college golf question. . .

[thenewbie]

and other life decisions I need help with.

so, I picked up a club for the first time about 8 months ago, and currently play to about a 14. shot an 87 yesturday, thanks to sticking everything inside 100 yards right next to the pin (hit TWO flag sticks from 110 and 60), and in spite of a fairly atrocious day with the driver.

anyways, I've seen all of the threads about "can I be a pro?" and most are laughable. I know most pro's play to atleast a +5 or (much) better, but I'm wondering about college golf. I'm 24, and already have my AA degree, I'm not currently in school.

anyways, if I work my tail off for the next 3 or 4 years and get down to low single digits (optimistic, but I think realistic), would college golf be worth looking into?

basically I want to figure out if I'm wasting my time pursuing golf in a more serious way. did I start too old to get anywhere with golf?

feel free to be honest.

[t8er]

It all depends on what school. NCAA Div 1....highly unlikely. A smaller private college....maybe. With the popularity of golf since Tiger hit the scene, a lot more young golfers are taking up the game because it's "cooler" to play golf now than it was 10 or more years ago. With that said, there's a lot more young talent out there than there was 15 years ago. I played at a Division II school in college and the scores are lower now than they were 10 years ago on the same courses which tells me that the talent level has increased.

[Daddylongknocks]

Good question

 

I have been wondering that myself. I currently am a +2.5 with full elgibility to play college golf. I am 25, and have the time to do the same. How would you go about looking into golf programs? And would they take a 25-26 year old?

 

To answer your question about being serious about golf too late in life-- that's really not a problem. Unlike other sports, such as baseball, where a hitter hits his prime around 26-30, pitchers around 28-32, etc. Golfer don't usually reach there prime until 32-36 or so.

 

Good luck!

[freddiec]

If you can consistently shoot between 75-81 you could play for most division 3 teams. You certainly won't be a stand out, but you could make the team. It's something to work for, so get practicing.

[ERuhling]

This may be just my ignorance but how can someone over 22-23 play college sports. I never heard of it not happening but I sure never heard of it happening.

[golfman1229]

you dont need to shoot near par to play college golf, there are a lot of schools that take 90's on the team it all depends what school you looking at and what the team usually shoots. im a sophmore looking in at college golf and one thing that has helped me is the ping college golf guide. you can pick hundreds of d1 d2 d3 schools and look at what they shoot at tournaments. if you want more info feel free to pm me and ill give you the details.

 

hope this helps

kyle

[Missinglink08]

This may be just my ignorance but how can someone over 22-23 play college sports. I never heard of it not happening but I sure never heard of it happening.

 

yeah i am wondering the same thing.... i have never heard someone at the age of 25 or 26 playing college golf.

[t8er]

This may be just my ignorance but how can someone over 22-23 play college sports. I never heard of it not happening but I sure never heard of it happening.

 

yeah i am wondering the same thing.... i have never heard someone at the age of 25 or 26 playing college golf.

 

My college team had a guy that was 25 and I played against somone in their 30's once.

[PreppySlapCut]

This may be just my ignorance but how can someone over 22-23 play college sports. I never heard of it not happening but I sure never heard of it happening.

 

yeah i am wondering the same thing.... i have never heard someone at the age of 25 or 26 playing college golf.

If they were never enrolled in college full time, they have full eligibilty.

 

Per NCAA regs: To play DI, you have 5 years from your first full time semester of college to play 4 seasons of a competitive sport. For DII and DIII you have 10 full time semesters in which to play your 4 seasons. The only way around that would be extenuating medical circumstances or millitary service.

 

Basically they could be 50, and if they decided they wanted to enroll full time in college they would be eligible to play. Its not a complicated scenario.

[Stunt101]

If you can get down to shooting EVEN or a couple over every time you play competitive golf then you should be able to play. Try some local amateur tourneys.

[bk4]

This may be just my ignorance but how can someone over 22-23 play college sports. I never heard of it not happening but I sure never heard of it happening.

 

yeah i am wondering the same thing.... i have never heard someone at the age of 25 or 26 playing college golf.

If they were never enrolled in college full time, they have full eligibilty.

 

Per NCAA regs: To play DI, you have 5 years from your first full time semester of college to play 4 seasons of a competitive sport. For DII and DIII you have 10 full time semesters in which to play your 4 seasons. The only way around that would be extenuating medical circumstances or millitary service.

