I serve as a guest blogger for WomensGolf.com and they recently asked me to write an article about my experiences from playing on tour. I thought I would share that as part of my Recruit PKB article this week. I hope you enjoy some of the stories and lessons from a few of my favorite experiences both on the LPGA and Symetra Tour. You can read all about them HERE.
There is a lot of information out there about what it takes to play golf in college, the scholarship opportunities and what you need to be doing in regards to the recruiting process, but I thought I would take a few minutes and give you some insight on things you may be doing or not doing that could ruin your college scholarship chances. Here are a few of the things you need to know so that you don’t cost yourself the chance to play in college and hopefully earn some scholarship money Poor Grades – For those junior golfers who struggle to keep their grades up in high school, it could be grounds for not receiving a golf scholarship. Poor grades are a red flag for a college coach that you may lack the time management and discipline needed to play golf in college. College life is [...]
I have re-posted almost every blog that Coach Sutherland from SMU has written because the information is so insightful and valuable for junior golf families. I was honored to have her complete an interview for me last year which you can find Part 1 and Part 2. But this week she shared some details about the team's practice schedule that should give you some great ideas on how to set up your practice as well. You can check out the article HERE. Personally, this article was very satisfying for me to read as I just started a 4-week challenge with my full-time players that included some very similar drills that Coach Sutherland uses in her practice. The girls have a specific plan of action each week, they track their results, they WRITE THEM DOWN, they work on their weaknesses, and they have something specific to focus on improving the [...]
"7 in 10 girls believe they are not good enough or do not measure up in some way, including their looks, performance in school and relationships with family and friends." – Real Girls, Real Pressure: National Report on the State of Self-Esteem, Dove Self-Esteem Fund As we recently celebrated the universal day for "showing love" it got me thinking about the importance of also learning to love yourself. No, I'm not talking about the theme behind the new Justin Bieber song "Love Yourself". I am not encouraging you to love yourself to the point of being conceited or thinking that you are better than anybody else, but it is extremely important to simply love yourself. I know as a young pre-teen or teenager this is a very hard concept to grasp. You are going through different stages of maturity, you are dealing with different social environments, you [...]
Over the weekend, I traveled to DC to be the guest speaker during the Mid-Atlantic College Golf Day at Congressional CC. I was honored and excited to join a group of great coaches that included the Virginia Tech men's head coach, Marshall women's head coach, Towson men's and women's head coach, Naval Academy men's head coach, Bridgewater College coach, McDaniel College coach, Shenandoah University coach and several others. After presenting my talk, I was fortunate to have the chance to sit in on the breakout sessions that were led by the college coaches and I wanted to take a few minutes to share some of the highlights of those sessions that I feel would be valuable information for you. When comparing your scores as a junior golfer to a collegiate player's scores you should add 4-5 shots more to make it a fair comparison. Courses aren't just longer but they are [...]
Almost every camp that I host I will include a session that requires the girls to tap into their creative side. Many times the girls think I am crazy for the ideas I come up with but it's always fun to see how each player approaches the activity. You may not realize how important it is to be creative as a golfer but it is a crucial skill necessary for success on the golf course. No this does not mean you have to be an artist or be good at arts and craft, but tapping into your creative side can really help you develop better feel and touch around the greens, it will help you see shots and shape them better, it will help you assess situations when you are in trouble and figure out your best options for getting out of it. It will also help [...]
One of the best ways to retrain your mind on the golf course is to always think about what you want to "do" and never about what you "don't" want to do. This may seem like such a simple concept but if you start to pay close attention you would be amazed at how many times you think in the "don't" sense instead of the "do". How many times do you tell yourself "don't leave this putt short"? Then you proceed to either leave it short or knock it 5ft by the hole. Or you tell yourself, "don't hit in the hazard". Then you proceed to either hit in the hazard or you hook/block a shot to avoid it. According to Bob Rotella, "the brain doesn't understand don't". When you tell your brain not to do something you are actually putting a more visual focus on that [...]
Join RecruitPKB College Consultant Brandi Jackson for a One-Day Game Assessment & RecruitPKB College Recruiting Workshop on Monday, February 15th, following the Rocket Tour Players at University of Georgia Golf Course. The workshop will be conducted at the UGA Collegiate Golf facilities and the schedule will include: 8:30-9:00: Check In 9:00-10:00: Game Planning for 2016 Session (parents asked to attend): Small group discussion of tournament scheduling, travel tips, navigating the rankings, goal setting, time management 10:00-11:30: Short Game Assessment: Calculated measuring system to determine a player's current short game ability and provide a trackable chart for improvement with recommendations 11:30-12:00: Goal setting session: Girls will complete a specific goal setting exercise and have the opportunity to build their own vision board 12:00-12:30: Lunch 12:30-1:00: Golf Nutrition and Fitness: Understand the importance of proper nutrition on and off the golf course, plus some general golf specific exercises and warm up routines 1:00-2:30: [...]
This article is part of guest series to the RecruitPKB "Complete Golfer" program by Chris Finn, owner of Par4Success in Cary, North Carolina. --- RecruitPKB Perform: Warm-up For Injury Free Power With the season underway I have been getting a lot of questions in the past month about what my juniors can do to increase their distance in the short term while their strength is improving over the long term. I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to answer the loaded question with one of the many options as my response is usually, “Well, it depends.” There was a study done recently that looked at the effects of how golfers warmed up and what effect that had on their power output, if any. The study started by having everyone go out and hit golf balls without a warm up and their performance was measured. The next day, the [...]
As we kick off 2016, it’s the perfect time to set your goals for the new year. But by “goals”, I don’t just mean your New Year’s resolutions stating that you want to do something better next year, I am talking about very specific process goals. Yes, you need big picture outcome goals such as scoring milestones, tournament finishes, your dream university, etc to keep you motivated and driven to reach the end result that you are working towards, but when setting goals you need to be very specific in what you need to do day in and day out, week in and week out, in order to achieve those big outcome goals. I had a lesson in goal setting myself recently that I thought I would share to help encourage you to set your goals for 2016. All the way back to my college golf days, [...]
