If you’ve followed PGA golf at all during the last 50 or so years, you’re probably aware of the names of the guys who have made a nice living with a slightly wonky golf swing.
Jim Furyk. John Daly. Sergio Garcia. Bryson DeChambeau. Heck, the list even calls to mind celebrity golfer and NBA Hall of Famer Charles Barkley.
Well, the KU men’s team currently has one of its own that may belong on that list.
His name is Will Baker, and when KU opens NCAA Tournament play at the Athens Regional today at the University of Georgia Golf Course in the heart of Georgia, the Jayhawks, in part, will be pinning their hopes on a bit of a wild card.
Baker is a Georgia native. He grew up playing this very course. He came to KU out of the transfer portal from Clemson and he is not quite like any golfer KU coach Jamie Bermel has led at KU.
“He's unique,” Bermel said of one of his team’s top performers this season. “He plays with a 10-finger baseball grip and kind of has this funky grip on his putter, but he can play.”
Like, really play.
His first ever round in the 60s came on this course — a 67 at age 13, no less — and he leads this year’s Jayhawks with 11 rounds in the 60s and three top-5 finishes.
While playing nine events during his first year at Kansas, Baker, who Bermel said is on a very short list of high-level college golfers to ever play with a baseball grip — most elite golfers go with some form of an interlocking or overlapping grip that connects the right and left hand during the swing — compiled an average score of 71.2, third best on the team behind senior Will King and sophomore transfer Hartej Grewal, formerly of UC Riverside.
Bermel loves him because of the ever-present potential for him to finish any given round in the 60s.
His teammates love that, too, and Baker’s presence is at least part of the reason that King believes this group can make some noise this postseason.
“I think that we've always had the talent to make a run at the national championship during my four years here,” King said last week before the Jayhawks left for Georgia. “We haven't done that as a team yet, and I think that this year we've got probably the most capable group of guys that I've been a part of to do that. So I'm excited for that.”
KU Men's Golf NCAA Regional history under Jamie Bermel
2025 – 10th (+21, 885)
2024 – 11th (+43, 883)
2023 – 9th (-6, 858)
2022 – 5th (+3, 867)
2021 – 7th (-6, 858)
2020 – Cancelled due to COVID-19
2019 – 10th (+12, 852)
2018 – 1st (-20, 844)
2017 – 9th (+24, 876)
2016 – 10th (+50, 914)
Back to Baker.
“He’s one of those guys (where it’s) like training a racehorse,” Bermel said. “You get him going and he can go low. He has that ability. I think my biggest concern with Will Baker this week is don’t try too hard. Because there’s some schools down there (competing in the regional) that passed on him. So, if we can get him going early, the kid goes on confidence.”
Confidence was something that was missing during his two years at Clemson before he came to Kansas. He appeared in the lineup just five times over those two years and averaged nearly 3 strokes worse than he did this season as a Jayhawk.
“Will Baker was about any opportunity,” Bermel said. “He thought he deserved one where he was at, at Clemson, and didn’t really get it for whatever reason. But you know, we always say in the transfer portal one man’s trash is another man’s treasure and he’s been a good one.”
This week will mark the 26th regional appearance in program history, including an active string of 10 in a row under Bermel.
The Jayahwks are seeded 7th at the 13-team event, and the top five teams from the regional will advance to the NCAA Championship, which will take place at Omni La Costa Resort & Spa's Championship Course in Carlsbad, California, beginning May 29.
Bermel’s expected lineup this week includes Baker and King, along with senior Luke Honner, sophomore Hartej Grewal and freshman Arthur Carlier.
Veteran junior Max Jelinek also will travel with the team as an alternate.
Honner and Carlier join Baker and King as the other two most consistent Jayhawks this season. Both competed in all 12 KU events in 2025-26 and Honner has recorded four top-20 finishes while Carlier carded four top-10 finishes.
"I think we have some experience and we certainly have more depth than we've had in a while. With that combination we have a chance to do well this postseason," Bermel said last week. "Experience is a great thing to have in your back pocket. Will King has played in three regionals and Luke Honner is heading to his second, so I think that's going to help. Then we need the other three guys to not get caught up in the moment and just go play golf."
Baker will be the third Jayhawk on the course for today's first round, teeing off at 8:17 a.m. central time.
— For tickets to all KU athletic events, visit kuathletics.com
