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I watch my fair share of golf on TV, but the sport that gets an even larger portion of my attention this time of year is college basketball. Growing up in Connecticut in the '90s and Oughts, I was fortunate to see the UConn women's team's initial rise to power in 1995 followed by the first two of the men's team's national championships in 1999 and 2004, which cemented my lifelong Huskies hoops obsession. I can point to 1999 as the formative year in my overall sports fandom because, as a 9-year-old, I got to witness the UConn men's first championship and the unforgettable Team USA Ryder Cup comeback at Brookline in the space of five-plus months.
These days, I watch every second of every UConn game I can, and my interest in the sport has recently expanded to the point where I will tune in to games involving any Big East team as well as several other nationally relevant games from November through March. And with all due respect to golf's major championship Sundays, my two favorite sports days of the year are the opening Thursday and Friday of March Madness.
The best part of being a dual golf-and-hoops junkie is that, across most of the country, the seasons compliment each other perfectly. Up north, when the playable golf days wane, the college basketball season is revving up. And there is a beautiful circularity to watching the National Championship game on an April Monday night, knowing that the Masters is less than 72 hours away. Before he stepped back from the microphone for the former, Jim Nantz would fly straight from the National Championship to Augusta. A dream gig if ever there was one.
Nantz is far from the only college basketball figure with golf connections. The game comes up, one way or another, in virtually every broadcast I watch. John Fanta, a rising star in the profession who is a fixture on NBC Sports' Big East basketball broadcasts, is an avid golfer. ESPN hoops analyst Jay Bilas loves the game, too, and is part of Gary Williams' 5 Clubs media network. CBS Sports' Gary Parrish and Matt Norlander, who co-host the excellent Eye On College Basketball podcast, will banter about their own golf games occasionally. Golf is a pastime of numerous coaches, too, including Syracuse legend Jim Boeheim, who played for and actually coached the university's golf team at the beginning of his tenure there. UConn coaches Jim Calhoun and Geno Auriemma have been regular Travelers Championship Pro-Am participants over the years.
I enjoy watching golf and basketball for virtually opposite reasons. One of the pleasures of both playing golf and watching it on TV is the occasional relative attainability of a tour-caliber golf shot for us mere mortals. We may not have 350-yard missile tee shots in our repertoire, but stand us 150 yards from the pin and there is a distinct, non-zero possibility that we will hit a shot that is better than Rory McIlroy or Scottie Scheffler might hit. It's not likely, but it is possible.
On the other hand, watching basketball is a chance to marvel at the physically impossible. Aside from elementary-school town-league games, I have no experience playing the game; I am purely an interested observer. I distinctly remember the first time I went to a UConn basketball game; the players looked like giants to me. They still do today. I am barely 5'9" and will never dunk a basketball (shoutout Dustin Johnson) or block a shot of consequence. The sheer strength and physical prowess involved in great basketball - completely foreign to my own flabby mediocrity - is thrilling. The team aspect of basketball is also a highly satisfying counterpoint to golf's almost totally solitary mode.
Golf travel and college basketball are an underrated match
Even though the weather eliminates the northern half of the United States from contention outside of the first and last few weeks of the season, there are a lot of ways for any golf-and-college-hoops fan to combine both passions during the season. Playing golf in the morning and then seeing a college basketball game in the evening is my idea of a great day for a small or large group.
As of the first men's AP Top 25 poll, here are some intriguing possibilities for on- or near-campus golf and basketball:
1. Florida
I have been to a game at the O'Connell Center on U of F's campus and can confirm it's a great room to watch a game. With the Gators as a national championship contender once again, tickets will be tough to come by but pairing a game at the O'Dome with a round at Mark Bostick Golf Course could make for an epic day in the center of the state.
2. Duke
As a UConn fan, I loathe Duke, but I have to give due credit to Duke University Golf Club, a stately Robert Trent Jones, Sr. design reworked by son Rees. The on-site Washington Duke Inn is a really good hotel and the Bull Durham Bar is a gracious post-golf hang. Tickets, tee times and room nights might be tough to come by on game days but for a die-hard sports fan, it might be worth the effort to parlay golf at Duke with a game at Cameron Indoor. If all else fails, UNC's Finley Golf Course and NC State's Lonnie Poole Golf Course are not far away. Time things right and those three courses and their arenas could anchor the ultimate three-day golf-and-college-hoops bender.
