JR Smith Wants to Join College Golf Team

[Carl3]

I think this is wonderful for a number of reasons:

It is inspiring to older people...that they can change the trajectory of their life

Gives pause to the young, jock mindset of dribbling a basketball until you hit the "big time". It clearly wasn't enough for this person. We wanted more and took action.

Many are feeling bad for the kid whose spot he took on the golf team, but what about the ones who get to play with him? If this guy has a 5 HI, the kid he beat should probably be cracking a book anyhow and not wasting time fantasizing about playing on tour. He probably did this kid a favor. But the ones who get to play and practice side by side with him get to see excellence in action. They get to rub shoulders with a phenomenal athlete who reached the apex.

[lastings]

I doubt he really took someone's spot on the team.   really probably good enough to earn it.   

I would say his 5-handicap is pretty legit, given the fact that he just shot 83-78 in his first ever competitive tournament.     Given that he has never played on a golf team before, hasn't been grinding out tournaments for the past few years like other college freshmen have, I think any coach would believe that he has a much higher ceiling than other low single digit handicap players that are competing for that spot on the team.   

Not only that, but he wasn't handed his spot to play in the Elon Phoenix invitational.   He did earn it by qualifying through NC A&Ts qualifying tournament.     He did beat other D1 golfers on his team to get there.   

Good for him, man.   

 

[Double Mocha Man]

One thing for sure:  He'll lead College Division I in tats.

On a more serious note I somehow ran afoul of college eligibility rules once.  Played 3 years on athletic/golf scholarship at SIU.  Then went out into the real world for 4 years, then back to college at another university in Colorado.  On a lark I called the golf coach to see if I could join the team, thinking I had one year of eligibility left.  The conversation was convoluted, can't exactly remember his reasoning, but I was not allowed to join the team.  I would have led the league in no tats.

[iacas]

2 hours ago, Double Mocha Man said:

One thing for sure:  He'll lead College Division I in tats.

On a more serious note I somehow ran afoul of college eligibility rules once.  Played 3 years on athletic/golf scholarship at SIU.  Then went out into the real world for 4 years, then back to college at another university in Colorado.  On a lark I called the golf coach to see if I could join the team, thinking I had one year of eligibility left.  The conversation was convoluted, can't exactly remember his reasoning, but I was not allowed to join the team.  I would have led the league in no tats.

You probably still had eligibility.

The most basic level is this: you have eligibility until you're done with your tenth semester of school. I've had students enter the workforce after four years of college, then come back for a Masters or something and they're eligible.

I don't think the DI rules differ much from DIII in this area.

[Double Mocha Man]

30 minutes ago, iacas said:

... you have eligibility until you're done with your tenth semester of school.

That might have been the issue.  The colleges I attended were all on the Quarter system.  When I was talking to that golf coach I already had 13 Quarters under my belt.  And 208 credit hours.  As I recall, on the Quarter system, 180 hours generally gets you a degree.

[iacas]

1 minute ago, Double Mocha Man said:

That might have been the issue.  The colleges I attended were all on the Quarter system.  When I was talking to that golf coach I already had 13 Quarters under my belt.  And 208 credit hours.  As I recall, on the Quarter system, 180 hours generally gets you a degree.

I went to a college with quarters, too (summer was the fourth quarter, almost nobody did it, so it was effectively trimesters). They adjust, so you'd have until the end of your 20th quarter (assuming it wasn't counting summers).

If they went by 10 quarters people would be ineligible part-way through their junior year.

[Double Mocha Man]

6 minutes ago, iacas said:

I went to a college with quarters, too (summer was the fourth quarter, almost nobody did it, so it was effectively trimesters). They adjust, so you'd have until the end of your 20th quarter (assuming it wasn't counting summers).

If they went by 10 quarters people would be ineligible part-way through their junior year.

Well, it all turned out for the best.  Instead of getting frustrated playing golf I played city league softball (hit for high average shortstop), and put in a lot of time backpacking and skiing in the Rockies.  Pretty good trade-off.

[boogielicious]

Here’s a 63 year old woman who doing something similar. She never went to college before, so there is no eligibility issue.

Meet the 63-year-old college athlete with a killer golf swing

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Debbie Blount is a 63-year-old sophomore at Reinhardt University and a beloved member of the women's golf team. As one of the oldest student athletes in the US, her friends call her "Ancient Eagle," after Reinhardt's...