-
All responses Most smiled responses
-
For some coaches it is difficult and for others it is not--it completely depends on the budgets of the universities. Mostly, it just needs to be worth the time and money. Depending on the amount of money and time spent, there may be some pressure to make sure something good came of the trip. I would say that a decent percentage of the top coaches recruit internationally at least once a year. I think the most common events attended for the men's programs would be the European Boys Team Championship and the British Boys Championship.
-
General NCAA guidelines don't allow coaches to decrease scholarships solely for athletic performance. How each school deals with this is highly varied. You should have this discussion with any coach in the recruiting process.
At the end of the year I always meet with the student-athletes to discuss the following year's scholarship and roster position. The scenarios are: 1) renewal of the same scholarship, 2) permanent increase in scholarship, 3) one-year increase in scholarship, 4) scholarship decrease/roster spot lost for non-golf related reasons (rules breaking, academics, etc), 5) loss of roster spot, but keep scholarship.
All of those are possible scenarios. The most common, by far, is renewal of the scholarship and roster spot. A one-year or permanent increase is relatively common too.
In the summer each student-athlete receives another letter outlining their scholarship for the following year that they are required to sign and return. -
You should definitely tell any coaches recruiting you as soon as possible. That is the right thing to do. The sooner you do it the sooner they can adjust their recruiting strategy elsewhere. How to do it depends on the relationship and the recruit can be the judge of what is appropriate. If I have a personal phone relationship with a recruit and have developed a good relationship I would expect a phone call. If my relationship has been most email-based and we haven't spend a lot of time chatting an email would be fine.
Most coaches will congratulate you and wish you well. That's what they should do, in my opinion. If they don't and they try to make you doubt your decision, well, you just learned something more about that coach. For me or my child that would not be a positive thing to learn. -
By "lower" I would mean "lower-ranked." Rankings come and go and it is important to take a look at rankings over a reasonable amount of time. A great program might have a low poor ranking for a while in a bad year and a mediocre program might have a spike and be ranked high in a given year. So as far as identifying who is consistently at the top and the bottom I would look at results and rankings over a few year period.
There are currently 298 DI schools being ranked in the Golfweek rankings. Lots of different types and levels of programs. Here are those rankings: http://www.golfweekrankings.com/ellington/default.asp?t=mt.
You can also select "rankings archives" from the drop down menu for past seasons. I also recommend looking at the NCAA Championships and conference championships results along with the rankings. -
All coaches do it a little differently. Generally, there will be some "exempt" players based on past performance and some others playing for the remaining spots. How many exemptions there are and what it takes to get one varies for each coach. Who is allowed to qualify and how long the qualifyings are also varies. Some coaches even choose who goes after the qualifying. It's a good question to ask of the coaches.
-
-
They can go whenever they want. It usually probably works out to 2-3 times per week most of the year.
-
School is very important for us. This is one of the top academic institutions in the world and anyone that chooses our school is doing so, in large part, because of the great education. It is challenging to keep up with the travel. This is why it is so important that we recruit the right people who have extraordinary work ethic, discipline, and purpose. Not just anyone will be successful. It takes special people.
That being said, we, like most top athletics departments, do everything possible to help them achieve and our graduation rates are very high. They will have academic counselors and advisers who help with everything along the way. We provide tutors to our students. And nowadays, so much is done online so the guys can watch lectures and take exams while traveling. It is hard, but it can be cone. We've had almost everyone graduate and our team GPA has always stayed on par with the university average, despite the travel.
I think most athletics departments will take academics very seriously. If they don't now, they will soon because the NCAA is demanding more all the time. Fortunately, we are well ahead of the curve on this. -
asked by ik1219
This is a really hard question to answer because, frankly, it sort of depends how good the player is and how much we want them. If someone's academics are a little borderline coaches have to essentially vouch for them with Admissions and put their name and credibility on the line to bring them in. To do that, a coach needs to know they are very important to the team and that they will be successful in school.
Every school will have certain standards they need to have for recruits to be admitted. These same schools will have varying flexibility in helping recruits get into school that may not make it without their sport. For us, these standards are still pretty high. I just don't think it is right to be specific about those exact standards here (also, they change each year). -
No. I've never even heard of an older player offering to give up some scholarship for new recruits.
-
With solid player and coaching you pretty much have what you need. Solid players and coaches will create an environment where success is the only option. They will work closely together because they need each other to reach their individual and team goals. So much of team success is about leadership and while a coach's leadership is very important, the leadership inside the team is even more important. I also think it is very important to be committed to the team and the mission of the team. When solid players and coaches are united around a goal and dream the rest will take care of itself in its own way and everyone will be a part of making it happen. The exact details of that will be a little different for every winning team.
-
The ability to shoot low scores under pressure. Really, what else is there (from a golf standpoint)? As far as specific skills, I'd say the ability to control the ball. Ball control is multi-faceted and can include, distance control, trajectory control, miss quality, spin control, touch around the greens, etc. I often say "it doesn't matter how far you hit it. It only matters that you know how far you hit it."
