Hoping to Walk on to College Team

[CHR_11]

Soooo...I'm hoping to walk onto my state school's golf team. I'm a freshman currently and haven't been able to play since i tore my ACL playing soccer in April. Before I was hurt I played some junior events with a little success, my best finish was a T8 in my age group T14 overall. At the time I was shooting around 78-83 on a regular basis and driving it around 260. Since I've last played a junior event I've probably grown 6 inches and am much more fit.

 

I know it's a long shot but its something i want to try as I always regretted not putting in more effort into my golf game. Just wondering how I should try and approach this situation to be able to tryout next fall, thanks.

[iteachgolf]

1 talk to the coach. Don’t be surprised if the answer is something like, qualify for the US AM and then we will talk. Most schools don’t have a walk on tryout and any “walk ons” were recruited but just don’t receive scholarship money. You essentially need to get 10 shots better to have a good chance.

[rcb1586]

I would suggest that you look up the guys who are currently on the team and see what their scoring averages are.

Is it a Division 1 university?

Not to dissuade you, but I think you will find you have a long way to go to get your scores into a competitive range.

[fairways4life]

Is it a large school? If so, they might have a club team in addition to the regular NCAA team.

 

A torn acl on top of barely breaking 80 to begin with. On the surface it sounds like a stretch.

[TerpFangolfer]

His profile says NJ - so assume he's talking about Rutgers ("my state school's golf team")?

 

So it is D1 - but Rutgers finished next to last in the B1G, so not exactly like trying to walk onto Fla/UGA/Bama, etc...

[dpb5031]

Often very difficult to be a walk-on, even if you're better than some of the team's non-scholarship (and even scholarship) recruits. Once a coach makes commitments to other players and has a full roster most are unlikely to welcome walk-ons. They will typically honor their promises to those already on the team, and there's only room for so many. Exceptions would be a program with less than a full roster, or a player who has proven himself/herself with some exceptional results in high level Amateur golf.

 

Good luck!

[kekoa]

Often very difficult to be a walk-on, even if you're better than some of the team's non-scholarship (and even scholarship) recruits. Once a coach makes commitments to other players and has a full roster most are unlikely to welcome walk-ons. They will typically honor their promises to those already on the team, and there's only room for so many. Exceptions would be a program with less than a full roster, or a player who has proven himself/herself with some exceptional results in high level Amateur golf.

 

Good luck!

 

Yup, not sure if you would be looking for scholarship money, but once the money is divided among players on the roster, the scholarship is theirs whether they perform or not. Only way the money becomes available again is if they transfer out to a different school or 'retire' from the program due to an extenuating circumstance.

[iteachgolf]

His profile says NJ - so assume he's talking about Rutgers ("my state school's golf team")?

 

So it is D1 - but Rutgers finished next to last in the B1G, so not exactly like trying to walk onto Fla/UGA/Bama, etc...

 

Even at a school like Rutgers you’d have to shoot under par in pretty big junior events to get recruited.

 

[heavy_hitter]

Often very difficult to be a walk-on, even if you're better than some of the team's non-scholarship (and even scholarship) recruits. Once a coach makes commitments to other players and has a full roster most are unlikely to welcome walk-ons. They will typically honor their promises to those already on the team, and there's only room for so many. Exceptions would be a program with less than a full roster, or a player who has proven himself/herself with some exceptional results in high level Amateur golf.

 

Good luck!

 

Yup, not sure if you would be looking for scholarship money, but once the money is divided among players on the roster, the scholarship is theirs whether they perform or not. Only way the money becomes available again is if they transfer out to a different school or 'retire' from the program due to an extenuating circumstance.

 

This is not necessarily true. Coaches can take away money for not performing in the classroom, missing practice, etc.