Recruit PKB: College Coaches Advice to Parents

  What advice would you give parents to better support their kids throughout junior golf? "Don't make decisions or discourage the decisions your children make. Help them learn how to do things for themselves." - D1 Men's and Women's Coach "Let the kid push themselves because in golf you need to be self-motivated once you get to college golf" - D1 Women's Coach "Let them be responsible for themselves, making schedules, filling out applications" - D1 Men's Coach "Stay out of the way and don't interfere with golf swings. Let the instructor or coach deal with it and let it be their responsibility" - D2 Men's and Women's Coach "Parents need to realize that not every kid is going to be a superstar, in fact, most often, their child will excel when they play a supportive role behind the scenes." - D1 Women's Coach How much of [...]

By |2018-07-26T11:24:19-04:00August 2nd, 2018|College Recruiting Articles|0 Comments
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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 [...]

By |2017-09-13T11:48:14-04:00June 1st, 2017|College Recruiting Articles|0 Comments
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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 [...]

By |2017-09-13T11:44:42-04:00March 1st, 2017|College Recruiting Articles|0 Comments
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RecruitPKB: Love Yourself

As I am sure everyone was aware, this past week was all about LOVE! And while Valentine's Day is more about showing your love to others, I wanted to take the chance to remind you about the importance of loving yourself but also possessing the willingness to become a better version of who you are.  There is no doubt that you have to love who you are, some days may be harder than others to do this, but you must find the power to still love who you are at the end of the day. With that being said, there is absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to be a better version of who YOU are and what you want with your life. It should actually be a priority!!   Maturity and discipline are two things I have always struggled with in my life, not that there is anything [...]

By |2017-09-13T11:44:43-04:00February 16th, 2017|College Recruiting Articles|0 Comments
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RecruitPKB: Parent Role in College Recruiting Part 2

Part 2 in the Parent Role in College Recruiting series will cover the topic of "Parent's Role at Tournaments from a Coach's Perspective". This week we will cover your role at tournaments from the perspective of a college coach. Coaches are watching the parents as much as they are the recruits at tournaments. They understand how much of an influence a parent can have on their child's golf game and what behaviors they may have to deal with if that player comes to their university. A few red flags that coaches are looking for with parent behavior include: Hovering while the player is warming up or during post round practice Getting upset over bad shots or bad rounds Walking away while other players in the group are still hitting Conversing too much with your child on the golf course Over-excitement A few positive behaviors that coaches like [...]

By |2017-09-13T11:49:02-04:00January 5th, 2017|College Recruiting Articles|0 Comments
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RecruitPKB: Parent Role in College Recruiting Part 1

While this can be a very sensitive subject with many parents, it is an extremely vital part of the recruiting process. Part 1 in the Parent Role in College Recruiting series will cover the topic of "how to support your junior golfer without being overbearing". I have been asked this question numerous times from parents who are concerned with doing enough to push their son/daughter to get better but not so much that they drive them away from the game or develop resentment. While I am not a parent myself, I have been able to experience golf from several different viewpoints and learned a tremendous amount from each. Being an adult and working with both the junior golfers and their parents, I now have a huge level of respect for the sacrifices, commitment, and frustrations that a parent must face in order to help their child be [...]

By |2017-09-13T11:49:03-04:00December 15th, 2016|College Recruiting Articles|1 Comment
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RecruitPKB: A Must Watch Video for Parents

This week is Junior Golf Week on the Golf Channel and an interview they conducted with Jon Gordon really caught my attention so I wanted to share the clip along with a few of my own thoughts in regards to what he is referencing. Here is the LINK to that clip so check it out first. I am sure each of you got something different from what he talked about but hopefully, it resonated a little with how you see your daughter's junior golf experience. Here are my two favorite quotes that he mentioned which relate to many of the questions I get asked about competitive junior golf, parenting, and the recruiting process. "You can't drive anyone else's bus, you have to encourage and inspire them to drive their own bus" I know it's tough to want the best for your daughter and know the impact that playing [...]

By |2017-09-13T11:44:44-04:00October 21st, 2016|College Recruiting Articles|0 Comments
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RecruitPKB: What You Can Learn From Sept 1st

Now that the excitement of September 1st has worn off a bit I want to take the time to address a few things that you can learn from the communication you received (or didn't receive) on September 1st and how it can be a lesson for your own communication with the coaches. Mass email vs Personalized Email: Many of my players forwarded emails they received from coaches with excitement, unfortunately, those same emails were sent out to several others players that I consult. Keep this in mind when reading the emails, if there is nothing personal in the email (just your name does not count as personalized) then it may mean you are not a high priority on that coaches list. It does not necessarily mean that the coach isn't interested and they may simply be trying to find out who replies back but do know that [...]

By |2017-09-13T11:49:04-04:00September 15th, 2016|College Recruiting Articles|0 Comments
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RecruitPKB: College Coach Panel

          During the PKB Open Championships, we hosted a Recruit PKB College Coach Panel where the ECU, UNCW, UNCG, Western Carolina, UNC-Pembroke and Catawba coaches all participated. I wanted to share a little insight about some topics that were discussed during the panel. First, as many questions pertaining to the contact rules were asked during the panel I want to direct you to one of my blogs which addresses some of the important NCAA rules that you need to be aware of through the process. You can read them HERE. Top questions from the panel: "What are some of the mistakes you see players make?" - Asking a coach to return a call or email when the rules don't allow it - Not identifying your full name and graduation year - Always trying to call a coach in their office during the afternoon [...]

By |2017-09-13T11:49:06-04:00June 1st, 2016|College Recruiting Articles|0 Comments
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