Trying to play college golf

Hey everyone, my name is Matt, I am 16 years old, and I am looking to play golf in college in two years. A little bit of background; I started golfing two years ago and have improved to a single digit handicap, an 8 (I know my profile says 14 but I don't know how to update  that). I play most of the summer at local courses, and I am a member of my high school's varsity golf team. I'm just wondering if any of you have any tips to improve in golf and to have a better chance of being noticed by colleges (any college, not just D1). Thanks!

Hi, Matt.  My best suggestion is to start a My Swing tread and let the experts here assess your swing.  They will be in a position to make suggestions about areas to work on.  And there is tons of info on the site about how then to attack those things they think you should work on.

Also, do not neglect your studies.  My niece was a very good soccer player and although she went to a d2 school that dd not have soccer scholarships, her academics were strong enough for them to give her quite a decent academic scholarship motivated, in part, by their desire to have her play soccer for them,  So it is possible, with good academics, to get a scholarship partly based on the strength of your athletic performance even though it is not an athletic scholarship.

At 8 HI now, he has a way to go before getting noticed by colleges.  My suggestion to the OP is that he hit the books, and get into a college with a golf program and take a chance of making the team as a walk on.  That assumes he continues to improve on golf and get that HI lowered to near 0 or better.   My 2 cents.  Good luck and best wishes to the OP.

http://www.collegegolfcombines.com/

You need to get it down to at least a 5 and you can play D3 no problem. E-mailing coaches helps. You can go play at these schools now:

http://www.eureka.edu/athletics/eureka-athletics/

https://blackburn.edu/athletics/

To get noticed by colleges you need to play in high level summer tournaments, preferably those hosted by the AJGA. I don't know where you're located, but I know Colorado has the RMJGT and CJGA as well, and many states have a junior golf association that will host tournaments throughout the summers.

These tournaments are critical because they show golf coaches how well your golf game performs when you are on more challenging courses. I know the high school tournaments that I played in were mostly jokes. Every par five was reachable, most with a driver and a mid to long iron, the yardages never went above 6700 until the regional and state tournaments, and the green speed only approached 11 or higher at one tournament outside of regionals and state. At these summer tournaments you will usually play from 7000 yards or longer, with green speeds between 11 and 13 depending on the course. They are much more challenging with stiffer competition since players usually travel further, and these are the tournaments that college coaches are looking at.

For Division III schools, you want to be able to shoot consistently in the 80's to make the team (under the course conditions I described earlier). If you can shoot low 80's with the occasional round in the 70's mixed in you'll probably end up the #1 player on the team if you go to an average DIII school.

For Division II schools you will want to be scoring consistently in the 70's under the course conditions described. I am currently planning on going to (and playing at) a division II school next fall, and I probably fall right into about the middle of the pack for the players you'll find at that level. The depth of these teams does vary however, with most having their lower players averaging in the low 80's.

For most Division I schools you will need to be scoring consistently in the low 70's to high 60's. This is where it gets highly competitive since even the seventh or eighth guy on the team will usually be capable of beating the number one player on a given day, but the number one player on these teams is usually the guy who has the potential to score in the mid 60's but will pretty much never shoot above a 75.

The scoring average for top players in D3 is roughly 2 strokes higher than D2, which is roughly 2 strokes higher than D1. To be number one player on most D3 schools you are averaging a minimum of 76. 74 for D2, 72 for D1. #5 player is the guy who shoots low 80's, occasionally a round in the 70s for D3.

I don't know what DIII schools you've been looking at, but at least 10 of them have written me letters about how they say I can go there and be their starting player for four years, then I look at their scores and see the entire team in the 80's (which is besides the point since most DIII schools don't have an engineering program). I would say the average DIII school is probably around what I stated, with the ones that focus a bit more on athletics scoring where you posted.

Another thing you can do is play in the state amateur or city amateur tournament's and try and make the cut. A friend of mine is a scratch golfer and will be playing mid level D1 golf on the east coast but he is really trying to get some attention from higher D1 schools in the south this year by playing in the Houston amateur tournament and the Texas something something tournament.

