‘It’s gone forever’: Wichita State golf legends mourn end of Shocker programs
For nearly a quarter-century, Grier Jones made Wichita State men’s golf matter.
He turned the Shockers into a Midwest powerhouse, won 15 conference championships, took the program to 17 NCAA Regionals and became one of the defining figures in the history of WSU athletics. Before that, Jones had already built his own decorated golf life as one of the best players Kansas has produced: a 14-year PGA Tour veteran who has been inducted into the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame, the Shocker Sports Hall of Fame and the Golf Coaches Association of America Hall of Fame.
For nearly a third of his life, Jones, 80, built WSU men’s golf into one of the school’s most successful programs. On Tuesday, the program he helped define was gone.
“The worst thing about it was that I could see it happening,” Jones told The Eagle. “If a sport has got to go, there’s nobody out there who is going to stand up for golf. It’s just too bad.”
Wichita State’s decision to discontinue its men’s and women’s NCAA golf programs landed as more than a cost-cutting move for those who built, played for and loved the programs. It was the end of a men’s program that dated to 1935 and a women’s program that dated to 1974. It was the end of one of the most decorated sports in the school’s athletic history with WSU men’s golf making 29 NCAA appearances and winning 21 conference championships.
It also was another reminder of the new reality in college sports: programs that once existed to provide opportunity, community and education are now being judged against a financial model that has become far less forgiving.
WSU athletic director Kevin Saal framed the decision around the long-term sustainability of the entire department, saying the move came after a lengthy evaluation of fundraising, cost-cutting measures, available resources, facilities, planning and institutional priorities.
“I’m genuinely sympathetic to the golf alumni, our coaches and our student athletes,” Saal said. “Eliminating opportunities is the last thing an AD wants to do. It’s not something that I’m proud of. These are not easy decisions.”
Current WSU men’s golf coach Judd Easterling and women’s golf coach Tom McCurdy, both directly affected by the decision, declined to comment when reached by The Eagle in the immediate aftermath of the announcement.
Jones did not hide his frustration.
To him, the end of Shocker golf was not just about Wichita State. It was another consequence of a college athletics landscape that has shifted sharply toward money, athlete compensation and revenue-producing sports.
“It’s a total joke what this money thing has done with college sports,” Jones said. “It’s a real shame. Paying these people to play basketball when they ought to be thinking about an education. Now they’re just thinking about making money. It’s a joke.”
Jones’ words carry the sting of someone who remembers what WSU golf looked like when it was winning year after year.
During his tenure from 1995 to 2019, the Shockers became the standard in their league. Jones won 13 Missouri Valley Coach of the Year awards. His teams stacked conference championships. WSU sent players into NCAA competition with regularity. The program had a place, an identity and a history that mattered.
That is why the finality hit him hardest.
“It’s gone forever,” said Jones, who recently turned 80. “If they ever do bring it back, I’m certainly not going to be around for it. There’s been so many good people involved and good things that have happened and good memories with golf. So it’s just really a sad day.”
If Jones represents the height of WSU men’s golf, Taryn Torgerson represents what the women’s program meant at its best.
Torgerson, a Buhler native and 2018 WSU graduate, is arguably the most decorated player in Shocker women’s golf history. She won the 2016 Missouri Valley individual championship, then followed it by winning the 2018 American Conference individual title. She finished her career with the lowest career stroke average, single-season stroke average and 54-hole stroke average in WSU history.
Then she turned the opportunity WSU gave her into a career.
Torgerson began coaching as a WSU assistant in 2018-19, then became the head men’s and women’s golf coach at Newman from 2019-23. She has since worked as an assistant coach for the UTSA women’s golf program.
That is what made the news feel so personal.
“I felt my heart sink a little bit,” Torgerson said. “I always had a dream and I took a lot of pride in representing my home state when I played college golf. Wichita State women’s golf played a huge part in who I am today. I grew so much and became a better person and a better player. It’s a big reason why I wanted to become a coach myself.
“Playing for and working for coach McCurdy is something that I will forever be grateful to. I’m just super grateful for my experiences there and Wichita State will forever be a special place for me.”
That is the human side of the decision that does not show up cleanly on a financial report.
WSU’s two golf programs had more than $1.1 million in assigned expenses in the 2025 fiscal year and combined for a reported net operating deficit of nearly $800,000. Those numbers help explain why the programs became vulnerable as athletic departments adjust to rising costs, the House v. NCAA settlement and the arrival of revenue sharing.
But for former players and coaches, golf was never supposed to be a revenue sport. It was a pathway.
It gave Kansas players like Torgerson a chance to stay home, represent their state and build a life around the sport. It gave coaches like Jones and McCurdy a chance to develop athletes, win championships and create memories that outlasted the trophies. It gave alumni a shared history that made WSU golf feel like more than a budget line.
WSU’s women’s golf lineage also reaches back to Judy Bell, who played for the University of Wichita in the late 1950s and early 1960s before becoming one of the most influential women in the history of the sport. Bell, a 1961 graduate, became the first woman to serve as president of the United States Golf Association in 1996 and has been inducted into 11 sports and golf halls of fame, including the World Golf Hall of Fame and Kansas Sports Hall of Fame.
“There’s no single factor that drove this decision,” Saal said. “There are multiple considerations that were evaluated across all of our athletics programs. We made a determination based on long-term financial sustainability, available resources, facilities, planning and institutional priorities.”
For Torgerson, the pain came from watching a program with decades of history disappear in a single announcement. Her mind went first to the people and moments that made WSU feel like home.
“It is sad being a proud alum of the program,” Torgerson said. “But the thing that I’m super grateful for is the pictures, the memories that we’ll always have. I know my favorite thing when I get to see my old teammates and coach is to talk about the ‘Do you remember when this happened?’ And we can laugh about those memories.
“There’s nothing that will ever be able to take that away from us. The things that we were able to do together, the memories, the trophies that we brought back to Wichita, all of those things will forever be with us. It’s a sad day, but I’m still proud to be a Shocker and I’ll always be proud to represent that program.”
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