior, owns WSU’s single-season scoring average and 54-hole stroke average records. She was just named the American Golfer of the Month in October and has placed in the top-20 of every fall tournament. Her scoring average of 72.4 through five tournaments is on pace to break her own school record.

Torgerson, an unheralded recruit who was initially turned down by Wichita State, now has claim of being the program’s best golfer.

“We obviously didn’t even know what we were going to get with her,” McCurdy said. “Her work ethic over the years has been fantastic and she’s just continued to get better. For her to be at the level she’s at, nobody saw it coming.”

Torgerson imagined it. All she needed was a chance.

“It’s been such a crazy journey to get to where I am, but I wouldn’t trade any minute of it for anything,” Torgerson said. “I’m so grateful that (McCurdy) invested in me and I will forever thank Coach McCurdy for taking that shot on me.”

Torgerson entered college armed with an advantage in her driver, which she hits consistently around the 250-yard mark. While she toiled away working on her short game and the mental side of the game, Torgerson’s drives gave her some leeway during that learning process.

“There’s an inherent advantage to hitting the ball further because you have shorter clubs that are easier to control,” McCurdy said. “She came in and understood her strengths and her weaknesses and went to work. I wish every player could fall in line with what she’s done because Taryn is someone who does everything the right way.”

Once Torgerson improved her mentality on the course, her scores came down. Since averaging 79.2 strokes as a freshman, Torgerson has set the WSU program record every year since: 75.1 as a sophomore, 74.5 as a junior, and 72.4 halfway through this season as a senior.

Her father, Brennan, who coached her in high school at Buhler, said he has noticed a drastic change in how Taryn handles bad shots and bad holes.

“She’s so much more confident on the golf course now,” Brennan Torgerson said. “She now has that faith that she can recover if she hits a bad shot or even has a bad hole. She knows she can get it back now. In golf, you’ve got to have a short memory and she does a really nice job now.”

McCurdy thinks Taryn’s background playing basketball gives her an advantage over golfers who weren’t multi-sport athletes.

“She understands the competitive nature in different ways than most golfers would,” McCurdy said. “She’s not as rattled by pressure like some other players might be. When she gets to a dangerous hole, she sees where she wants the golf ball, where some players might see see the water or see the bunker and then that negativity snowballs from there. Taryn is a mentally disciplined and very positive person.”

Torgerson and the Shockers return to action for the spring season in February when they travel to Rio Verde, Ariz. for the Rio Verde Invitational on Feb. 23-25.

“(The recognition) has all been very humbling and it just shows that all of my hard work and investment I’ve put into this game and this program is paying off,” Torgerson said. “I’m so grateful to have been given this opportunity to represent Wichita State and my home state. It’s a dream come true.”

This story was originally published November 4, 2017 at 1:02 PM with the headline "Buhler’s Taryn Torgerson goes from unrecruited to WSU’s best golfer."