Better Than I Found It

Merry Christmas, and welcome back to another episode of Better Than I Found It. As as the Baylor Golf Team and the McGraw family take time to celebrate the holidays, Coach McGraw uses the moment to highlight the importance of recruiting and coaching players who show great character. In this episodes Coach McGraw shares stories that demonstrate how his prioritization of recruiting players with high...

Welcome back to another episode of Better Than I Found It! Today we welcome Brennan Webb, head coach of the Tennessee Volunteers, to the podcast. Now in his eighth year in Knoxville, he has led the Vols to new heights, reaching the NCAA tournament in each of the last two years. His resume also includes a stint as the assistant to legendary Georgia Tech coach Bruce Heppler, and podcast guest just a...

Welcome back to another episode of Better Than I Found It! This past weekend Coach McGraw was honored to be the Master of Ceremonies for the induction of the 14th class of the Edmond Junior Golf Hall of Fame, and spends the episode reflectingupon the Hall and the history of Edmond golf. Coach McGraw details his start in coaching at Edmond, the dynasty he would establish there, and his role in star...

Today, we welcome Labron Harris Jr, former Oklahoma St. All-American and 1962 US Amateur Champion, to the podcast. While few young golfer know much about Labron, he is a legend of Oklahoma Golf and a childhood hero for Coach McGraw. He had a very successful amateur and professional career, eventually transitioning to an advisory role in the management of the PGA tour including responsibility over...

Welcome back to another episode of Better Than I Found It! Today we welcome David Tenneson, a college golf historian out of Alabama, to the podcast. A software engineer by day, David has spent the last five years cataloguing the history of college golf and just recently created an online database to access this history. David and Coach McGraw speak on how his love for this project came about, the...

Today on Better Than I Found It we welcome back long-time Georgia Tech head coach, Bruce Heppler. Bruce recently announced that he would be retiring after the 2025-2026 season, ending his 31 year tenure at Georgia Tech. In those 31 years he made 22 trips to the NCAA Championship, had 13 top-8 finishes, and was runner-up to the national champion 4 times. He has won 14 ACC-Championships, and is 10-t...

Welcome back to another episode of Better Than I Found It. Last week Coach McGraw interviewed Willie Wood, one of five people entering the Oklahoma Golf Hall of Fame this year, along with “Duffy” Martin, Labron Harris Jr, Andrew Magee, and Coach McGraw himself. Recording this episode right before the Hall of Fame Banquet, Coach McGraw takes the time to pay homage to those who have helped him get t...

Welcome back to another Episode of Better Than I Found It! Today we welcome former Oklahoma St. All-American and long time PGA Tour Player, Willie Wood. Willie is one of the five members of the 2025 induction class for the Oklahoma Golf Hall of Fame, along with our very own Coach McGraw, Oklahoma club pro legend "Duffy" Martin, four-time PGA tour winner Andrew Magee, and 1962 US Amateur...

Today on Better Than I Found It, we welcome the head coach of both the men's and women's golf team at Dallas Baptist University, Kenny Trapp. Coach Trapp's record at DBU, especially in the last 10 years, is nothing short of remarkable as the coach has won three national championships and produced over 40 All-Americans. His women's team just pulled off their 93rd team title under hi...

Today we welcome longtime head coach of the Florida State Seminoles, Trey Jones, to Better Than I Found It. In 23 years at FSU, Jones has lead the program to heights never before reached. He has led the program to four top-five finishes at the NCAA Championship, including the 2024 NCAA Runner-Up. He has coached a total of 14 All-Americans including Brooks Koepka , Daniel Berger, and the most recen...

Welcome back to another episode of Better Than I Found It. After the first few tournaments of the year, Coach McGraw uses the break in the schedule to recap how the season is going before diving into the thesis of this episode: Gratitude. Drawing inspiration from both his storied career and his autobiography,likewise named Better Than I Found It , Coach McGraw demonstrates the effectiveness and im...

Welcome back to another episode of Better Than I Found It, where today we welcome Eddie Brescher, the head coach of the University of Southern Miss, to the podcast. Having just started his eighth year at Southern Miss, Eddie's team is off to a hot start winning two of their first three events. His strong communication skills and enthusiasm for his work, two features that have helped him immens...

