No Jr PGA, AJGA, FCWT, etc. experience

[Pingdom]

college exposure info

As mentioned in the title, my daughter is a fairly decent golfer, but has no tournament experience. She has played in the local jr golf tournaments, and high school matches, She's received some high school and league awards, and has posted some decent, but not outstanding, scores. She normally scores in the low 80's, and she knows she's not big D1 material. She's an average student, academically.

Because she didn't compete in AGJA, FCWT, etc., do you have any suggestions on how we should approach her college search in terms of playing college golf. She will graduate June 2011. At this point in time, she hasn't decided on a college. We've visited some colleges,but, of course, a golf scholarship offer would certainly help narrow her choices.

Coaches and club pros keep telling her "there's all kinds of scholarship money out there for female college golfers, " but how do get your name out there to the college coaches if you don't have any tournament experience?

So far, her high school coach and her swing coach have contacted some college coaches. She joined berecruited.com, and uses info from the Ping College Golf Guide to send emails to some schools, and personal letters with an attached golf resume to other coaches. From another post on this board, we learned about
www.collegegolfresumes.com, and are working on filling it out.

This year, we just didn't have the time (or money) to put her in costly tournaments. Now, we have the time, and I can afford put her in some FCWT tournaments around the United States, but I'm asking you all if there would be any benefit to doing it? Is it too late in terms of college recruiting? Any help or advice you can offer would be greatly appreciated.

[generaljhc]

I would send all coaches the same information via email. letter of interest, resume, swing video or link to swing video, along with links to berecruited and collegegolfresumes. I would contact more than once if they don't respond. Playing some FCWT's in the fall would be a good thing, college coaches trust scores from these tournaments more than high school and local jr....don't go bankrupt traveling. One problem for girls is finding events with descent size fields and I would think FCWT's would have that. Also, gives you something to update coches about periodically after each tournament.

[iteachgolf]

D2 golf is a good possibility, especially outside of FL and CA. Every school has a recruiting questionare and I would start there.

[generaljhc]

A girl that shoots in the low 80's, even with a late start, should be able to land a spot on a D3, NAIA, or D2 program..maybe a low D1.

The PING guide gives good examples of letters of introduction, and resumes. I don't advise using the canned letters from berecruited...but it can't hurt to send invites to coaches to checkout berecruited information.

Look for schools that have at least 2 graduating in 2011. Some colleges have updated their rosters to 10-11 in which case you are looking for 2+ Sr's, if it is still 09-10 looking for 2 jr's.

So...check for roster spots. Send letter of introduction, with resume attached, and links to online information, invite to view berecruited profile. Call and ask for unofficial visit...or at least request in a follow up email 1-2 after send resume and information. Send score updates after each tournament in the fall. If she plays well enough said, if she struggles acknowledge and tell coach what she learned and will work on. If she retakes ACT/SAT email an update.

Colleges are still looking, but the clock is ticking.

[generaljhc]

You can go to [url="http://www.njgs.com"]www.njgs.com[/url] and checkout the girls that signed for 2010. It will show their "differential" which will give you an idea of the tournament scores various schools and divisions of schools are looking for.

Not ranked means they have not played in enough NJGS ranked events to be ranked (I think the minimum is 4). A lot of girls are signed that have not played in these events.

You can also search for tournaments on the website.

[generaljhc]

Might look at the PGA Junior Series