High School Golf Teams

It's obviously dependent on the individual school, demographics, and the difficulty of the course they're playing, but in a large, golf oriented area like So Cal, yep, they're that good.

I agree w/ David that there is a very deep talent pool in S Cal, so par for a varsity squad is not unreasonable. Plus, If not enough kids make that cut to fill the roster, I imagine they will take the next lowest kids in ascending order.

In my area there is nowhere near the population or depth as S Cal so my son's HS has only one team, and I saw a few kids on the team who looked barely able to break 90.

Basically depends on where you live. In warm weather state you have to be very good. Here, in Indiana, I'm the best on the team and I shoot even par sometimes, never shot under though. Some kids on the team shoot in the 140's if we were to play 18 holes with them. NOT KIDDING.  We are lucky to have a good group who shoot in the high 30's low 40's consistently and that is why we only lose a couple matches per year. Doesn't help that our rival school has kids that are god like at golf. We keep around 10-12 kids on the team. Only 5 of us are any good though. We have about 500 kids in the school

Well, that's a pretty dang good highschool team.  If he makes the team, playing regularly with that group will undoubtedly make him much better.  I was a 1/2 player on my HS team; for us posting a single-day score of 300 or better (4 of 5 players averaging 75 or better) was a heck of a day, but we did it about 1 in 6 or 7 times.  Surely they didn't just play a single 9-hole qualifier though?

I grew up in Central, Ohio.  And played all four years of high school golf.  While we didn't have USGA handicaps, we had official scoring averages that our coach maintained for 9 holes.  My Freshman year, I played on the Jr. Varsity team with a scoring average of 46 on a Par 36.  Then my Sophmore season I made the Varsity team - was our #5 man with a 39 scoring average... I actually received the most improved award by our coach.  Then Jr and Sr years I was our #2 man with a 37 scoring average (+1).  

Our team won our league championship back to back my Jr and Sr year... And we made it to Districts as a team in my Sr year but failed to qualify for State Championships.  Our #1 man was averaging 35 or -1 Par and our #6 man was averaging 39.  We were a very good team for our area... But there were even better players and squads.  Golf can be very competitive, even in HS... And this was back in the mid 90's.  With parents getting kids to focus on one sport, I'd imagine there are elite fields of HS players today.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jeramydavid 

Those numbers seem really low to me. I understand its relative to the course played, and pressure of the round. Food for thought...

http://www.mhsaa.com/Portals/0/Documents/BGF/2012%20LP/2012-Boys-D1.txt

That is a link to the two day results for Michigan's 2012 hs division 1 boys golf state finals. Of the two days, only two guys had rounds breaking par. This is the best high school golfers in the state.

Yeah, and tournament golf - especially a State championship tournament is setup a lot harder - and more pressure than a normal HS golf event/round.  

Quote:

Originally Posted by jeramydavid 

I definately understand that pressure. But if you look at their scoring averages they are all above par. I recently viewed UofMs men's golf stats... (keep in mind they are probably one of the lowest ranked big ten teams) This years roster is full of golfers all have scoring averages well above par. Then I read about the three newest recruits for next year... All three high school golfers, 2 hs state champions, one ranked number one in the state for Michigan (40 in the country) another ranked number one in Montana (48 in the country) they have scoring averages of 73 and 74.

Reading those numbers I am surprised the thread starters son was cut from his high school team. And that the varsity cut line for one 9 hole round was par.

Realize that HS golf - at least when I played, we played courses on the forward tee's.  I don't have the exact numbers, but believe it was anything around 6,500 yards was average.  When you go to the main tournaments, the courses are often much longer - and setup significantly harder than the average HS golf round played on XYZ course.

Then college golf... They play from the tips.  And they aren't playing the typical muni.  They are playing a lot tougher tracks.... From the tips.  Setup for tournament conditions - tight pins, etc. etc.

It is a different animal.