-
This completely depends on the school. Most of the top DI schools are looking for recruits who can play immediately. Freshman are now a huge part of success at the highest levels so they are expected to play immediately at the top schools, in most cases.
Some coaches have larger teams and can afford to have a couple players on the roster that may not be ready now, but hope to develop and help the team in a couple years.
Smaller schools and schools not ranked as high might depend almost entirely on recruits who still have lots of room to improve.
All programs are trying to develop players to become great golfers, but depending on the recruiting and success of a program some will get recruits who are further along in the development process and can play immediately. -
Coaches are recruiting all the time. Consider when a coach might be most interested in hearing from you. It may not be best right in the prime part of the season as the coach is thinking about the team more than recruiting. So I would try to find a time when they are most likely to look at it and it could be different for each coach.
We get way too many "profiles." I encourage sending multiple personal emails. Maybe include your "profile" in all of them. Just know that all coaches are getting several hundred or even thousands of "profiles." The goal is to contact the right school/schools that are good fits for your abilities. Make personal contact that makes you unique. Follow up often and develop a real relationship as much as possible. -
Other coaches may be different on this, but I don't really use much video. If I'm really interested in recruiting someone I'll make sure I get out to watch them live. The golf swing on video really doesn't tell me anything about what kind of golfer a person is. Other coaches that can't travel to recruit as much as me may use video more, but it rarely matters to me. You can't really see accuracy, distance control, presence, short game skills, confidence, pressure performance, etc on a swing video. Those are the things that make a good golfer.
-
My college coach, Bruce Brockbank at BYU, offered the Assistant Coach position to me at the end of my senior year. I had always been intrigued by coaching so I decided to do it (while I waited for my then fiancee and now wife to graduate). I immediately loved it and have been doing it ever since.
The best part of my job is just working with awesome young people and competing with them every day. I love to have fun, learn, and compete so this is a perfect job. I'm doing those three things all the time. I don't mind the long hours, the extensive travel, etc. I actually like all of that. I feel fortunate to have a job that keeps me engaged 24/7. I don't have to leave work at work because it is so awesome.
The worst part is all tie time I miss with my family. I don't mind travel and long days, but I do mind not seeing my family and not being able to coach my daughters' teams and things like that. I really have to miss a lot of things a good parent shouldn't miss. -
I'm a fan of transparency with coaches. I think there are two ways to look at doing this. First, telling a coach (or a coach telling a recruit) puts one in a weaker negotiating position. If getting the largest scholarship is your aim I don't think telling them you are their #1 choice would help that. However, if you are just trying to get a spot at the best place for you or one of your top choices it would be good to let them know they are your #1 choice.
Sometimes you have to take less scholarship to go to the school you really want. By telling a coach they are your #1 choice you will quickly get a feel of where you stand with them and it may happen quickly.
By no means am I saying that telling a coach they are your #1 choice will keep you from getting a great scholarship. I'm just saying that from a negotiating standpoint it isn't the best strategy.
For me, I'm more interested in getting the right guys than getting them on the least scholarship possible. So I don't hesitate to tell a recruit if he is my #1 choice. I know that may hurt my negotiating position, but I'm fine with that in most cases. I'm really not into the negotiating part anyway. We try to be as fair as possible. -
We basically just learn the key yardages to and over important hazards and things. We make sure we know where to lay shots up. Mostly we chart the greens so we know how far it is to fly bunkers, tiers, etc. We link to chart the slopes so we know where to hit our iron shots to have easy putts and chips. We can only do so much with one practice round. Often the coaches do most of the work in the books so the players can hit the shots. It's also good to understand how far your ball is flying and what the different winds might do in the competition.
-
Coaches are often short-sighted (I try hard not to be, but it is tough) and the most recent results stick in the mind. It doesn't mean they would rule out someone with past success and current struggles, but just understand that the recent results sometimes carry the most weight.
I would just recommend that recruit shouldn't worry too much about what a coach is doing and just become great at golf. If a recruit produces great results the coaches will be there. Coaches are very reactive to results. It's hard to see someone who looks really good and shoots 80 and think, "This guy is the real deal." On the other hand, when a player hasn't done much, but all of the sudden wins a big tournament coaches tend to be all over them.
Coaches really want to get it right. So they are constantly looking for evidence that the recruit can really play. Again, show that you can really play and the coaches will be there. -
Often coaches are working with very little scholarship money. So much depends on who they have recruited already and who is returning. Often they are put in a situation of having to decide to give a little extra to a deserving player already on the team or a recruit.
With little or no scholarship they may be looking for the very best player they can find for the least amount of scholarship. Being able to afford to have minimal scholarship isn't enough alone to get a spot on a team, but if the golf record and grades are worthy of being on the team, then being able to accept little or no scholarship makes joining the team you really like much more likely.
Coaches do often give very minimal scholarships (1-5%). It may not amount to a very substantial amount of money, but it is a golf scholarship. Any good coach would not treat his/her players differently because of a scholarship amount and anyone on the team should be given every opportunity to compete and grow regardless of their scholarship amount.
-
Loading...
Matt Thurmond’s Bio
Men's Golf Coach at the University of Washington
