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College Golf and the AJGT
The Arrowhead Junior Golf Tour believes strongly that it is part of our mission to promote qualified tour members to the nation’s collegiate golf programs. The AJGT does this by phone calls, emails and by sending results of events by mass email to college programs. Naturally, the Arrowhead Tour cooperates with all inquiries by college coaches concerning specific players. (Check the section below on "Playing College Golf" to see what you can do to enhance your own collegiate golf opportunities).
These are just some of the colleges where Arrowhead Tour members are currently competing or have competed in the last several years:
| *LSU |
*Augusta State
University
| *University of Arkansas Little-Rock |
*University of
Georgia
| *University of Houston |
*Belhaven College |
| *Princeton |
*William Carey College
| *Millsaps College |
| *St. John’s University |
*Morehouse College
| *St. Thomas (Georgia) |
| *St. Louis University |
*University of LA-Monroe
| *Emory (Georgia) |
| *Mississippi State University |
*Nicholls State University |
| *University of Mobile |
*University of New Orleans |
| *Ole Miss |
*McNeese State University |
| *Southern Mississippi |
*University of Louisiana-Lafayette |
| *Samford |
*Faulkner State in Alabama |
| *University of West Florida |
*University of North Alabama |
| *University of South Alabama |
*Montevallo in Alabama |
| *Birmingham Southern |
*Miss. Gulf Coast Comm. College |
| *Oglethorpe (Georgia) |
*University of Alabama |
*Louisiana Tech Univ.
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*Centenary College
|
*Louisiana College
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*Birmingham Southern Univ.
|
*Tyler Comm. College
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*Belmont University
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*Springhill College
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*Tennessee State University
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*Shelton Comm. College
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*University of Alabama-Birmingham |
| *University of Southern Arkansas |
*Boston College |
| *St. Edwards |
*Florida State University |
| *East Central Alabama Comm. College |
*Belmont University |
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Over 78% percent of the AJGT Graduating Class of 2007 received collegiate golf scholarships. Over 55% of the AJGT Class of 2006 received collegiate offers. College coaches are watching the Arrowhead Tour website carefully, both for tournaments scores and points standings, and are often checking with us for recommendations on players and inquiring about grades, test scores, coachability, and character. Naturally, the AJGT cooperates with all of these inquiries.
The Arrowhead Tour has compiled a mass email list of every collegiate golf program in the nation. Several times a year the tour sends the results of events to college coaches by mass email. One such tournament is the Kelly Love Showcase Classic in Destin, Florida, held annually the weekend before Thanksgiving. College coaches are invited to attend this tournament and coaches packets with player contact information and graduation dates area provided for all coaches in attendance. The Showcase Classic is the only “open” event on the AJGT schedule, where non-members are allowed to compete.
Playing College Golf
One of the most common questions asked by members of the Arrowhead Tour is, "How can I get an opportunity to play college golf?" Here are some suggestions that will apply to every AJGT member who seeks a collegiate golf opportunity: -Golf is unlike most high school sports, in that college coaches recruit players from junior tours and junior events moreso than from performances in high school competition. This is necessarily so in golf, because so many high school tournaments are limited to one-day or even nine hole competitions. An event on the Arrowhead Tour will always be a minimum of 36 holes (there will be two 54-hole tournaments and a match play tournament offered in 2008) and competition will often hail from several states. One-day tournaments and club championships are not ranked tournaments and results will rarely draw the attention of college coaches.
-So build your resume by playing in as many tournaments as possible. The more tournaments in which you participate, the more scoring opportunities you have. (Unless you are ill or injured, always finish every event you begin, even if you are playing poorly. College coaches know you'll occasionally have a bad round. The question then becomes, "How do you handle the experience?" Bouncing back from a poor outing with a good performance the next day speaks volumes about your character and mental toughness.) As Rocky Balboa says, "It's simple mathematics." If you play six tournaments a year, you have six chances a year to shoot 67-69-136. If you play
15-20 tournaments a year, you have triple the chances to post impressive numbers that can be listed on a resume.
-Play year-round and plan to travel some. Playing just the high school season and a few summer events will leave you short of experience and exposure. Get out a calendar, look at the AJGT schedule (the new schedule for the upcoming year comes out each November 1st) and circle some events you'd like to play outside your own area. This will also introduce you to "playing out of a suitcase" and provide you with the experience of playing on new courses, oftentimes against new competition. You'll learn to deal with every conceivable lie, encounter every rules question imaginable, negotiate different type courses and putt on different surfaces. Even when you don't score particularly well, you will be gaining something valuable every time you tee it up. In short, you'll become tournament-tested and tournament-tough.
-Expect to play in inclement weather and learn to enjoy it. Many college tournaments are conducted in less than ideal conditions. Your experience on the AJGT will prepare you for 35 mph wind, blistering summer heat, frigid winter air, rain, humidity and everything in between. Remember, when conditions are bad, your chances of winning increase, if only because many people cannot play their best in less than optimum conditions. If you train yourself to be a good bad-weather player, you'll have an inherent advantage in many tournaments and you'll be doing yourself a favor in preparing for similar conditions in collegiate events.