Today on Better Than I Found It we welcome former Sam Houston golfer Bret Gray. A multi-sport athlete growing up, Bret was undersized and under-recruited before going to play for Brandt Kieschnick at Sam Houston State. He turned into a highly competitive player at Sam Houston State, winning 3 tournaments and leading the Bearkats to a conference championship his senior year. Bret stopped by Waco fo...

Welcome back to another episode of Better Than I Found It! As the Bears prepare for the 19th annual (notwithstanding the Covid year) Fighting Illini Invitational, Coach McGraw decides to share some of the history behind Olympia Fields Country Club, the home course of the Fighting Illini. Since being opened in 1923, Olympia Fields has hosted the Western Open five times, the BMW Open, the US Open tw...

Welcome back to Better Than I Found It! Today, Coach McGrawperuses his storied career and dives into his book (the original Better Than I Found It) to discuss qualifying: the process by which the players for new tournaments are selected. A sentiment reiterated to Coach McGraw by several hall of fame coaches, qualifying is “your job to get the best five players on the van, regardless of how you go...

Welcome back to Better Than I Found It! Today Jay Goble, the head coach for the Baylor Women's Golf Team, joins Coach McGraw as they are in Michigan for the 4th Annual Folds of Honor Tournament. As Coach Goble explains, the Tournament was originally put on by Colonel Dan Rooney, a fighter pilot and PGA professional, as a charity tournament to raise money for veterans to go to college. Baylor a...

Welcome Back to Another Episode of Better than I Found It! Today’s episode is a little bit shorter and sweeter as we gointo detail in both the recruiting of players and fundraising for new facilities. These topics are fresh on the mind of Coach McGraw and the rest of the Baylor staff as they sent the Summer recruiting and renovating the Billy, our stateof the art practice facility, Coach McGraw di...

Joining us today on Better Than I Found It is current points leader on the Korn Ferry Tour and former Baylor All-American, Johnny Keefer. Johnny made his return to Waco the last few nights to speak with our Baylor team before the start of the upcoming season. 14 months after finishing his senior year at the NCAA national championship, where he finished 25th to secure the lost spot to join the PGA...

Hope springs eternal this week on Better Than I Found It, as Coach McGraw discusses the challenges that players and coaches face as the new season begins. From the lifelong friendships that new players make to the challenges of beginning a new adventure, Coach McGraw shares stories from his experiences with players both former and current. As the Bears prepare to start their new season, Coach McGr...

Welcome back to another episode of Better Than I Found It! A little different of an episode, today's guests are former Oklahoma State players of Coach McGraw: Michael Miller and Mark Johnson. Although they would not end up playing much professional golf and no longer compete today, they are prime examples of the reason coaches coach. They are good men who lives good lives. Furthermore, they ar...

Joining us today on Better Than I Found It is recently hired head coach for the Duke Blue Devils, Bob Heintz. Bob's first career was as a successful PGA tour player. He played in over 200 Korn Ferry events before he played for 6 years at the PGA level, and finally joined the ranks of college coaches in 2013. His first stop was at Penn, where he led the Quakers to a 2015 Ivy League Championship...

Welcome back to another episode of Better Than I Found It, where our guest today is South Carolina Men's Golf Coach, Rob Bradley. Rob began coaching after an All-American career at North Carolina and a seven-year career on the Korn Ferry Tour. Although two years older than Tiger Woods, Rob describes the times he matched up against him both on the junior and collegiate level. As successful as h...

Welcome back to another episode of Better Than I Found It. Our guests today are former Oklahoma City University golfers Daniel Mitchell and Matthew Rison. This will be a different type of episode, as Daniel, Matthew, and Coach McGraw will be paying their respects to Scott Kedy, a Oklahoma City University legend and teammate of Daniel and Matthew, who sadly passed away on July 1st, 2025. All three...

Welcome back to Better Than I Found It, where today Ryan Donovan, head coach for SDSU men's golf, joins the podcast. Coach Donovan has led the program for 22 years and seen his team win seven Mountain West Conference titles. Perhaps most impressive, Ryan has recently seen his former players win three majors over the last two years, as Xander Schauffele won both the PGA Championship and Open Ch...

Today on Better Than I Found It we welcome newly hired Tulsa's Men's Golf Coach, Brandon Wilkins. Having spent five seasons as the associate coach at SMU, Coach Wilkins has the unique responsibility of building a program from scratch as Tulsa brings back Men's Golf after a nine year hiatus. He and Coach McGraw talk about the road ahead, from fundraising to building a roster. Both coach...