I want to wish you a very Merry Christmas! It's been another awesome year as the RecruitPKB College Consultant to provide education and insight on the college recruiting process. Thank you for letting me be a part of your journey! If you would like to take advantage of the holiday break you can still schedule your free 30-minute consultation. Please email me at bjackson@pkbgt.org to get that setup!
I just want to take the time to wish you and your family a very Happy Thanksgiving! I am thankful for the opportunity each year to meet many of you and learn more about you and your love for the game of golf. This is such a wonderful game and it's truly a blessing to get to play. I hope you enjoy the time to spend together while eating lots of great food, traveling, watching football, shopping, playing golf, and all the other holiday traditions you have with your family.
Last week I explained why I use the "contact 75+ schools" in all of my tips and checklists. I hope you had a chance to read that because that gets misunderstood quite often based on the situation. So this week I just wanted to provide a little insight into how you can go about contacting those coaches. Keep in mind, this is for initial communication and getting your name out there. It takes organizing your list into the programs you really want to focus on and then doing your best to build a relationship with those coaches. That takes quite a bit of time and effort so you can't expect to do that for all of the schools you may initially contact. Make sure you have a good resume that has all of the necessary information, along with a swing video. (Junior Golf Scoreboard has a [...]
I want to cover some topics during what is a busy time in the recruiting process for juniors and seniors as they are making their decisions to play college golf, whether it’s a verbal commitment in the coming months or signing their NLIs to make it official. This specific topic of Get Better vs Get Scholarship sparked my interest after a conversation I had with Coach Holly Clark at UNCC, who I absolutely love chatting with about all things college and junior golf. If you didn’t know, UNCC Women’s Golf is currently ranked 28th in just their 3rd season as a program! But something I have discussed with many coaches who have voiced this as a frustration in their recruiting and coaching approach is trying to distinguish between girls who are playing golf to get better and which ones are playing to earn a scholarship. So [...]
Freshmen and sophomores..... are you wondering what you should be doing now that the NCAA rules prevent you from communicating with college coaches and taking visits? While the purpose of the revised NCAA rules was to limit the communication between coach and player so that early commitments could not happen and allow players more time to develop, this doesn't mean you can just sit back and wait. There are still many things you need to be doing before that date: Create a resume and video Introduce yourself to coaches via email Keep them updated on your progress and schedule Show your interest in the program Attend the right camps and showcases Take academic tours Play the right tournaments for your goals Develop your game and practice habits Improve the "intangibles" Begin a workout and nutrition regimen After 6 months of the process taking shape, we are seeing that [...]
I can not imagine where I would be today without the support of my parents. Yes, there are some parents out there of junior girls who need to look deep into how they behave and treat their daughters when it comes to their golf games. It breaks my heart sometimes to hear how girls feel because a parent has pushed them to a point of being so unhappy on the golf course so that was a big reason in starting this series. But so many of you are doing your best and having to learn as you go. I know its tough to want to see your daughter succeed and do well on the golf course but to have to watch her struggle. You have the ability to see years down the road and understand what this game and all of the experiences, opportunities, and growth [...]
Let’s talk about qualifying once you get to college. Right now you’re seeing a lot of programs posting about team qualifying going on as their fall season continues. So how is qualifying handled? A general rule of thumb is that players will compete in a series of qualifying rounds, usually at a few different area courses, to earn a spot in the lineup for the first tournament. Ex: Players will play 5 rounds, the 3 lowest total scores will qualify for 3 spots and the coach has two picks. There are some cases that once a coach gets a lineup then they stick with those 5 players all fall season but usually players will have opportunities to earn their way on to the travel team throughout the season. Typically certain criteria are set to allow players in the tourney to earn their spot at the next [...]
I recently started a series through my newsletter called "My Two Cents" to share some advice and insight with parents of junior girls. This purpose is to share "my two cents" as having experienced being the daughter and golfer, but not being a parent myself. I have, however, spent 10 years consulting players and parents through their experience of playing junior golf, going through the college recruiting process, and as collegiate athletes, so I feel like I've witnessed a wide array of family dynamics to have a unique perspective. The car rides back home or to the hotel after a rough day on the golf course is dreaded by nearly every junior golfer to ever play the game. Even if you are the positive “keep your head up” type of parent or not one to get involved with your daughter’s golf game, it can still be [...]
This is the perfect time for this step of the process to be front and center as many 2020 and even 2021 recruits are making their college decisions. While this part of the process is very personal and specific to each player I wanted to share a few things to keep in mind as you are making your decision on where to play college golf. Consider all variables that you’ve learned thru the process and base your decision on the reasons that are important to you. These factors may be different than your friends (both golf and non-golf friends) so stick to what you feel is going to be right for you. Do not get caught up in the appearance of getting golf scholarship over what is the best fit. Yes, for many families the scholarship amount is a big part of the decision making process, but [...]
Once you have your resume and video put together then you need to start researching schools and golf programs. You need to understand what it takes to compete at different programs and what the school offers in terms of academics, majors, class size, post grad success, tuition, and financial aid. Finding the right combination of strength of golf program that is realistic to your resume and abilities, along with the academic and personal preferences of the school can be difficult. Be sure when you start to do research that you utilize the PING College Guide and Golfstat.com to help you better understand the golf programs and how they rank. Keep in mind college scores are usually 2-3 strokes higher in comparison to what a score would be as a junior golfer due to the difficulty of course, conditions, and expectations of a collegiate golfer. Also, coaches are [...]
