I recently had a discussion about the number of schools a recruit should contact. Typically when a player shows me a list of 20-30 schools, the majority, if not all of them are unrealistic for the given recruiting timeline.

While I am an advocate for having big goals that you have to work hard to achieve and reaching out to some dream schools, you have to be cautious about what percentage of dream schools vs realistic schools you have on your list. This not only leads to a lack of coach responses and interest, but it also creates a lot of anxiety and a decrease in confidence.

In my recruiting content, I always say to contact 50+ schools but as with most parts of this process that is dependent on many factors. The reason I use that number is for the average player who is doing this process on their own, without knowledgeable or reliable guidance, I have seen this same trend of what happens if they create a list of less than that.

When I am providing general advice and tips on steps of the process I am trying to consider what most players will tend to do and why they may not get the coach responses they are expecting. So if a player takes the time to initially contact 50 or more, then hopefully they expand their reach to include at least 15-20 realistic options in order to then have 7-10 programs that they can focus on. I certainly do not expect a recruit to maintain communication with that many coaches. I just want them to initially cast a big enough net to generate enough interest to find the right fit.

Also, the better the player’s resume, the better odds they can keep their list small initially and still find those 7-10 programs to focus on, but without a really strong golf resume, the odds of contacting enough realistic options for most players is usually low and leads to frustration and lack of confidence.

For more information on the college recruiting process, you can contact RecruitPKB Consultant Brandi Jackson at bjackson@pkbgt.org