Last week’s post was so popular that it deserves a follow-up series. I heard from so many coaches who shared their favorite myths, and as a result, this series will continue until we have 18 myths. 18 is a pretty good golf number!
I founded Golf Globally because I wanted families to understand the truth about college recruiting and guide them through this complicated process. Here’s to busting myths and setting the record straight!
Myth #4 I should only focus on my dream schools in my college search.
Reality: Chances are, your dream school is shared by a few other people. My dream school was Stanford. During my recruiting process, they never responded to me. Ever. I was pretty heartbroken about this, but the reality was, I WASN’T GOOD ENOUGH to play for Stanford. That and Stanford probably had received a few (read: a TON of) letters (it was letters in those days because I’m old) from other girls who were better than I was. If I focused solely on that opportunity that was clearly never going to come to fruition for me, I never would have played college golf at Notre Dame. By the way, I loved Notre Dame and had a great career there because it was a fit for me.
It breaks my heart when students ONLY focus on a few schools (e.g., The Ivies, The Pac-12, Division I Top-25 or bust). I challenge my clients to be more strategic than this. Explore a variety and start with a list of at least 50-60 schools. These should classify as a mixture of Dream, Reach, Target, and Safety schools. If Covid has taught us anything, it’s that so much can happen throughout your recruiting process. You may never play the PGA/LPGA Tour level junior golf that you’re envisioning for yourself. Take the pressure off by making sure that you have options. If your dream school ultimately comes knocking on your door, then that’s awesome. What you might find along the way is that there is another school that is better suited for you if you keep your eyes open to the process.
Myth #5: I should wait until I shoot really low scores and then email coaches.
Reality: Waiting…waiting…
Coaches love to watch your progress over time. They are recruiting players earlier and earlier and understand that freshmen in high school are not ready for their freshman year of college. I spoke to a coach last week who said that he has about 19 tabs open on his computer at any given time. Covid has made the recruiting process look different, but coaches almost always have players that they are watching when they are looking at results from tournaments.
Send them an email telling them that you exist during your freshman year. For players outside of the top-50 in the world, coaches won’t magically find out about you. They will probably assume you’re looking elsewhere if they haven’t ever heard from you. Put your best foot forward by sending a nicely constructed, thoughtful email with your resume and schedule attached. That way, they can monitor your progress and watch your scores go down!
One other note here that’s important to remember. There will be some coaches who you have no business in contacting if your scores are way outside of their team’s averages (10-20 strokes higher). Most coaches won’t respond to your email if you don’t do the research to make sure that your numbers are in the right ballpark. That school wouldn’t be a fit anyway so dig deeper and find places that would be!
Myth #6: If a coach responds to my email right away, I can respond in a few weeks after my tournaments are over. I’m kind of busy right now.
Reality: Coaches receive lots of emails, and they are way busier than you. If they take the time to respond, you should email them back in an appropriate amount of time (within 24-48 hours). Blowing them off may give them the wrong impression, and if you take a break from TikTok, Snapchat, and Instagram, you’ll find that you have plenty of time to send a few sentences in response to a coach’s email. If you aren’t responding, there’s someone out there who is, and that person just got your spot!
How do I get more information about Golf Globally?
Email Katie directly. Still not sure how she can help? Sign up for our next video chat on September 9th! This video chat will address what the class of 2023 and 2024 should be doing to maximize their recruitment.