What are the main factors coaches consider for college golf?

[alex1]

What would be the top 5 things or so coaches would look at and would it change between div-1 and div-3?

[irishfight4it]

scoring, and the ability to score when not playing well... IE Short game, mental game, course management

[PTBOsimon]

1) Scoring

2) ability to recover from a bad round (mental game)

3) Potential - can they play better with more guidance.

4) Course and Time Managemnt - if you cant manage our school work how are you goign to manage a round of golf

5) Putting and Nerves - Can you make Big putts and can you control your nerves

 

Thats just from my experience. With trying to get a scholly just throw out some letters and then focus on your game. I have seen it where to many kids get really amped about signing with a school that they don't continue with their practice routines and such and needless to say their game suffers and in some cases I have seen a few guys go from D1 to nothing at all. Just let it happen. The best Coaches find you.

[italianstallion]

Ability to play competitive golf. The coach at my school didn't even want to look at me after I took a season off from competitive golf to rebuild my game and my confidence in it. It was a great season for doing so too, and I played pretty good. I played a round with my buddy who's on a full ride at my school for golf, and shot the same score as him on a course I had never played before.

 

I've just got to put up some good scores this summer in competitive rounds for the coach. In the meantime I'll keep my 3.8 GPA where its at and keep working hard in the gym and at the range. There's only so much you can do sometimes.

[taylormadegolfdude]

Italian thats me too. I am off my golf team, because I got pneumonia. I am 21 years old, but I have a lot of eligibility left. I am talking to Texas A and M and Tech right now though. Playing college golf, you need to have good grades, dedication, practice, respect, ability to score, and a good attitude. A lot of coaches don't care how you play as long as you try and you show respect for everyone.

[alex1]

Thanks very much for your replies

[Matt727]

kind of a "threadjack" but just telling my story to see if you guys think I can maybe go somewhere small in my state of Florida

im a junior, 17 years old, I just injured my hamstring so I had not been playing good at all, the last healthy tournament I played in i shot 78-78, in th rain and wind. I then went onto play a few more tournaments not so good, and shot 78 and 77 at districts and regionals for high school. Putting is my strength, distance is not, I'm extremely dedicated, do good in school, and have a great attitude, you think I have a chance?

[wholeinwon]

They look more at tournament results than handicap.

 

They will take a guy who says he is a "2" with 10 top 5's in major tournaments than a guy who is a "+2" with no top 10's.

 

They also look at your swing closely if possible and see if they can find things they can fix (they are a teacher after all).

 

Finally you MUST have a good head on your shoulders. They don't want a guy that's gonna put in 80% effort in training and practice, they want the guy who is going to work to keep his spot and help the team succeed.

 

Remember the Coach has a job to keep to so he's gonna pick guys that he thinks will help his team win and compete so he keeps his job as well.

[mattsmithpga]

You are going to have to play a few ijgt or ajga events to prove yourself.

[mrpheebz]

It seems like most people didn't answer the second part of your question. I am currently on a pretty good Division III team and I would say that DIII coaches look at grades more so than DI since DIII schools for the most part won't help you gain acceptance. Also, DIII coaches are less concerned with the length of courses you play and are only really concerned with what you shoot. Hope that help.

[NickasInSaltLick]

Well, I was just hired this past summer to coach my old college team, Westminster College, an NAIA school in Salt Lake City, UT. I might be able to shed a little light on what a small, private school might be looking for in our situation.

 

We're situated in a state that has six NCAA Division 1 schools with men's golf programs (Southern Utah University, Brigham Young University, Utah Valley University, The University of Utah, Weber State University, and Utah State University) and one Division 2 school (Dixie State College). There are four Division 1 schools with women's programs (SUU, UVU, BYU, WSU) and one Division 2 school (DSC). All of these schools offer athletic scholarships of some type for golf. So they tend to cherry-pick whatever local blue-chippers they can get their hands on. Most of the local talent do all they can during their high school careers to attract these teams' attention. But they can't possibly take everybody and a lot of really good players end up slipping through the cracks. So first and foremost I'm looking players that can fire decent scores, and as an added bonus, I kinda like the men and women that sort of have a chip on their shoulder or feel like they were passed over and still have something to prove. You've got to be willing to work hard to improve. A lot of coaches want players that can step in right away and contribute, and that's nice when you can get it, but I'm definitely not opposed to taking on "project" type players that are just on the precipice of making "the leap" that are willing to work hard to play their way into the lineup.

 

Our biggest challenge though, is that the school is primarily an academic institution (we outrank pretty much all the other state schools in most academic categories), and provides very few athletic scholarships at all and none for golfers. A few of the teams in our conference (The Frontier) do however, and are usually pretty loaded. So not only do we need to find people that can cut the mustard out on the golf course, but we also need to find players that can really hack it in the classroom as well. That's what typically makes us affordable. We really have a tough challenge going out and recruiting players to our program, and I've been told that over the years we had to really wait for the players to inquire about the program rather than the other way around.

 

Now it's no secret that we're living in some pretty tough economic times and pretty much every school is tightening the purse strings budget-wise. Especially at smaller schools where a lot of coaches can't really afford to travel out of state to do much in the way of scouting. Thankfully, there is a proliferation of great internet sites that help to do the scouting for us. I'd advise you to get a solid resume' together and set up profiles on some of these sites. I'm personally getting a lot of use out of these two:

 

BeRecruited.com

College Prospects of America

 

There are several others out there as well. Some sites like BeRecruited allow coaches to set up team profiles that athletes can search through to find what might be a good fit for them. On most of these sites you can upload swing videos for the coaches to look at, which is kinda neat. They also provide a great way to exchange contact information. Most school's athletic pages will have a prospective athletes questionnaire you can fill out as well. Just make sure that the information you provide on your profiles is accurate and that things like tournament scores are easily verifiable. By that I mean to provide links to tournament result sites wherever possible.

 

Hope this helps!

[muxi87]

I know a few college coaches pretty well and they really like to see players going out and trying to qualify for the State AM, U.S. AM, etc.

 

They like knowing that the kid(s) can compete against good, mature golfers...not just in their own little high school world. Many coaches I've talked to doubt the high school system to a degree.

 

I for once can tell you that I always thought a high school match was almost as easy as just playing at home in a regular round--you're with guys your age, and unless you're in a hotbed of talent, often with people you're much better than (if you're a scratch type golfer). I know that while I would always hover right around even par, I very rarely played with guys that could break 80 on their best days--heck, not a single player on my team broke 100 at the region...keep in mind that back then, we didn't have near the technology of today (especially with the ball...it was either a Tour Balata or Professional if you wanted any spin at all, or a Top Flite if you wanted distance). The game has really changed since then!