Here at the Hub we love a good story. That's why we talked to current or former college golfers and asked them to share their experiences with you! Here is what they told us:
Dan: NCAA D1 Men's
"I played college golf at a D1 golf program in CT. Life on the golf team was so much fun — overall it was such a great experience. My teammates and I had a ton of fun together, and we were truly like brothers and close friends to one another. That said, playing D1 golf is definitely not all fun and games. It was a lot of work, and the team and I worked A LOT on our golf games, strength, flexibility, and academics. We would have golf practice 6 times a week for 2-3 hours a day, and throughout most of the year would have 2-3 workouts a week together, in addition to having to get mandatory study time in at our athlete study hall during freshman year. We had a fall and a spring season, with 5-7 tournaments each season, with constant competition to get into the starting 5 and prepare for tournaments. We always would push each other to get better and better in everything we did together, and especially when it came time to play competitively against each other in golf, the competitiveness of us all really showed. For those skilled enough to be in the starting 5, traveling around the US with the team and coach was a blast. Playing new courses, meeting other players from different teams, bonding even more with your teammates, and (hopefully) playing great golf meant traveling was a great time and obviously coveted by everyone on the team. It was like a fun full-time job balancing D1 golf with school, extracurricular activities, and social life, so don't think it's going to be super easy coming in. But once you get the balance right of everything in college, it becomes one of the best times in your life, and something not many people can say their lives in college were like."
Alexandra: NCAA D1 Women's
"I just finished my freshman year at a D1 program in the Northeast. I study Software Engineering and will most likely have a Math minor. So far I have enjoyed it quite a bit. Keeping on top of academics as well as playing good golf is always the hardest part. Because we have both a fall and a spring season, we miss a lot of days. Because it is usually either Friday or Monday, there tends to be one class that I constantly had to get ahead in to keep on track. Despite feeling like, between golf and academics, I always had something to do, I always felt like our practices weren't enough, and I hope to have an easier time practicing more on my own next semester because I'll have a car. Traveling is always fun, as we often get to play at beautiful golf courses. Due to the financial situation of the team, we also have the luxury of eating at nice restaurants for most of our meals, which I would never say no to. Overall, it has been a great learning experience, and I look forward to next year."
Rob: NCAA D1 Men's
"I played college golf at a small D1 program in CT. Needless to say, it was an awesome four years — and not just because of the partying! Jokes! The experience was one of a kind! 7 a.m. workouts, early class times, lots of travel, and working hard on my game… at first. I shot my first under-par round (69) in competition ever in my first college golf tournament, and later in my freshman season, I managed to win my first 54-hole event… it was all coming together. Two years of great golf and schoolwork down, junior year came along and things got tough.
I was named captain of the team my junior year after a summer that involved very little golfing. I wasn't prepared to lead the team. My game suffered as I lost sight of my goals. Looking back now, I wish I had continued to push myself after sophomore year. I attribute this dip in performance to a few things: First, my workload was getting bigger and bigger from classes, and the pressure to determine a career path began to intensify. Second, I didn't have that killer instinct anymore. With all the upperclassmen gone, I was now the leader and everyone looked up to me — I was trying to prove myself to them more than I was trying to improve my game and to help the team.
There was very little structure to golf practice at my school. Captains determined practice days and times based on the weather and convenience of scheduling and course availability. Playing golf tournaments in the Northeast was no picnic either. The weather was always poor, especially in the spring after a cold winter. I played college rounds in 40-degree, rainy, sometimes snowy, days. Being an athlete in college is certainly a handful — nothing insurmountable, but something that takes getting used to.
Freshman year is kind of a learning curve, but my advice would be to take advantage of the resources you have. Make sure you decide on a program with personalities that fit your aspirations when it comes to golf, schoolwork, and life in general. Surround yourself with a coach, teammates, academic advisors, and teachers/mentors that will help you achieve your goals."