 

Basically they could be 50, and if they decided they wanted to enroll full time in college they would be eligible to play. Its not a complicated scenario.

 

I don't mean to rain on anybody's parade, but I believe for Division 1, you have 5 years from the year your graduateing high school class enters college to complete your 4 years of eligibility. Of course, there are some rare cases where circumstances are such that they willgrant a sixth year. I think you can play Division 2 or 3 or NAIA no matter how old you are, but I am 99.9% sure that you have 5 years from when your class enters college to play.

[hoganfan924]

I've met a kid who went from a beginner his Junior year of high school to 18 months later getting a Junior College scholarship to play golf. Of course, he had the best instruction you could hope to get and he busted his a** to get there. Don't limit yourself to thinking it will take 3 or 4 years to get there. As long as the eligibility issue is resolved, the sky's the limit. Not one person in this world can accurately predict anyones potential.

[thenewbie]

I didn't even think about the eligability issue. . .I guess I'll need to look into it since I spent some time in community college.

 

haha, I never would have thought to post this in the "juniors" section, seems hardly fitting since I started playing at 23.

 

basically I need to figure out if I want to put some pretty intense time and money into golf or if its just not worth it. I've improved really quickly, breaking 100 after playing for 4 months, breaking 90 after 7. but I haven't had any instruction yet because I don't have much money and haven't found an instructor I "like". I feel confident that I can be heading towards scratch within a few years, but I know I won't be happy at scratch.

[squarre]

This may be just my ignorance but how can someone over 22-23 play college sports. I never heard of it not happening but I sure never heard of it happening.

 

yeah i am wondering the same thing.... i have never heard someone at the age of 25 or 26 playing college golf.

If they were never enrolled in college full time, they have full eligibilty.

 

Per NCAA regs: To play DI, you have 5 years from your first full time semester of college to play 4 seasons of a competitive sport. For DII and DIII you have 10 full time semesters in which to play your 4 seasons. The only way around that would be extenuating medical circumstances or millitary service.

 

Basically they could be 50, and if they decided they wanted to enroll full time in college they would be eligible to play. Its not a complicated scenario.

 

I don't mean to rain on anybody's parade, but I believe for Division 1, you have 5 years from the year your graduateing high school class enters college to complete your 4 years of eligibility. Of course, there are some rare cases where circumstances are such that they willgrant a sixth year. I think you can play Division 2 or 3 or NAIA no matter how old you are, but I am 99.9% sure that you have 5 years from when your class enters college to play.

 

 

That 0.1% got you. It isn't 5 years from graduating high school, and there isn't a hard and firm age limit rule. However, there is an age related rule that applies to DI only. Basically if someone hasn't enrolled in college, but has participated in organized sports competition in a given sport after their 21st birthday, each year of competition counts as one year of varsity competition in that sport. There is no limit for DII or DIII.

 

Among other things, wording the rule in this manner still allows someone like Chris Weinke, who played minor league baseball for several years, to return to college to play football since he didn't compete in football during the time frame.

[retep]

You said: feel free to be honest

this is BRUTAL HONESTY

go to college and think about what type of masters degree you will pursue after that. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. A college degree is worth a lot more than not having one. Life dictates you need a plan B. Make Golf plan A. Plan B is 4 year degree AND Masters degree.

 

Get to the best university you can get to academically and if possible go down the finance or business degree road. You said feel free to be honest...

[thenewbie]

You said: feel free to be honest

this is BRUTAL HONESTY

go to college and think about what type of masters degree you will pursue after that. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. A college degree is worth a lot more than not having one. Life dictates you need a plan B. Make Golf plan A. Plan B is 4 year degree AND Masters degree.

 

Get to the best university you can get to academically and if possible go down the finance or business degree road. You said feel free to be honest...

 

haha, well thank you for your honesty! I'm just really not a "finance or business" kind of guy. I have my 2 year degree, which I barely got, primarily because I hated every second of that 2 years. I'm more of a "life less ordinary" type of person. I'd wrather be on the road with a rock band (which I've done in the past) or playing golf.

 

but I decided that maybe if I can play college golf then going back to school might night be so bad. . .

[drew123]

I think a lot of people on this board have a major misconception about what is takes to play division I golf and even to make it on tour for that matter.

 

You do not have to average 75-81 to play division III. If you average that you could play on MANY division I teams. Also you don't have to shoot even to play division I. You could average 79-81 and find a division I team where you will play almost every match. Granted you might not be in a top golf school like OSU, UNC or Duke but you could play.

