By:
Corey Roberson, Director of Golf
Terrence Miskell and his wife, Melissa, joined Cordillera Ranch in May of 2023. Terrence was driven to Cordillera Ranch because he felt our facility provided the best opportunity for him to achieve his next goal in golf — actively compete and win at the senior level. As you will see throughout this article, Terrence is a highly decorated amateur player and made a good crack at trying to play professionally.
Terrence was born in Colorado but moved to California at a young age. He grew a passion for golf early on and played his first few years of college golf at USC where he achieved All Pac 10 and All-American status in his freshman and sophomore years. He transferred to Fresno State where he grew on that success by earning All WAC status, All-American status, and finished runner-up to Phil Mickelson in the NCAA Championship.
Instead of turning pro after his senior year, he decided to play a few more amateur events where he finished runner-up in the Public Links and won the Pacific Coast Amateur. At this time (1990) Terrence was the 2nd highest ranked amateur golfer according to Golf Week — Phil Mickelson was #1. That fall, Terrence got through the first stage of Q-school (PGA Tour Qualifying School) but battled strained ligaments in his wrist through the second stage.
Looking back at it now, he should have taken some time off to heal the wrist. Instead, he played in seven Hogan Tour events (equivalent to today’s Korn Ferry Tour) throughout the beginning of the 1991 season where he completely blew out that wrist. In the middle of that stretch, his best finish was 4th. He gave it a few months to heal and rushed into Q-school again that fall. After another failed Q-school attempt due to injury, he planned on giving the wrist a little more time to heal before attacking the Asian Tour for the 1992 season. The only problem with that plan is he had just met Melissa. While they survived the long-distance relationship, Terrence’s game didn’t.
In 1993, Terrence moved to Fort Worth where he worked for Lindy Miller at Mira Vista as an Assistant Golf Professional. In Terrence’s words, “That lasted about 10 months.” His wrist was healed and this job helped him find a love for the game again. A group of guys at Mira Vista provided Terrence the opportunity to give professional golf another crack. This time around, he was playing on the Hooters Tour where he only made one cut out of 22 events — many of them missing by only one shot. However, the next year was a different story — he made 22 out of 23 cuts on the Hooters Tour and almost made it through Q-school. Mike Weir clipped the last spot that year and would go on to win the Masters a few years later.
In 1996, Terrence was playing some great golf on the Nike Tour (equivalent to today’s Korn Ferry Tour). They were in Knoxville, Tennessee and Terrence just shot 67 in the first round … he was 5-back of the leader … this was the beginning of the end. He had the aha moment of realizing this is a hard way of making a living — the travel, the golf and, most importantly, being away from your wife and kids. Terrence played a few more events and his professional career officially ended at Odessa Country Club later that year. He hung up his sticks and didn’t touch them again for two years. His primary focus was taking care of their three children while Melissa was chasing her career as a doctor.
In 1998, he started to get the golf itch again so he became a volunteer assistant coach at Texas Tech. Later on, Terrence and Melissa moved to New Braunfels where Melissa built a very successful practice. In 2002, Terrence got his amateur status back and made it to the quarter-finals of the US Mid-Am. This kickstarted his amateur career where he would go on to:
- Play in every US Mid-Am from 2002 to 2007
- Play in four US Public Links
- Win three TGA Fourballs (one with our member, Trey Hallmark)
- Win TGA Mid-Am and TGA Mid-Am Matchplay
- Awarded the TGA Player of the Year from 2004 to 2007
As I mentioned earlier, Terrence joined Cordillera Ranch because he likes “how the golf course plays so different from the various sets of tees and the practice facility is very secluded.” It also helped that his longtime friend, Trey Hallmark, plays here regularly. These assets are helping him chase his goal of achieving similar success on the senior circuit where he’s off to a great start. Last year, Terrence won the 2024 Trans-Mississippi Senior Championship. This distinguished accomplishment came with some really cool exemptions into the British Senior Am, The Thomas and the Sunnehanna Senior Am. Terrence has a very active senior golf schedule this year where he’ll compete in 10-12 tournaments.
To stay sharp and protect a body that has seen more than five surgeries, Terrence focuses on the simple stuff — structured practice sessions, defined workout schedule and good nutrition. He’s also been doing Mach 3 speed training with our very own Aaron Killian-Smith. A lesson we can all learn from Terrence: “Put a club in your hands every day.”
Corey Roberson is the Director of Golf at The Clubs of Cordillera Ranch. He can be reached at croberson@cordilleraranch.com and 830.336.4653.
