 During my 14 years as a college
golf coach, I came to the realization that
team chemistry played a key role in my team’s
level of success each season. Generally, the
better the players got along with one another,
the better they performed as a team. It was
important for me to recruit and assemble a
group of student-athletes who had mutual
respect for each other and had similar
interests and lifestyles outside of golf.
This was probably the toughest part of
recruiting. The most successful teams I
coached seemed to fit this model perfectly.
As a prospective student-athlete and someone
who aspires to identify golf programs that are
good fits, you need to research who is
currently on a team’s roster as well as who
the coach has signed and who he/she may be
recruiting. Make sure you know the
players that will someday become your college
teammates. Although golf in general is an
individual sport, college golf requires
individual players to play and practice
together as a team if they expect to win NCAA
Championships.
This is particularly tough given the fact that
only five players on a team get the
opportunity to travel to and participate in
each tournament and these five players are
generally determined through a series of
qualifying rounds on the team’s home courses
and an occasional coach’s pick. Players have
to compete against their teammates (and
possibly their roommates and best friends) in
order to make the traveling team. This
qualifying system can weaken a team’s
chemistry especially in cases where the team
is extremely large.
Players have to understand their role on a
team. In most cases, Division I golf
coaches will invest the majority of their
limited scholarship money in their top 5 or 6
players. As a result, these players are
expected to make the traveling team as often
as possible. All else being equal, coaches
will reserve a pick or two to ensure these
highly-recruited players make the traveling
squad. Once again, team chemistry will be
challenged if the majority of the players (on
teams with more than 10 players on their
roster) are outwardly disappointed because
they are not getting enough playing time.
Some of the younger players are expected to
work hard, gain experience, and support the
upperclassmen in a non-playing role. These
younger players may end up “redshirting” for a
year if it benefits the team long term. Every
player on the team has to accept and follow
the team’s goals for the season. To this
point, college golf is a team sport.
The key issue here is to make sure you are
targeting schools where you know and respect
the other players already on the team as well
as those who are planning to join the team
during your college career. Team chemistry
matters significantly and can be the
difference in whether or not you have a
positive college experience. Do your
homework, pay attention to who has signed in
the last several signing periods, and always
think about what you want out of a teammate in
college.
Good luck in your search! |
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