-Be prepared to struggle occasionally and plan on experiencing peaks and valleys in your tournament scoring efforts. Many AJGT players who have received collegiate opportunities owe their success in large part to the fact that they simply kept battling and refused to give up when times were tough. Refrain from comparing yourself with players on the AJGT who are currently scoring better than you. Understand that they didn't start out playing at that level. They, too, took Ben Hogan's advice to heart and "dug it out of the ground." That is, they practiced until they improved. And then they practiced some more. Some of the most successful players in AJGT history,
many of whom have gone on to collegiate golf opportunities, finished last in their first tournament outings at age thirteen and fourteen. Perservere. Perservere. Perservere.
-And practice. Go the extra mile with practice. Get seriously dedicated on the range and on the chipping and putting green. Chip and putt with friends and create games of competition to keep things lively.
-Find a trusted teacher and stick with him/her. Expect to struggle in tournament play when you begin taking lessons from a new teacher and change your swing. Sometimes you go backward before you go forward.
-Get serious about a workout and strength training routine. The stomach is the engine of the golf swing. Keep it toned and flat. The stronger and more fit golfer has an inherent advantage, especially during the final holes of a tournament or in unusually hot conditions.
-Read books about successful golf careers. They inspire us and teach us that everyone starts from scratch and builds and that even the greatest players in the world have overcome adversity, injuries, and long stretches of poor play.
-Send a resume to two dozen colleges or more, preferably in the late spring of your junior year. Your resume should include your tournament scoring record (complete with names of tournaments, yardage played, your scores each day and total scores, and where you placed in the field). Your resume should also include sections on your
academic record (include a list of all advanced placement or honors courses you have taken), including your current and cumulative G.P.A., your ACT and/or SAT scores, and a copy of your official high school transcript; and your community service and extra curricular activities. Add a section on recommendations, listing your high school and your swing coach and their contact information.
-Send your resume to schools of different size and classification. Consider Division III and NAIA schools. Some of the nation's best collegiate institutions fall into these two categories. Some NAIA schools give excellent golf scholarships. Division III schools, while not providing golf scholarships per se, oftentimes offer leadership, presidential and/or academic scholarships to student-athletes who can contribute to their campus in some way. If you're a male, know the type of recruits that each level of collegiate program is seeking. Most Division One Men's
Golf Programs begin with rounds in the sixties and tournaments won as their two first criteria; if you have never won a tournament or never shot a round in the sixties (for boys) in a ranked event, you probably will not be recruited by Division One colleges. Send your resume to Division II, Division III and NAIA schools. If you begin shooting in the 60's and winning ranked events, you can always send resumes to Division I schools at a later date. For female golfers on the AJGT, the number of collegiate opportunities is quite remarkable. Many college golf scholarships for girls go unused each year simply because colleges cannot fill their quota of players.
-Write a cover letter to accompany each resume you send out and address each one to the individual coach at that college, and use the coach's name in the salutation. You might consider the purchase of the Annual Blue Book of College Athletics, which lists all the colleges in North America, their addresses, emails and the school's enrollment and classification (Div. I, Div. II, Div. III, NAIA or Community College), and the names of men's and women's golf coaches. Call 334-263-4436 to order a Blue Book. Most coaches' names and school addresses can be found simply by logging onto to the college's website, going to the menu button for athletics, then finding the Staff Directory. This will usually list the golf coach's name for both men's and women's programs and their emails and direct phone lines and the athletic department mailing address. Usually, you can find the URL for the college simply by spelling out the college and adding ".edu" after the name of the college, as in www.lsu.edu.
-There are two signing periods for golf, one in November and one in April (senior year). If a coach calls you or emails you, it is courteous and professional to respond. If you definitely do not want to attend the school that the coach represents, be honest and tell the coach exactly that, but don't let his/her phone calls and emails go unanswered. Do coaches the courtesy of telling them the truth and allowing them to move on to other potential recruits.
-Try to visit some college campuses with your family when you're an underclassman in high school. When you're
traveling to an AJGT tournament, or on any other trip, swing by and see what the campus atmosphere is like at as many schools as you can. This is a very valuable experience.
-Send color still and action photos to accompany your resume. A picture is worth a thousand words. If you can get a good swing video of yourself, it's worth the effort to have it done and send it out accompanying your resume. Take five or six shots of yourself hitting driver and a mid-iron both from a front shot and a "down the line" shot
from behind you. Take five or six shots of you chipping from fifty or sixty feet, with the camera set up behind the hole so that it shows you, the swing, the ball and the cup. Take five or six shots of you attempting lag putts from thirty feet, again setting up the camera from behind the cup and allowing the video to capture you, the movement and angle of the putter, the ball and the cup. Take five or six shots, using the same angle, of you stroking six-foot putts. Make sure that only one golf ball appears in each of these frames.
-Make yourself as attractive as possible to as many college programs as possible by making the best grades you can. Take the ACT and/or SAT more than once and garner the best score(s) possible. Sometimes college coaches can use academic scholarship money as part of your overall scholarship package.
-Register with the NCAA Clearinghouse at www.ncaaclearinghouse.net.
-If you really want to play college golf, then consider attending a school where you'll get an opportunity to play frequently and soon. It's not about where you go, it's about what you do with the opportunity once it's in your hands. Make the most of it. The PGA and LPGA are full of players who did not play Division One golf in college.
-Keep believing in yourself, especially when things go badly on the course. Your own self-confidence and sense of purpose are your best allies.
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