RecruitPKB: Team Roster
Seems pretty easy but it's surprising how little a recruit pays attention to the team roster. Here are a few tips on what to look for: 🔹 How many players are on the roster? 🔹 How many seniors would leave the year before you would join the team? 🔹 Did those seniors contribute to the team? 🔹 Are there international players on the team? 🔹 If so, what percentage of the team is international? 🔹 Are there more in-state or out of state players on the team? 🔹 What are the other junior golf bios of the players on the team? These are just a few general tips for what to pay attention to when looking at the team's roster. - While you can learn a lot from the roster there are also a lot of variables that you won't know, such as, how the scholarships are divided, if the program is fully funded [...]
RecruitPKB: College Coaches Gut Feeling
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 [...]
RecruitPKB: Q and A with Georgia Southern Coach
Recruit PKB College Consultant Brandi Jackson recently caught up with Georgia Southern Women's Head Coach Emily Kuhfeld to get her thoughts on the college recruiting process and her own coaching philosophy. What is your own coaching philosophy? My coaching philosophy is to help my players build their characters, understand time management, and encourage and inspire them by having unlimited belief in each of them. My college coach was equal parts believe in us, love us and push us to be our best, and I really look up to her in what kind of coach I want to be. What do you love about being a college coach? I love Coaching for so many reasons. The relationships with my players and their families, helping them improve on and off the course, being ‘in the hunt’ in competition with them, and being able to work for a wonderful University [...]
RecruitPKB: My Mom Wants to Share Her Side of the Story
My mom wanted to share her side of the story as she watched me grow up in the junior golf world, then move on to college and professional golf. She thought this might help a junior golf parent better understand the big picture of what junior golf and college golf is all about.  Brandi Jackson, I think it’s time for your Mom to speak up.  So, if you will, indulge me for a few minutes.  First, let me say how very proud I am of the professional that Brandi has become.  She pours her heart and soul into her business and everything that she does.  I see this more and more every day.  Quite often as we make plans for family trips, or even simply to meet her for dinner, we know that the plans have to be made around her schedule of meeting with [...]
RecruitPKB: A College Player’s Perspective Part 2
Louise Oxner recently graduated from the University of Louisville where she played collegiate golf all 4 years. Louise played junior golf in SC and was a member of the PKBGT. I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to consult Louise on her college recruiting and we have maintained a friendship ever since. I sat down with Louise for lunch a couple of weeks ago while she was in town to catch up on her post-college plans. I also asked her to share some thoughts on her experience of playing college golf and what advice she would have for junior golfers going through the process. What did you learn the most about playing college golf? I have learned how to manage my time more efficiently and how to make better decisions on my own. I definitely feel like I make better decisions on the golf course and [...]
RecruitPKB: A College Player’s Perspective
Last week I shared some insight from Howard Bertram, who's daughter Sarah played on the PKBGT, before playing college golf at Gardner-Webb University. I asked Sarah to share her thoughts on her college golf experience. What did you learn the most from playing college golf? Through golf, I learned to look beyond just the game itself. From my experience, I remember the van rides, silly trick shot sessions, and spending time with my teammates in countless hotel rooms more than actually playing golf. Though golf is important (it got me to where I am today), the lifelong friendships and memories I have made along the way are what I value the most. Looking back, the things that seem little at the time are actually the big things.  How was your school, coach, and team a good fit for you? First and foremost, Gardner-Webb is a Christian [...]
RecruitPKB: A College Parent’s Perspective
I met Sarah Bertram and her father, Howard, during her junior year of high school. She had done a little work with the college recruiting process but had not gotten very far at that stage and she was one of those late arrivers to the game so we had a few things working against us. We did her evaluation, put her resume together and got going ASAP. After months of searching, emailing and visiting colleges she found her home at Gardner-Webb University, a DI school in Boiling Spring, NC with 2700 students. I was able to follow her college golf career, mostly through social media and her dad, which we all know social media can be a tad misleading at times when it comes to someone being happy or not. Thankfully, Sarah had an amazing 4 years of playing college golf! I asked her dad to share [...]
Recruit PKB: College Golf Wraps Up
This week wraps up the college golf season for the women. I hope you all took the time to follow the results and maybe even watched the coverage on the Golf Channel of the DI National Championships. If you didn't keep up here are some highlights from what took place over the past week. One of the best ways to connect with a college coach is to keep up with what the team has going on. You can follow their social media and keep track through Golfweek and Golfstat. So for a little insight here is what has been happening in the college golf world. Barry University took home the women's DII National Championship by just a single stroke margin over Dallas Baptist University. The Barry team carded a 4 day total of 1,222 which is a team average of 76.375. After a rough few days of [...]
RecruitPKB: Find Your WHY
Motivation can be tough at times for athletes of all levels. You can get tired, burned out, frustrated or simply just lose focus. To help make sure you stay motivated everyday take the time to figure out your "why". Why do you play golf? Why do you practice? Why do you play tournaments? There isn't necessarily a right or wrong reason but everybody needs to know their why. For some athletes it's more of an internal reason such as the competitiveness, for others it's for an external reason or reward such as a golf scholarship. Take some time to think about yourself and your golf game and figure out your own personal "why". Make sure that its yours and not your parents or your friends. It has to be a reason that means something to you and makes you wake up everyday and want to get better. Write it on your bathroom mirror [...]