 

 

Also as a side not I asked my pro, David Glenz, who played the tour and played in 12(I think) Major Championships, what his handicap was when he played the tour. He said probably +2 or +3 not +5 or better. My family is also friends with John DeForest. I will call and ask him the same question and post his answer. sorry rant over

[ej002]

I think a lot of people on this board have a major misconception about what is takes to play division I golf and even to make it on tour for that matter.

 

You do not have to average 75-81 to play division III. If you average that you could play on MANY division I teams. Also you don't have to shoot even to play division I. You could average 79-81 and find a division I team where you will play almost every match. Granted you might not be in a top golf school like OSU, UNC or Duke but you could play.

 

 

Also as a side not I asked my pro, David Glenz, who played the tour and played in 12(I think) Major Championships, what his handicap was when he played the tour. He said probably +2 or +3 not +5 or better. My family is also friends with John DeForest. I will call and ask him the same question and post his answer. sorry rant over

 

 

I AGREE 100%. I doubt shooting 75-81 will get a you a DI spot at a large school in a warmer state, but you can definately get on a team in the north/midwest. Especially at a smaller school. I played at Loyola Chicago - shooting 75 on a great day, and shooting more like 79-81 on average. However, this was 9 years ago, before Tiger was huge. It wasn't as "cool" to play golf then as it is now. By the way, shooting 75-81, I was one of our top 4 guys. I would imagine it is easy to get on a DII / DIII school. At the same time I bet that DII / DIII schools in the south have studs playing on them. But check it out. It really is not that hard. It is a lot of fun, you play everyday, you travel, and you will learn. But be prepared to play from 7200+ every day. That in itself is brutal.

 

I also played with a 25 year old. And he sucked.

[thenewbie]

I wish I had a 7200+ course to play around here, just to see what I can do. everything around here thats public is 6500 or less.

 

although, I must say that I don't think being able to compete at any certain level is always dictated by your ability to score a certain number. especially at the PGA level, I think its about being able to compete in a tournament setting. being able to perform under pressure. I think I'll probably be pretty good at it, I almost always play better when I play with other people, since I take my time and focus. of course I'll never know untill I give some competitive golf a try.

 

I've been trying to get into some money games, to see how I perform under some pressure. but everyone around here kind of sucks.

[Tarn]

Umm.. I hate to say it, but I know a lot of people who play college golf, I played college (d1) college golf, and you cant average 79-81 and play in matches. My team was ranked 150th in the nation and it took scores around par or under par (over5-6-7-8) rounds of qualifying to make the road. BAsically everyone on my team was a + handicap.

[scgolf]

DI & II ball - 5 years to get your 4 years in (clock starts when you begin taking classes full time). If you were a part time student @ a JC while earning your AA, you'd still have 4 years eligiblity.

 

NAIA & DIII are a little different. Governing body has bylaws but, there are very subtle 'rulings' withing conferences that may give SCHOOLS latitude (take note, those governing bodies DO NOT make decisions for/against the student/athlete. More for/against the requesting institution).

 

College Golf is a demand sport. By this I mean, the farther south you look, the more demand for lower scores there are. If you're a -5 index player, unless your grandmother is deathly ill and you'd wanna go to school in Montana, there's very little chance you'd play there. More likely, you'd be looking @ the FL, TX, AZ, SoCal area schools. Higher the index, higher up the map you should be considering. And, if nothing fits, then there's amateur golf stuff all over the place (city, local, regional, state, national am's).

 

gud luck homie.

FIGHT ON!

[mrq]

This may be just my ignorance but how can someone over 22-23 play college sports. I never heard of it not happening but I sure never heard of it happening.

 

 

Chris Weinke... Florida State QB, won the Heisman at age 28...

[Bones01gt]

I've met a kid who went from a beginner his Junior year of high school to 18 months later getting a Junior College scholarship to play golf. Of course, he had the best instruction you could hope to get and he busted his a** to get there. Don't limit yourself to thinking it will take 3 or 4 years to get there. As long as the eligibility issue is resolved, the sky's the limit. Not one person in this world can accurately predict anyones potential.

 

I love your optimism. I LOVE IT!!! I think the same way. Ain't nobody can tell you what you can and can't do...I know it's cliche', but "Just do it!"

 

There was a dude played D1 football at South Carolina a few years back..they called him "Pops." He was 38. As long as you are eligible I say go for it.