In case you missed this past week's webinar and you are a current 2027 getting ready to start the college recruiting process, you are going to want to watch this episode: Watch Here For more questions, please send them to bjackson@pkbgt.org
I wanted to do a comparison of the difference between a verbal commitment and when you sign a scholarship agreement. A verbal commitment is simply a verbal agreement between the recruit and the current coach. The verbal commitment is not legally binding, however, the scholarship agreement is a legally binding, signed contract between the recruit and that institution for at least one academic year in exchange for receiving athletic aid. The newly implemented scholarship agreement, as opposed to previously used NLIs, does offer more flexibility and freedom to the recruit if needed. A verbal commitment can be made once communication begins on June 15th before junior year, however, a scholarship agreement can not be signed until the signing period begins in November of their senior year. Once the scholarship agreement is signed, all recruiting discussions with other coaches must end. If a recruit has made a verbal [...]
When we say emails have to be specific that does not simply mean you can include the coach’s name and the school name. ❌That doesn’t cut it these days! You also can’t just say “Your facilities are awesome and you have excellent academics” ❌It is likely not going to impress a coach either! You have to show you’ve done some actual research and know some legitimate insight about the school, golf program, and the coach. ✅ Do the research ✅ Do the work ✅ Trust the process If you want to learn more, here is a short Instagram clip I shared on this topic! WATCH HERE
Many times I hear girls and parents say “But I played great during my practice round and shot __ ” but then didn't play well during the tournament, or “I play well when I play at home” and think that compares to rounds at away courses and during competition. Bottomline, is that those are not and never will be the same as tournament golf. The goal is to better prepare for the difference and how you are inherently going to feel and react during tournaments. One way to avoid this scenario is to use practice rounds to learn the course and better prepare for the tournament, not as a time to keep score. This avoids even setting an expectation for a certain score that you "should" shoot during the tournament when conditions change and you are now truly focused on shooting an actual score. Instead, use it [...]
It’s never too early to research schools and golf programs. This will give you an idea of what it takes to play for those programs so you can set goals and get to work! You can check out the team and school websites for both academic and athletic information. And of course, their social media! Golfweek, Golfstat, and Scoreboard by Clippd are great resources for rankings, results, and articles. And when looking at the current players’ scores remember a few things... courses are longer, tougher, and played in fall and spring only and it’s a higher level of pressure and demand that college players are under so scores aren’t exactly reflective of junior golf scores. Also, don’t compare yourself to the 5th player on the team to see what is realistic, coaches are trying to make the team better, which means they need to replace their 2nd [...]
Create a college golf resume. Seems pretty simple right? Wrong. It’s amazing how many resumes I’ve seen that are difficult to read, hard to access, and don’t contain the information a coach needs to begin their initial assessment of you as a potential recruit. I’ve had players send me resumes that don’t even include a single tourney score, the most important stat a coach needs to see is tournament scores and experience! Crazy, right? There are several ways to format resumes that are all acceptable - Documents, PDFs, a personal website, or an online resume service. For the most part, a coach doesn’t care about the format you use, they just need it to be accessible, easy to read, organized, and contain the information they need to see. At a minimum include (please keep in mind, this is just a brief overview of the information needed, if [...]
Are you getting ready to start the college recruiting process? Check out the most recent PKBGT webinar for insight on tackling those initial steps. Understand the NCAA Rules and Eligibility Insight Into Scholarships Scoring Average Standards for Playing in College Creating a Resume and Video Contacting Coaches WATCH HERE -Brandi Jackson, RecruitPKB College Consultant For questions or to schedule your free PKB 30-Minute Initial Consultation send an email to bjackson@pkbgt.org
This past week I hosted a webinar about starting the college recruiting process. While these weren't specific steps I included in that webinar, I wanted to discuss the importance of getting started on the right foot with direction and guidance specific to you, your goals, and your expectations. Through the RecruitPKB Platform, there are 3 ways you can do that so I wanted to go over those ways and why they are so important for the success of the process. Then over the next few weeks, I'll tackle each of the main steps of the recruiting process that I feel are important for a recruit to follow. What is an Evaluation or Consultation and why is it so important? Yes, these are both free and paid services we provide through the RecruitPKB Platform as part of our partnership, but I include this as part of starting the [...]
Learning to be independent is one of the most important factors that college coaches say a junior golfer needs to work on to transition into college golf. You can begin working on this at any age, but some may be difficult until you are able to drive yourself or better understand what you need to do in order to complete the task. Below is a list of different tasks that will help you learn to be more independent as a student, person, and golfer. Please check with your parents before starting any of these tasks. Do your own laundry Sign up for a tournament Pack for a tournament Schedule your own tee time/lesson Call a college coach Clean your golf clubs Buy groceries or create a list Cook dinner Pack your own lunch/snacks Volunteer Drive to a tournament Clean the house Create a weekly schedule Get a [...]
One of the tougher parts about advising young girls through the college recruiting process (and even college grads who come back to me for advice on internships and job interviews) is the rejection and disappointment of not being recruited or offered a scholarship or position on the team. Not having the scores is usually a pretty obvious and understandable reason that can somewhat easily be accepted by a young golfer. But when a young golfer finds out that a friend of theirs, or a rival player, or someone whose scores weren’t as good as theirs, ends up getting recruited or offered then it can be difficult to not take it personally and wonder what you did wrong. Well after over 14 years of working in this industry, I wanted to share some of the reasons and insight into why this might happen and how you can learn [...]
