
The rounds are played in groups of 3 or 4 players from different universities who play against each other according to either the ‘shot-gun’ format (everyone starts at a different hole) or the ‘tee-times’ format (everyone starts at the same hole. ). The scores can also be determined in two different ways: ‘stroke play’ or ‘match play’.
How to get into college golf?
10 Steps to College Golf. 1 1. High GPA and Test Scores. A good academic record is more important than a good golf record. College coaches are reluctant to select a player that ... 2 2. Compete in Nationally Ranked Tournaments. 3 3. National Rankings. 4 4. Register with the NCAA Initial Eligibility Clearinghouse. 5 5. Contact Colleges. More items
What is the most important factor in college golf recruiting?
High GPA and Test Scores A good academic record is more important than a good golf record. College coaches are reluctant to select a player that might have trouble staying eligible, so study hard and stay focused.
How do college coaches find top players in junior golf?
Years ago college coaches would travel to many tournaments during the summer to find possible recruits, but now with so many tournaments and hundreds of great players, they rely more on resources like Junior Golf Scoreboard to locate the top players.
How do I make contact with college golf coaches?
Produce a letter of introduction, golf resume, and possibly a video to be mailed to all the coaches on your list. Below are some helpful points to consider on making contact with college coaches.

How do you get into college golf?
10 Steps to College GolfHigh GPA and Test Scores. A good academic record is more important than a good golf record. ... Compete in Nationally Ranked Tournaments. ... National Rankings. ... Register with the NCAA Initial Eligibility Clearinghouse. ... Contact Colleges. ... Campus Visits. ... National Letter of Intent. ... Financial Aid.More items...
How does college golf recruiting work?
Identify potential recruits: At any point in high school, coaches can send general materials, such as recruiting questionnaires, to student-athletes, and they usually send them out to a large number of freshmen and sophomores to gauge their interest in the program.
Do you get paid for college golf?
Giving Instruction for Compensation (Rule 5-1) An amateur golfer must not receive payment or compensation, directly or indirectly, for giving golf instruction. A student-athlete is allowed to give golf instruction for compensation provided the individual did not use his name to advertise his services.
What is the average score for college golf?
The average scores for men are on the low end a 65 and on the high end a 75. For the women, the average scores can be anywhere from 66 to 78.
How difficult is it to get a golf scholarship?
It is important to note that getting recruited to play college golf is very difficult. Less than 8% of golfers will play varsity golf at any level in college. Only a fraction of that 8% will get a full or partial scholarship.
Do d1 golfers get free clubs?
Georgia head coach Chris Haack said most of the golfers on the squad came to college with promotional deals, and those players continue to get free clubs from their respective manufacturers. To avoid any possible NCAA violations, manufacturers must deal directly with the golfer's coaches rather than individual players.
What do you need to shoot to go D1 in golf?
If you are looking to compete at the D1 level and get a scholarship, you will need to show the ability to shoot even par and break even par to get a scholarship. For most programs mid to low 70s is important for a scholarship. As a rule of thumb, you need to be shooting in the 70s.
How do college golf scholarships work?
Men's golf is an equivalency sport, which means college coaches are given a pool of money to award to recruits and current roster players. They can divide these funds into partial scholarships, allowing them to recognize and award multiple athletes on their team.
Can a junior golfer win money?
A junior golfer may also receive a reasonable amount of money directly from an outside source, including an individual or business, to assist with paying the expenses incurred to play in a competition limited to junior golfers (e.g., the U.S. Junior Amateur Championship).
How far does Tiger Woods hit a 7 iron?
Club Averages His long irons (2- to 4-iron) range from 250 to 200 yards. His middle irons (5, 6, 7) range from 208 to 172 yards. His 8-iron travels 158 yards, and 9-iron flies 142.
How good do I need to be to play college golf?
NCAA Division 1 golf scores: 70 to 75. NCAA Division 2 golf scores: 70 to high 70s. NCAA Division 3 golf scores: 72 to low 80s. NAIA golf scores: low 70s to high 80s.
What does an average d1 golfer shoot?
According to Junior Golf Hub's report, to play D-I golf, male players shot an average tournament score of 73.61 while females shot 76.78. The study notes that this data is based on tournament scores shot in 2020, the year leading up to the player's graduation year.
How to get to know your college coach?
Coaches want to get to know you and see if you'll be able to adapt to college life and most importantly, fit in with the other team members. Talk with and ask questions to players on the teams. Try to be very open with the coach, ask questions, and show excitement.
Why is it important to compete in the top tournaments?
Competing in the top tournaments not only gives you more exposure, the experience gained by playing against the best players on the best courses is invaluable. Cautiously select a tournament schedule that is challenging and fits within your budget. Some tournaments, although large and well known, can be very expensive.
How to introduce yourself to a college coach?
- Introduce yourself; include a brief personal history and your desire to attend the college. - Include goals in college, golf accomplishments, upcoming schedule, school accomplishments, and other interests.
What are the steps to prepare for college?
Use the following steps and other resources as a guide in preparing for college. NCAA Guide for Student Athletes. 1. High GPA and Test Scores. A good academic record is more important than a good golf record. College coaches are reluctant to select a player that might have trouble staying eligible, so study hard and stay focused.
Is college expensive?
College can be very expensive, especially if you attend an out-of-state school. Coaches have a limited number of scholarships to disperse and usually they award partial scholarships to players that earn them through performance. Don't assume or rely on an athletic scholarship; apply for academic scholarships, grants, and if necessary, loans. Meet with a financial aid counselor for more specific information regarding scholarships, grants, and loans. Follow the links below for more information on financial aid. Remember to apply early!
