Good Golf Colleges

[sdf9235]

as you can see im a 15 year old whos a 1.5 handicap, i wanna get into the PGA tour and ive gotten letters for a few colleges saying they might be interested, florida state, USC, UT, and i just wanted to know what would be a good school to try to get into for golf and ultimatly the PGA tour.

[Monty23]

Stanford.

 

Good luck. :)

[sdf9235]

Ha i dunno if a 3.2 GPA will get me into stanford no matter what my handicap is

[emc]

What a pro told me was, the best colleges are ones who can play golf year round. So Florida, Georgia, Texas, Arizona and Caliornia are all good starting points. From there just pick the team in the right division for you and whatever school you like best

[PreppySlapCut]

You want to be able to play year-round, and you want a very competitive schedule. Also you'd be much better off starting at a slightly lower ranked school than riding the bench at a hihger ranked school (assuming you want to play professionally afterwards). Best of luck.

[mumf91]

Any where that you can play and be happy is going to be the best school for you. You may want to go to a school like Stanford and play golf but what if you get injured? Will you still enjoy your time at that school?

[phsgolfguy]

come to FSU!

 

:)

[ccpgolf]

as you can see im a 15 year old whos a 1.5 handicap, i wanna get into the PGA tour and ive gotten letters for a few colleges saying they might be interested, florida state, USC, UT, and i just wanted to know what would be a good school to try to get into for golf and ultimatly the PGA tour.

 

 

College coaches are not supposed to contact you until your Junior year I thought, NCAA rules have been pretty scrict on that. Handicaps dont mean much in College golf but you must be doing extremly well in some junior tournaments if you are being contacted from schools like USC... Look in the last months issue of Golf Digest because they have a good section on college golf or the Ping College Golf Guide. UCLA, Oklahoma State, USC, and Stanford will top the list for the best schools. For example though, the top ranked junior who will be attending OSU next years handicap currently is a +4.3, so I guess that is something to work at if you have dreams of being on the tour.

[eagle golfer]

ya i thought coaches wernt supposed to talk to you yet either..but idk they might be able to send emails to u just not letters, but idk but best of luck! all those schools are good golf schools

[ERuhling]

ya i thought coaches wernt supposed to talk to you yet either..but idk they might be able to send emails to u just not letters, but idk but best of luck! all those schools are good golf schools

 

 

 

 

You can contact the coach Ex. calling them or sending the first e-mail. The coach is not allowed to call you or send you e-mails until after the junior year.

[sdf9235]

theyre not supposed to contact you offering you anything but they can still show interest in you

[JeffreySpicoli]

as you can see im a 15 year old whos a 1.5 handicap, i wanna get into the PGA tour and ive gotten letters for a few colleges saying they might be interested, florida state, USC, UT, and i just wanted to know what would be a good school to try to get into for golf and ultimatly the PGA tour.

 

If you've received letters expressing interest, then it sounds like NCAA recruiting rules have been violated. You shouldn't receive recruiting materials from Division I & II schools until after September 1 of your junior year.

 

Might you be misinterpreting these letters that you say you've received?

[pingjas]

Don't overlook small schools, think of your education also, Look at schools such as East Tenn. St. and Methodist, not always the ones you hear about but great programs with good tradition.

[bk4]

Don't overlook small schools, think of your education also, Look at schools such as East Tenn. St. and Methodist, not always the ones you hear about but great programs with good tradition.

In all seriousness, when was the last time ETSU had a player who played who wasn't from Europe? They were in our conference for my first year or two, and I don't recall them having Americans ever

[Missinglink08]

Don't overlook small schools, think of your education also, Look at schools such as East Tenn. St. and Methodist, not always the ones you hear about but great programs with good tradition.

In all seriousness, when was the last time ETSU had a player who played who wasn't from Europe? They were in our conference for my first year or two, and I don't recall them having Americans ever

 

The coach carries about a 5-6 man roster and it only consists of international players.....

[cg460]

Sometimes you'd be surprised at how good many of the schools that get overlooked are. Jerry Kelly, Tim Petrovic, and Patrick Sheehan were all on the same team in college, and they went to University of Hartford in Hartford, CT. It IS a big advantage being able to play year round though, but many schools do have indoor facilities where you can practice, workout, and still improve. I think the 2 biggest things are look at somewhere that you'll be able to play, but they also play a competitive schedule as well.

[scgolf]

Is it okay to call BS on this board???

 

Timeline is this... college coaches may contact potential athlete July 1 following the student's jr. year.

September 1st is the first day coach can send recruiting materials.

 

If a coach sees an athlete in an athletic (or even social) event, coach may not speak with the student/athlete or his/her parent(s). Only if the student/athlete makes an unofficial visit may the coach have contact with the student. Although not considered a major violation, does anybody here think a DI coach would take such a risk????

