Last week I shared a Q and A that I asked the Georgia Southern Women’s Golf Coach, Emily Kuhfeld, to submit for me. She shared some great answers so if you missed that please go check it out HERE.

I was reading over her answers and there was one that stood out to me that I wanted to elaborate on a bit more for all of you. 

When I asked Coach Kuhfeld about questions that she uses to help her determine if a player is a good fit or not this was her response

“There is also a part of recruiting which is hard to explain; it is almost like a gut reaction to the player. I listen to myself on this, and what kind of overall feeling I get with the bond between myself and the recruit.”

This is probably one of the best ways to explain why some things happen the way they do during the process that seems to have no explanation.

I get asked quite often about why a particular player was recruited over another player when their scores and resume might not have been as good.

While, yes, recruiting a player is a lot about tournament results and numbers, there is also a major factor that is considered that can’t always be explained. It’s just a gut feeling a coach has towards a certain personality or temperament.

This doesn’t mean the player necessarily did anything wrong or wasn’t good enough, it just means the feeling wasn’t there from the coach that they would make a good match.

Especially for coaches who have been doing this for years, they’ve learned to see past things and dissect certain answers that a player gives on a visit or during communication. They watch habits and tendencies on the course that tells them a lot about the player’s personality and potential.

Each coach has different opinions and approaches to the type of player they like the best, so don’t always take it personally if a coach says they’re going another direction or it just isn’t a good fit.

Yes, it may mean they don’t think you’re good enough, or you may have done something wrong through the process that you need to work on but many times it simply means they had a gut feeling you just weren’t a good fit for them, the school, or the team.

My guess is that you will feel the exact same way towards some of the coaches and players that you meet, you probably feel that same way with classmates and teammates. We are all different and we all get along in different ways. Coaches have to consider what is best for them and the team environment more than anything else and they have a lot more experience at figuring that out than recruits do!