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: 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: Post Season Play Continues
Two weeks ago I wrote about some of the highlights from the collegiate post-season action. This week and next will finish out the rest of the championships so I just wanted to make sure you stay in the loop on what is happening in the college golf world. 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. Rhodes College won back to back DIII NCAA National Championship titles last week after coming back from a deficit heading into the final round. They had 4 day totals of 301-300-306-310 leading to an average team score of 76.1 Christina Herbert from Bridgewater University won the DIII National [...]
RecruitPKB: What is a Verbal Commitment?
Stay tuned for a full blog about verbal commitments next week.....
RecruitPKB: Questions to Ask Yourself
As many players begin to make their final college decision I wanted to address some questions that are very important to ask yourself to ensure you find the right fit. It's really easy to get wrapped up in the glitz and glamor that you are shown on your campus visit. College recruiting is a business so the school and coach are going to pitch themselves to you just as a sales person would pitch their product or services. It's a decision that will affect the rest of your life, so make sure you look past the "sales pitch" and decide if it's the right place for you to spend the next 4 years of your life. Are you compatible with the coach and other team members? How does the coach interact with the players? How much will you be expected to practice/play each week? How does the [...]
RecruitPKB: 12 Habits of a Successful Jr Golfer
There are a lot of qualities and characteristics that a junior golfer needs to possess beyond their golf scores in order to be successful both on and off the golf course. These are 12 that I consider to be the most important ones: You are coachable - You are willing to listen, try, and change how you do things in order to get better You set goals - You have goals and dreams that make you excited to get up and work hard every day You learn from others - You understand that there is a lot to learn from others who have more experience than you do You use your resources - You utilize all of the tools, people, and education that is available to you in order to get better and make good decisions You plan and prepare - You don’t show up and go [...]