 

Kid, the best golf school for you is the one that fits YOU. Take those unofficial visits as time and $$$ permits. Get to know the coach, players, school, program. Do you want a bus driver as a coach? Do you want a sargent? A shrink? Are you willing to play for a spot before each tourney? Are the facilities adequate? What's on the tournament calendar? There's 100 questions to be answered and the best school is the one where school and the athlete benefit.

 

FIGHT ON!!!

[mumf91]

You are allowed to recieved certain types of letters before Sept 1, junior year. They will normally be letter which are like you are uncontactable but you can contact us. Then they have a resume/questionaire that can be filled out and mailed back.

[*sigh*]

Can't believe no one mentioned Arizona State... Although you better be pretty dang amazing to make it there.. they just took on 5 new freshman this year that the coach is working personally with (my roomate is a caddy of one of them). ASU has amazing facilities, but like has been said.

 

It really is finding a fit for you... sometimes a smaller school, or one without the best program may just be a better fit for you. College won't do anything to determine whether you make it to the tour... Find a coach you like, and that will do more for your game than anything. Once you have that down, then you are set.

[vulture20076]

Some of the best advice in this thread pertains to "go to a school where you will play events". I can't tell you how many solid junior golfers that I had played against growing up who had their heart set on a big time program and looked the other way when other competitive programs came knocking. Long story short, the vast majority of them saw limited action in these programs. Unless you are really a national phenom, AJGA All-American type, your best bet will always be to find a program that plays a competitive schedule, but also gives you a great shot at starting all four years. The truth of the matter is that you will develop alot more as a competitive player if you are able to actually play in the tournaments. After all, what use would it be to walk on at Stanford, USC, Texas, etc and play maybe a handful of events over a career.

 

If you looked at the bios of all the guys on the PGA and Nationwide Tours, you would be amazed at how many were stars at mid-major D1 programs. Many of them developed into tour players, but started out as very ordinary collegiate golfers. Heck, you can even search the old Golfstat databases and drop your jaw (i.e. it wasn't that impressive) when you see what numbers Zach Johnson was putting up for most of his career at Drake University in Iowa.

[*sigh*]

I don't completely agree with that... When you get into a program where you know that you will compete many people won't push themselves, because what is the point. If you get into a program where you still stand a decent chance to start, even just a few especially as a freshmen, that you will push yourself to play your best.

 

On top of that, you also should look at what coaches will do to help you improve, or if they will have you doing something else in your off weeks. I have a friend on the ASU golf team, and every guy on the team who doesn't make the group for the NCAA tournament for that week, will be taken by one of the assistant coaches and will go compete in a smaller or more local tournament. They are still getting plenty of tournament experience, and yet still have a challenge every week when it comes to trying to make the group that will go compete for ASU.

[Sean2]

Eastern Tennesse State University. Great golf program. Beautiful part of the country.

[bk4]

You can't play for ETSU unless you are from Europe.

I agree with the poster about going where you are going to play. One of my best friends was an AJGA All-American turned down lots of great schools and went to Ohio State where he played maybe twice his sophomore year. Another friend of mine did the same thing and turned down every school you can imagine and went to UNC where he played in 0 tournaments and eventualy quit the team. The problem with a lot of those bigger schools is that there are so many distractions. And those are distractions you need to do unless you want to cheat yourself out of a real college experience that you can look back on fondly. With that, you should also pick a school where you would be happy without golf. I picked a school solely because they gave me a golf scholarship. I spent two years there and realized I hated the coach and he was making me hate golf. But because I only went there for golf, I was totally miserable there. So I transfered to a much bigger school, which was much more fun and didn't even bother playing golf. While I'm not bitter about college, I look back at other schools who offered me spots but no money, which included SEC and Big East teams which could have offered me a lot more than golf, and wonder what I might have missed. Unless golf is your life, and as much as it mght seem like it is now, it probably isn't, you shouldn't sell yourself shott by just picking a golf school.

[The Chicken Connoisseur]

Well, Stanford is #1 in golf, and #3 in academics in the country. Perfect!

[*sigh*]

Well, Stanford is #1 in golf, and #3 in academics in the country. Perfect!

Ya.. but first you have to get accepted or get a scholarship... Both of which are very difficult to do at stanford.

[acollins10]

Don't forget about Oklahoma State we have 10 D-1 titles so far. GO POKES!!!!

[ClemsonTiger06']

If you really want to be a professional golfer then I would direct you to Clemson University. Larry Penley simply understands pro golf and how to develop players so that they are successful at the highest level. If you don't want to be on the PGA tour then Clemson is probably not the program for you.