Class of 2025 on Deck

golferdad8 · August 4

14 hours ago, wegobomber31 said:

Interesting breakdown of wins in AJGA events, year over year.

imho, this limited data is skewed & not a definitive statement that certain years are better/stronger.

One factor is that many top players now play in amateurs instead of AJGAs - more availability & a better way to demonstrate to colleges that they’re indeed better than many coaches’ current players.

Think about it & it makes sense. Getting a top 5 or top 10 in a legit tournament competing against amateurs and D1 college players is way more significant than getting a top 5 exemption for AJGA against a field of 40-45 (9-11th) graders.

wegobomber31 · August 4

1 hour ago, golferdad8 said:

imho, this limited data is skewed & not a definitive statement that certain years are better/stronger.

One factor is that many top players now play in amateurs instead of AJGAs - more availability & a better way to demonstrate to colleges that they’re indeed better than many coaches’ current players.

Think about it & it makes sense. Getting a top 5 or top 10 in a legit tournament competing against amateurs and D1 college players is way more significant than getting a top 5 exemption for AJGA against a field of 40-45 (9-11th) graders.

it isn’t definitive but it’s an apples to apples comparison to the same tournaments year over year. Obviously the top senior grads are migrating to amateur events and not playing in many AJGA opens. The same thing could be said for 2022 grads last year.

last year, and I presume most years are going to be dominated by kids going into their senior year. That’s less the case this year, mostly because the 2026 class is winning at a higher pace than the 2025 class did last year.

iteachgolf · August 4

1 hour ago, j.b.newton said:

This part is HIGHLY debatable. Prestige and potentially more open doors/contacts/opportunities - yes. Education - not always. In fact, I would argue that the EDUCATION/TEACHING part is probably better at the smaller schools. Those schools usually have undergraduate classes taught by faculty (not Grad Asst). Those faculty are usually more focused on teaching and not the research/scholarship/grant components that the larger/R1 type schools are. The smaller schools usually have much smaller class sizes that allow for more personable interaction with the students. All of those lead to a better educational/pedagogical experience for the students.

My experience is as an athlete at both types, grad student at both types, faculty at both types, admin at both types.

Not really. If you were going to argue D3 vs D1 power 5, maybe we could have a discussion. But at D2 schools the overwhelming majority will not have the same quality and diversity of educational opportunities. Elite D2 schools are almost all very specialized in what they are great at. D3 is another story entirely