This article was updated by Anna Garrett, February 2022
When you are getting recruited for a highly competitive sport like golf, coaches often look at the national tournaments you've attended and your national ranking.
Junior Golf Scoreboard
One of the most popular systems coaches use is the Junior Golf Scoreboard. It follows more than 2,000 tournaments throughout the country and verifies golfers' scores after they have played at least four tournaments consisting of 36 holes. There's a catch: you may have to upload your results yourself, but once you have done so, you can reach out to coaches and tell them to follow your progress on JGS when they can't make it to watch you in person. Any exposure is better than none!
Related: The Path to D1 Golf: 6 Tips
3 Criteria for Rankings
The American Junior Golf Association rankings and Golfweek are other systems used to evaluate golfers' rankings. All of these rankings are computed based on 3 criteria:
- Scoring Differential (75% of your lowest scores compared to the rating of the course)
- Strength of Field (who did you play against and how good are they)
- Finish (the average finish of the competition)
Related Articles: Oklahoma State University & University of Tennessee Golf Coach Advice
Most of these scores come from multi-day events. This is a good measure for a coach to see your ability to score consistently over multiple rounds. For instance, did you shoot 71 the first day and then do a complete 180 the next? They can learn a lot from how you compete each day. If you cannot compete in national events or golf tours, try to play in local golf tournaments to help build your golf resume.
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* Originally published on January 27, 2022, by Jimmy Criscione