Everybody that's telling you to play in tournaments is correct. (Played 2 years in college, but at my best I was only a 4/5 on my team).  That being said, start local and build your confidence, b/c in a state like CO, you could go play in your state juniors and run into some kids that can shoot high 60's every round with their eyes closed.  Also, find you a course that's at least 6800 yards.  If you can consistently shoot sub 80, then you're making progress.

I don't know what schools you've been recruited by, but most schools take their programs a little more serious. They are recruiting with letters... at a 2.3 handicap, you could be a starting player, but you won't be the number one player on every team out there.  That is true that most D3 Schools don't have an engineering program though.

http://athletics.anderson.edu/documents/2014/9/18//Transy_MG_Ind.pdf?id=376

http://www.golfstat.com/schedule/global_tournament_results.cfm?tid=29966

http://www.golfstat.com/schedule/global_tournament_results.cfm?tid=30082

just a few scores to look at for D3. While yes, at the bottom of the barrel there are kids shooting in the 100's, but you said you could be the number one player at a school shooting 80's and maybe a round here and there in the 70's. MAYBE a school that just graduated a few of their good players or a new program starting up, but you will be at a school who doesn't take golf seriously and spends practically no money on travel or school. They play their minimum rounds and they participate in the conference tourney. They don't have set practice schedules. These scores are from your "average" D3 schools. Here are some from your top-tier schools:

http://www.golfstat.com/schedule/global_tournament_results.cfm?tid=29959

http://www.golfstat.com/schedule/global_tournament_results.cfm?tid=30181

Anyways- I think that he does have chance to play D3 and if he can get to a 6 handicap at a lower level D3 school he could play.

That was exactly my point, to try and represent the "average" D3 schools. Sorry if my representation was off, but that was what I had from reading the recruiting letters and looking up scores from the schools that contacted me.

Which is why my advice to him was to start doing his research, be proactive, and start reaching out to the coaches to see where he needs to be to make the teams at the schools he's interested in attending. Regardless what his current level is, the coaches will tell him where he needs to be (versus everyone on here making guesses)... And bonus, they will now know who he is.

Hello everyone, my name is Matt and my goal is one day to play in one PGA or European tour event, not necessarily getting a pga tour card (but that would be nice). So now for my golfing background. I am a high-school sophomore, and I do play on the Varsity golf team. I have been playing for 2 years now, so I know I am behind a lot of kids. I play golf everyday either at a range, short game area, or actually playing. I have not played in many tournaments, but I do play money games pretty much every time I play (I know, not the same thing, but its the most pressure I've been under besides the school matches). In school I take all honors classes and have close to a 4.0gpa.

My golf-game specifics:

Driver distance: 250

7-iron: 155-165

pitching wedge: 125-135

(This is all according to golf stat-trackers I use)

I have a driving accuracy of 64% (23% miss left, 13%right)

I hit 38% GIR, and take 2.0 putts per green

I average a score of 84 on a variety of courses, usually anywhere from 5500 yards to 6100+, and I usually shoot roughly the same on the courses regardless of the length, so I know I need to work on my short game a lot.

My plans for the future in golf: I have 2 more years of high-school where I want to get down to at least a 3 handicap which will be hard, but I think that will be necessary to be able to achieve my goals. I also will start playing in tournaments to get a better feel for pressure, and just see how my scores stand up in competition. I also do want to play in college, and I believe my grades will be good enough to help in the process (I have a good GPA, won some academic contests, etc.). I know D1 is probably too difficult to get into, but low D2 or D3 would at least allow me to work on my game in good practice facilities. After that, if I am somehow good enough to play professional golf, I would, but I think I would try to Monday Qualify for some events.

Thanks for reading all this, and if there is any advice, encouragement, or other comments you could give me that would be much appreciated. I will try to update this periodically with the status of my goals (scores, stats, other miscellaneous things), so thanks again and please wish me luck!

I noticed in your post history you posted a similar thread about two weeks ago. You really ought to reply in that thread and interact with some of the others users who have already offered you some good advice and comments. Good Luck with your game.

If you want to be looked at by colleges you need to start playing longer courses. All the varsity courses I have played this year have been over 6600 and the one we played today for our big tournament was 7100 but played like 7400 with the wet ground. Also I am guessing you will grow more since you are a sophomore so just work on your swing mechanics and start hitting more greens. The most effective way to lower your score is to hit more greens.