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 A Guide to Golf ScholarshipsBy Leila Chartrand The path to success in the world of golf is a long and frustrating journey. Each junior golfer who aspires to be on the PGA or LPGA Tour one day must navigate their way carefully through each stage in the world of golf: Junior, Amateur, College and Professional. There are also different levels of College golf: Junior College, NAIA, Division II and Division I. Finding the level that is best suited for you is the first step to a positive College experience.
Step 1:
There are many different routes to getting a scholarship in the United States. The first step is to figure out where you stand in comparison to others on an International level. When I first started playing golf I was eleven years old living in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Although I was young and did not have a lot of experience my handicap dropped drastically to 24 that summer, enough that my father entered me into the Canadian Junior which happened to be in Winnipeg that year. That same summer I qualified to play in the North American UCT Championship in Little Rock, Arkansas where I finished 4th - shooting 85 and breaking 100 for the first time, while playing with Beth Bauer (current LPGA player). As you can see I was playing at a high level on the International scale at an early age. These opportunities set up my junior career where I won three Provincial Junior Championships, and was ranked Top 25 in the U.S on the American Junior Golf Association (AJGA) tour by the time I was sixteen. I quickly discovered that I fell into the Top 10 criteria of Division I schools.
Step 2:
Once juniors have established the level they can compete at, they must start to pick the right tournaments to play in to maximize their exposure to coaches. It is important to play in the U.S before you are sixteen so that coaches can start to notice you at a young age. When I turned sixteen, I had already been playing on the AJGA tour for three years. By the time I was in grade ten, I started to receive letters from Division I schools. At this stage, coaches are NOT allowed to speak to the players at tournaments, but they are permitted to send letters expressing their interest in a junior. I continued to play on the international level, competing in three U.S Juniors and every Canadian Junior, from the age of eleven to eighteen years old.
Step 3:
The game starts to get a bit more stressful once a junior hits grade eleven. This is the year that coaches are allowed to send letters and packages with information about their school and the golf program. It is imperative that the junior pick the tournaments to play in that the coaches will be attending. When I reached grade eleven, I received letters from upwards of seventeen schools. Then July 1st came. The summer before grade 12 on July 1st is a very important day for juniors who are looking to get a scholarship at a top level Division 1 school, as this is the first day coaches can call the juniors. On July 1st - the day after I had just returned from the U.S Junior Qualifier - the phone started ringing at 7am. Throughout the day I had at least six schools call to ask if I would be interested in visiting them on a recruiting trip.
Step 4:
The recruiting summer before grade twelve is the highest level of stress a junior will ever experience. It is important to select tournaments that the coaches will be attending, so they can watch you play. I knew that I had to go to all the big tournaments that summer and I was so nervous, worrying that I wouldn't finish well in the tournaments and disappoint the coaches. I traveled all over the U.S that summer to places like Delaware and Tennessee for the AJGA Girls Championship and the U.S Junior Girls Championship. Although I had a few rough days in the rain in Delaware, I redeemed myself in Tennessee. Coaches from #4-ranked University of Tennessee, #20-ranked USC, and #5-ranked Tulsa all showed up to watch me play on many different occasions.
Step 5:
Under the NCAA rules of recruitment I chose five recruiting trips to different schools. The coaches called me weekly throughout the summer and the beginning of the fall before I started traveling to the schools. Almost every weekend from September to October I would fly out on Friday morning to Los Angeles, Malibu, El Paso, or Tulsa to visit the campus and golf courses for no more than 48 hours, returning home Sunday night. It is important to know that there are a lot of rules in order to protect the athletes. The two major ones that all juniors and parents should be aware of are 1) The coach can only call once a week, so don't be offended if you leave them a message and they don't call back. However, you can call them as many times as you like. 2) You can only take five recruiting trips, remaining on campus for 48 hours, and you cannot receive gifts or bribes. So, if the coach tries to give you a hat on your trip, do not accept it.
Step 6:
Once you have survived your five trips, there are two important times that you need to be aware of: Dead Week and Signing Periods. During Dead Week, coaches cannot contact recruits, so it is important that you do not take a recruiting trip or set foot on a campus during this time. Dead week takes place on a different week in the fall and spring for each sport. Fall and Spring Signing Periods take place Monday-Thursday, usually in November and April. During this time you can sign your "letter of intent". I signed with USC in the fall signing period for golf. I was accepted into USC based on the grades that I had, my SAT scores, and that I would complete my predetermined class schedule. It is important to know that golf almost always signs their top recruits in the fall.
Step 7:
Coaches put a lot of time and effort into organizing their scholarship money. They plan years in advance, scouting out juniors at a young age so that they can save money for the year when there are a lot of promising juniors. However, despite all the planning ahead for a big year of recruits, sometimes the top ranked players take less money so that they can go to the school that fits them both athletically and academically, creating a winning team. One would assume that the top players in the world would get full scholarships, but that's not always the case. The year that I signed my letter of intent, Beth Bauer and Candy Hanneman, the top ranked juniors in the U.S., went to Duke for 50% scholarships because they wanted to create the best team possible, which is exactly why Duke won the NCAA National title in 1999, 2002 and 2005.
Conclusion The recruiting process for a top Division I school, that I have outlined in this article is certainly the most protocol-bound. Recruits at this level are contacted by many coaches; therefore the rules are set by the NCAA to help the recruits through this process without being manipulated or undergoing too much stress. As mentioned at the beginning of the article, there are different divisions of college golf in order to accommodate all levels of junior golfers. It is important to figure out which level you fit into at a young age in order to determine what path you should take to get a scholarship. You do not want to set your heights too high or too low and miss out on an opportunity to play for a great school that fits your personality, skill level, and future aspirations. In order to find your perfect fit, talk to your coach at home, work on a tournament schedule and most of all, do not be afraid to contact schools and express your interest. Coaches receive resumés all the time from hundreds of juniors, so be sure to make yourself stand out and be memorable.
The Brent Morrison Golf Academy is located at Pheasant Glen Golf Resort, 1025 Qualicum Road, Qualicum Beach, B.C. V9K 1M5. (250) 752-8786. For more information on instruction programs for adults and juniors, contact the Academy office. |
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