Georgetown men’s golf Head Coach Tommy Hunter is in his 41st season at the helm and hoping to lead his team to an NCAA Tournament bid. (Georgetown Athletics)
In his 41st season at the helm, Georgetown University men’s golf Head Coach Tommy Hunter has learned that patience is a virtue. It has been eight years since the team won a Big East title, and entering the 2025-26 season, they had won only one event since the beginning of the 2018-19 season. The Hoyas face a series of challenging invitationals and tournaments, which begin after the weather starts to warm.
Despite this, Hunter said he remains optimistic about his team and its motivation each year.
“We get lucky in education,” Hunter told The Hoya. “We get to start over every year. You can put the bad years behind you and you can savor the good years behind you, but you have to stay focused on the task at hand. That’s what really drives the engine.”
The team saw a lackluster start to the season in September, placing no higher than seventh at its first three events.
Hunter said it takes a lot for a program like Georgetown to have a shot at the NCAA tournament.
“The computer is funny, where it doesn’t really tell you the story, just the numbers,” Hunter said. “We’ve got to play reach tournaments, where we rub elbows with the big boys.”
“Life as a mid-major is really hard, because you’ve got to show up all the time,” he added.
And show up they eventually did over the course of the fall portion of the season. The team followed up a 10th-place finish out of 11 teams at the Hamptons Intercollegiate Oct. 6-7 with a win at the Georgetown Intercollegiate Oct. 13-14. Junior Barnes Blake captured his first individual win in dramatic fashion. The team then placed second out of 16 teams in the Old Dominion University/Outer Banks Intercollegiate.
Hunter said the Georgetown Intercollegiate, hosted at Echo Lake Country Club in Westfield, N.J., was weather-shortened, and a strong second round gave Blake the win.
“Mother Nature intruded at Echo Lake, so we could only play 36,” Hunter said. “He didn’t have a good opening round, and that’s his home course, so I know he put a little pressure on himself to win.”
Blake shot a 76 in the opening round, then followed it with a field-low of 67 to force a tiebreaker, which he won. Hunter has relied on Blake all season to deliver such performances thanks to his calmness.
“He’s very flatline, in a positive way,” Hunter said. “Nothing really gets in his way.”
Hunter said Blake is a strong leader on the young team, which rosters four underclassmen who saw significant playing time in the fall.
“He’s a quiet leader. He leads by example,” Hunter said. “The guys want to be like Barnes. It’s his incredible work ethic. They want to be like Barnes as a player, as a person and as a leader.”
Now, Coach Hunter and the team have their sights set on the spring season. The team begins play with the Babygrande Ross Collegiate Classic at Mid Pines Mar. 9-11, then the Golden Horseshoe Intercollegiate Mar. 23-24. A new event this year, the Wildcat Spring Invitational hosted by Villanova University, will be played at Galloway National Golf Club in Galloway, N.J., Apr. 6-7. The team then plays the Princeton Invitational before the Big East Championship.
Hunter said the unique course conditions in the wet spring season make play more challenging.
“Spring golf is really hard, it really is,” Hunter said. “It can play hard because it’s rough around the edges because it’s not grown in yet. You never know what you’re going to get.”
These difficult courses and conditions should serve as strong tests to prepare the team for the Big East Championship, where winning the title would secure an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, likely the team’s most realistic path to qualification.
Hunter said he knows this and prepares his team for every season the same way.
“The goal is to go down to the Big East Conference Championship, not just to look pretty in uniform, but try to win it because that gets the automatic bid,” Hunter said. “The only time we mention it is in our first meeting in the fall before we start the season, and then we don’t talk about it anymore because we don’t want to add that stress.”
The team will use the upcoming months to refine specific parts of each player’s game, visualizing the courses and understanding what skills are necessary to succeed.
Hunter said he and his team are eager to build on the success at the end of the fall season and chase an NCAA Tournament bid.
“These guys are hungry,” Hunter said. “We’re not worried about a ranking. We’re not worried about anything but being ready to go when that time comes.”
The Hoyas play their first event of the spring season at the Babygrande Ross Collegiate Classic in Southern Pines, N.C., Mar. 9-11.