5. Arizona
Students at the U of A enjoy balmy school-year weather in Tucson, which is much smaller than the Phoenix/Scottsdale megalopolis but still offers plenty to do, including for golfers. Even though the Wildcats team moved their home base over to Tucson Country Club in 2023, Sewailo Golf Club at Casino Del Sol remains a solid choice to play a round before taking in a home game at the raucous McKale Center.
7. Texas
The University of Texas Golf Club is about 40 minutes from campus and private to boot; better to pair a game at the Moody Center with a round at Lions Municipal Golf Course, known as "Muny," close by. Muny was recently spared the specter of redevelopment by the university, so rounds there have gone from somber to celebratory of late.
9. Virginia
The Cavaliers have remade their style of play after defensive-minded coach Tony Bennett's retirement led to Ryan Odom's higher-octane approach. Similarly, UVA's Birdwood Golf Course received a makeover a few years earlier thanks to Davis Love III's Love Golf Design. The new-look Birdwood manages to be both playable for rank-and-file golfers and a serviceable test for high-level players.
10. Houston
The Cougars' Kelvin Sampson is arguably the best college basketball coach without a national championship; every year he puts his team in position to make a run. If you want to look in on the Cougs' progress, parlaying it with a round at either Memorial Park Golf Course or the Golf Club of Houston's Tournament course would make for a nice winter day.
14. Miami (Fla.)
Fun fact: the University of Miami is technically not in Miami. It's in Coral Gables, and so is the Biltmore, one of America's most gracious old-time hotels. Its Donald Ross-designed golf course, restored by architect Brian Silva in 2018, is the one to play before catching a basketball game at the Watsco Center.
15. Gonzaga
A side-trip after playing golf in nearby Coeur d'Alene, Idaho in 2019 revealed to me that Spokane is one of America's most underrated public golf towns, with city-owned gems like Indian Canyon and the Creek at Qualchan and a trio of county-operated courses in Latah Creek, Liberty Lake and MeadowWood, plus the semi-private Kalispel Country Club that is accessible by guests of the Northern Quest Casino hotel. Spokane's far-flung excellence in golf is echoed by its basketball program of record. The Zags have made noise nationally since the late '90s and are as consistent as a Spokane golf course's greens.
19. Texas Tech
As of this writing, the Red Raiders' basketball team situation is in a state of uncertainty given several players' eligibility issues, but one known quantity is the Tom Doak-designed Rawls Course, one of America's most sophisticated college layouts.
20. Alabama
Although the Crimson Tide's new $45+ million 9-hole course and practice facility designed by Davis Love III is not publicly accessible, the Ol' Colony Golf Complex, with 18 holes laid out by Bama alum Jerry Pate is, and it is consistently well-regarded, with green fees maxing out at $74. In other words, you'll likely pay fewer dollars than you'll see points scored by coach Nate Oats' typically high-octane offense at Coleman Coliseum.
21. and 22. USC and UCLA
USC's urban location places it far from golf possibilities, a fact exacerbated by notorious L.A. traffic. UCLA is a little closer to golf, although most of it is private - Bel-Air Country Club and Los Angeles Country Club, for example. But famed muni Rancho Park is close enough if you can get a tee time there and a ticket to a game at the Bruins' Pauley Pavilion.
5 holiday college basketball tournaments in golf hotbeds
The latter half of November tends to be filled with non-conference, neutral-site games across college basketball. Many of them happen in warm-weather destinations with plenty of golf. Here are a few worth considering:
Players Era Festival
Where: Las Vegas
Dates: November 17-19 (Players Era 8); November 24-28 (Players Era 16)
Teams involved: 24 total teams, including Florida, Houston and Kansas (Players Era 8) as well as Alabama, Gonzaga, Iowa State, Michigan, St. John's and Texas Tech (Players Era 16)
Baha Mar Hoops Bahamas Championship
Where: Nassau, Bahamas
Dates: November 19-20
Teams involved: Murray State, North Carolina State, Seton Hall, Wisconsin
Charleston Classic
Where: Charleston, S.C.
Dates: November 20 & 22
Teams involved: Six total teams, including Oklahoma State, Northwestern and Dayton
Maui Invitational
Where: Lahaina, Maui, Hawaii
Dates: November 23-25
Teams involved: Eight total teams, including Arizona, BYU and Providence
Rady Children's Invitational
Where: San Diego
Dates: November 26-27
Teams involved: Georgetown, Texas, UCLA, Saint Mary's
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