Greg Sands - Men's Golf Coach - Texas Tech Red Raiders

Greg Sands

Title:
Head Coach
Email:
greg.sands@ttu.edu
Phone:
(806) 834-5549

Greg Sands is in his 22nd season leading the Texas Tech golf program and is a Golf Coaches Association of America Hall of Fame member.

So far in 2022-23, the Red Raiders have ascended to No. 1 in the polls multiple times and have won a pair of team titles at both the Inverness Intercollegiate and at the 2022 Big 12 Match Play event.

Currently three Red Raiders find themselves ranked inside the top-25 of the GolfStat rankings and Ludvig Aberg is currently ranked as the top-ranked player in both the PGA TOUR U rankings and the WAGR.

Back in November, Sands agreed to a new seven-year contract extension that will keep him leading the Tech men’s golf program through the 2029-30 season.

In 2021-22, Sands led the Red Raiders on a special postseason that culminated with a quarterfinal appearance at Grayhawk. The Elite 8 appearance for Tech was the third in program history and second since the 2017-18 season.

Led by senior Sandy Scott, and junior Ludvig Aberg, the Red Raiders recorded 10 top-five finishes as a team including a third-place finish at the 2022 Yale Golf Club. Aberg won the 2022 Prestige and was named the 2022 Ben Hogan Award winner.

In 2020-21, Sands led his Red Raider squad to the NCAA Albuquerque Regional Championship with the team shooting 26-under-par for a double-digit win and a berth to the 10th trip to the NCAA Championship under his leadership.

Sands was inducted into the GCAA Hall of Fame on Dec. 6, 2021, for his role in establishing the Red Raiders as a perennial contender on the national stage.

His accomplishments include 20 consecutive NCAA regionals, advancing to the two NCAA Quarterfinals appearances, a top-10 finish in 2010 and the program's first two PING All-America First Team honorees in 2006 and 2010. Fredrik Nilehn earned Big 12 Player of the Year and Hogan Award semifinalist in 2018 under Sands who has had 18 players earn all-American selections. He was named the 2019-20 Golf Coaches Association of America’s Central Region Coach of the Year and will serve as the United States head coach at the 2021 Arnold Palmer Cup

Since taking over the program in 2001, Sands has led the Red Raiders to 27 team titles and 33 individual tournament wins. What falls beneath the radar is Sands' ability to provide his student-athletes with an outstanding education, reflected in in the fact that the team consistently ranks among the top academic programs in the Big 12 Conference with five earning 2020-21 Academic All-Big 12 honors.

Sands led the Red Raiders to three tournament victories during the 2019-20 shortened season with wins at The Carmel Cup, Inverness Intercollegiate and the Big 12 Match Play Tournament. Tech reached a No. 1 ranking for the first time in program history and finished the season ranked No. 3 by Golfstat and No. 5 by Golfweek. Along with team success, Sands helped Sandy Scott, Andy Lopez and Markus Braadlie to individual titles during the year. Scott, Hogan and Lopez were each named Golfweek All-Americans and Scott earned CoSIDA Academic All-American.

In six stroke play events, the Red Raiders finished in the top-4 five events with a third-place showing at the Southern Highlands Collegiate in the event that would be the final competition before the season was ended due to coronavirus pandemic.

The Red Raiders picked up seven second-place finishes in 2017-18 before an injury to Big 12 Player of the Year Fredrik Nilehn saw to a slight slide to a No. 3 seed at the NCAA Columbus Regional, the 17th-straight NCAA appearance for the program--a Texas Tech record for any sport.

From there, the Red Raiders earned a berth into the NCAA Championship, but they weren't done yet. Inexplicably, without Nilehn, Tech rallied and finished third in the stroke play portion--the best finish in program history--and earned a berth in the match play quarterfinals for the second time in school history, narrowly falling to eventual national runner-up, Alabama, 3-2.

NCAA appearance No. 16 saw the Red Raiders earn the No. 2 seed at the College Grove Regional, after a season that included two team tournament wins, most notably dusting a field full of the nation's best teams to win the 2017 Amer Ari Invitational team and individual titles. Tech also had two players, Nilehn and Ivan Ramirez, earn All-Big 12 Tournament team honors.