What happens if you win more holes than your opponent?
Win more holes than your opponent and you win the match to get a point. If your team gets more points, it wins the overall match and advances to the next round. During a match, you’ll see terms such as 2 up, 3 down, or all square. This is the current state of the match saying how many holes a player is up or down (or tied).
What does it mean when you have a big number on a golf hole?
In match play, a big number on a hole just means you’ve lost one hole and you can regain that point on the next hole. Because of the nature of the format, players who get into trouble off the tee will sometimes take more risky shots to get back into the hole.
What is the importance of match play?
One of the important things to emphasize about match play is that only winning the hole matters. The score it takes to win or lose the hole does not. In stroke play, making a double or triple bogey can take several holes to recover from.
What does 4 and 3 mean in golf?
So 4&3 means a player was up 4 holes with 3 holes to play, thus ending the match since the opponent was mathematically eliminated. A score with just one number, 1 or 2 up, means that the match was won on the 18th hole. Matches can end in a tie — or be halved — and the one point up for grabs is split between the players.
When can a player concede a shot?
A player can concede a shot to their opponent, mostly when the ball is inside a foot or two of the cup. Players will sometimes concede some longer putts in the 3-4 foot range early in the match and then make them putt those same putts later on. This is meant to catch an opponent off guard and hopefully force a miscue.
When is Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale Arizona?
The country’s top collegiate golfers will take center stage at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Arizona from May 22 through June 3, 2020. When they do, they’ll have to conquer the stunning Raptor Course over the course of several days and the teams will have to survive two different formats ...
How do you play stroke play?
In stroke play, it’s just you against the course. In match play, you face off against the course, but also an opponent. Instead of keeping score by adding up how many strokes you took during the round, you keep track of how many holes you won against your opponent. Win more holes than your opponent and you win the match to get a point.
How good are college golfers and where can I play?
With a quick search on Google followed by a click-through Golfstat, you’ll know in a matter of minutes what the best college golfers in the country are shooting — spoiler alert: they go low — and you’ll be able to tell which teams are the best in the country.
College golf scores from the best teams
The NCCGA has a great piece on their blog from a few years back illuminating what the best college teams and best players in the country are shooting. This article does a nice job of summing up just how good the best teams and players really are.
College golf scores from the weakest teams
I struggle with calling any team “weak” because there are a variety of reasons why a team might not produce the lowest scores, but you get the gist of what I’m striving for here… which varsity teams are producing the highest college golf scores? And what are those scores?
College Golf Scores vs. High School Golf Scores
Several factors make junior golfers more or less likely to see their scores go up or down when they get to college. Here are a few of the factors:
Understanding where you can play college golf
The best way to determine which college golf programs are a good fit for your golf ability is to compare your junior golf ranking and scores to the junior ranking and scores that college players shot when they were juniors.
Getting recruited is about more than just scores
As you can see from the data, there’s a lot of overlap between the level of scores that DI, DII, and DIII golfers are shooting. Many great golfers are competing at the DIII level who had the ability to be recruited to a DI team.
Where did Nick Watney go to college?
PGA Tour pro Nick Watney was a walk-on at Fresno State. After completing high school a strong golfer may wish to continue his studies and his golf career at a college or university. If you’re as good as Tiger Woods, who attended Stanford, or Phil Mickelson, who went to Arizona State University, the odds are that plenty of schools will be happy ...
What is a walk on?
Definition. A walk-on is a non-scholarship athlete who plays at a school that offers scholarships. Each team and school has its own policy with regard to walk-ons, but coaches are typically open to the idea of allowing talented walk-ons to at least compete for a spot on the team since the coach has nothing to lose.
Who won the 2011 PGA Championship?
Jason Dufner, the 2011 PGA Championship runner-up, was a walk-on at Auburn, where he won three tournaments and became an honorable mention All-American in 1997. Bryson DeChambeau and Aaron Rodgers win The Match. Golfweeks' Adam Woodard breaks down the results from the match. More Videos.
Does West Texas College have walk-ons?
Some college programs have a formal tryout process for prospective walk-ons. At West Texas College, for example, former coach Cody Cox offered players a two-round tryout prior to the season. While he suggested that walk-ons have a 3 handicap or better, any academically eligible student could try out.

Preparation
First Steps
- To begin with, it’s important to have tangible goals: choosing colleges and programs, then researching the requirements, tests, and grades required for enrollment. This will help give you a clear-cut goal to follow, as well as easy to grasp steps you’ll be able to focus on to complete the process. Once you have your list, a good first step is getting in touch with coaches or the athletic…
Follow-Through
- At this point, you already have a solid plan in the works, maintaining communications with key people in the programs you’re keen on entering and working to further your scores means the next step is making yourself stand out as a more promising candidate. Team coaches are the ones who are scouting talent, so appealing to them is very important. Ke...
What Are The Most well-respected Golf Programs I Should Be Applying to?
- There are a lot of well known universities with excellent golf departments. Specifically for golf, one of the first names to come to mind is Oklahoma State. They’ve had numerous NCAA medalists, and have fielded many tour pros, and are currently in first rankof men’s college golf. Another big name is Stanford University, which has a great program and is located near some renown cours…
Summary
- When it comes to sports it’s important to start early; start playing competitively as soon as possible and get in touch with coaches of programs you’re interested as early as freshman year of high school. But, be mindful that colleges are looking for more than just skill so keeping a wide network of colleagues and being in contact with people is a huge boost to further your career an…