The 15th-straight NCAA Regional Appearance took the Red Raiders to Albuquerque, N.M., where the young Red Raiders flirted with qualifying for the NCAA Championships before ultimately bowing out in what was a wild finish. Sands also picked up yet another top-three finish at the Big 12 Championships, where three Red Raiders placed in the top-15 individually. Tech also picked up a team tournament win at the El Macero Classic, the 17th team tournament title under Sands.

For the second straight season, the Red Raiders came close to bringing home their first Big 12 Conference championship in school history, in 2015. Tech finished second overall at the tournament, tying its highest finish at the event with the previous year's runner-up finish as well.

Texas Tech's 14th consecutive trip to the NCAA Regionals came in his 15th season at the helm as the Red Raiders earned a spot in the NCAA Lubbock Regional. This marked the first time the men's program has hosted a postseason tournament. The Red Raiders finished in second place behind top-seed Texas, advancing to the NCAA Championships where Tech wrapped up its season with a 17th-place finish, just one stroke from the cut.

In a year where expectations weren't as high as in others, Sands turned in yet another remarkable coaching job in 2013 as he led a group of one senior and five sophomores to the NCAA Championships in Atlanta. Tech earned one of 30 coveted spots in the championship with a fifth place finish in the NCAA Columbus Regional. In Atlanta, the Red Raiders got hot in the final round and ended up at No. 14 overall - marking the third highest finish in program history. Under Sands' guidance, two of Tech's top three finishes at the NCAA Championships have come during his tenure as head coach.

Tech's first trip back to the NCAA Championship followed NCAA Regional appearances in Greensboro (2012) and Tucson (2011).

The Red Raiders earned their highest finish since 1959 in June of 2010, when Tech wrapped up a seventh place finish at the 2010 NCAA Championships at The Honors Course in Chattanooga. Tech advanced to match play for the first time after completing an improbable comeback on the final day of stroke play. Tech's eighth place finish was also highlighted by the fact that Nils Floren was named to the PING All-America First-Team and he became just the second player in school history (both under Sands) to earn that prestigious honor.

En route to the 2010 NCAA Championships, Texas Tech secured its first regional championship in school history as the Red Raiders took down top-seeded Texas A&M at its home course in College Station at the South Central Regional. The Red Raiders finished 13-under 851 for the tournament which also set a school record for the lowest score for a Tech team in an NCAA Regional.

The 2008-09 campaign was another successful season in school history as Sands guided the team to two tournament wins and four top five finishes. Additionally, nine players posted top five finishes and two claimed medalist honors. The Red Raiders set the school scoring record for a 54-hole event with an 824 at the UTSA Invitational in the spring and shattered the school single-round record with a 266 in the same event - which Tech won by 20 strokes. All of these accomplishments came against one of the nation's top 20 schedules.

Texas Tech advanced to its fourth NCAA Championships appearance under Sands in 2009, following an impressive outing at the NCAA Southwest Regional in Austin. The Red Raiders carded a 2-under first round and led by 10 strokes to position itself for an opportunity to advance.

Of the NCAA regional appearances, the West regional in 2002 ranks as the most dramatic. Then-senior Kyle Willmann stared down a 25-foot birdie putt on the final hole in the final hole of regulation play. In a must-make situation, Willmann drained the putt, sending the team to a playoff, and ending a 26-year hiatus for the program in championship competition.

The Red Raiders fell short in three other appearances, before dominating the field at the 2006 East regional in Orlando, Fla. With 10 spots up for grabs, Tech positioned itself on the first day as one of the tournament's top five teams and didn't waver during the three-round event. The Red Raiders shot 9-over par for the event to finish in third place.

In his 18 seasons as head coach, Sands has led the team to 19 tournament titles. Consistently, his players have broken records and established themselves on the Texas Tech charts.

A native of Jacksonville, Texas, Sands was a member of the back-to-back Western Athletic Conference championship teams in 1997 and 1998 at TCU. He also was named Academic All-WAC Scholar-Athlete during the 1995-96 seasons.

Sands graduated from TCU in 1997 with an undergraduate degree in communications, along with a history minor. Sands' playing resume includes winning the Texas Collegiate Championships (Waterwood National in 1997) and co-champion of the Crown Colony Intercollegiate in 1997.

Sands was an All-Region player at Jacksonville High School and led his team to a third-place finish at the 4A State Championships in 1992. Sands and his wife, Stephanie, have three sons, Caden, Hudson and Harrison and a daughter, Reese.