Gray: NCAA D2 Men's
"I recently finished my junior year at a D2 golf program in Tampa, Florida. Playing for the team has been some of the best times of my life. College golf is some of the most difficult golf you will ever play, but also the most fun. As a junior in high school, trying to get recruited by top schools was nearly impossible for me. I had only recently started to compete in recognized junior events and was not even close to being in contention in most of them. I had a weak resume and was not improving at the rate that would get me recruited by the top D1 schools. I had not achieved my first win until the end of my senior year, when I captured my high school section championship. At this point, most seniors in high school had already committed to playing collegiate golf. Seeing the potential in my game, I continued to go through the process of emailing college golf coaches, and working hard to keep improving my game. At this point in my life, I had only one legitimate offer, and that was from a small D3 school that offered no athletic scholarship in the most northern part of NY — a school I had no interest in attending, but I did consider it because it was nice to have a coach reach out to me and ask me to play for him. At this point in my life, I decided that the best choice for me would be to take a gap year, to build up my resume and improve as much as possible. After attending Westchester Community College part time for a semester, I moved down to West Palm Beach, where I worked at a golf course that allowed me to play and practice. During this time, I competed in many regional events in which I saw some success, posting scores in the mid-to-low 70s very often. I thought this boost in my resume would help get the attention of some college coaches, but I was wrong. No college coach wants to recruit a high school grad who is only just starting to show potential. I decided to take the little talent I had to a walk-on team in Florida. This would allow me to play the sport I love all year round, and continuously improve my game. My plan was to have a successful freshman year and transfer to a D1 college that I had always envisioned myself being a part of. During my freshman year, I had continuously contacted college coaches but had no luck on a response. I just wasn't playing well enough. I decided to focus all my effort on trying to become the best D2 player I could possibly be, and today, after finishing my junior year by setting a school record in my conference tournament, I felt I needed just a little more time to improve my game before entering my senior year. So, I've decided that this year I will be taking my second gap year to work on my game and try to compete with the best D2 college athletes in the world. My goal is to be an All-American athlete, and I'm going to work as hard as I can to reach that goal."
Mike: NCAA D2 Men's
"I am currently a rising junior on the golf team at a top Division II program in Florida. I think it is important for junior golfers to realize that Division II doesn't mean you are less talented than the guys playing D1. At my school alone, some names of alumni you might recognize are Lee Janzen, Rocco Mediate, Darren Stiles, Jeff Klauk, John VanDerLaan — the list goes on. The guys on my team have become a second family for me. If we're not all doing something together, chances are a few of us are going out to do something after practice. That said, college golf is hard work. When I finished my first year, I was deflated. My game didn't hold up to the higher level of play that I faced, and it was a big blow to my ego. This was an important part of my journey towards my goal of being a professional golfer. I continued to lose confidence throughout the fall season of my second year, and that's when my coach, with whom I had already become very close, became a pivotal player in my future. He sat me down and began to guide me back to the right path. That's what coaches are for, after all. They're not just there to watch you and be your chaperone at tournaments — they become family just as much as your teammates. And I don't just mean golf. As a student-athlete, if my GPA drops below 3.0, I go on a kind of unofficial probation, and if it doesn't come back above that mark the next semester, the coach suspends me from the team. This is his way of emphasizing that, no matter how good we are, academics always come first.
In the spring, we went on to win the NCAA National Championship, and I'll tell you right now: that feeling of winning was worth all of the struggles that came before it. Playing college golf has been the most rewarding experience of my life thus far, and I cannot wait to contend for another title next year. Overall, my college golf experience so far has been exceptional, and I feel so blessed to have been given the opportunities I've had in my life so far. The most important thing to remember is that the hard work doesn't stop once you make it to college — it ramps up. I can't begin to count how many nights I was out at the golf course at 11 or 12 at night practicing my putting under the lights to get ready for the next tournament, but the moment you watch the winning putt fall, it's all worth it."
Patrick: NCAA D3 Men's
"I am a rising sophomore on the Division III men's golf team in PA. I am having a great time on the team so far, and consider my freshman year to have been a great success. Life on the team is great — we have a great bunch of guys, and we all have fun trying to become the best that we can be and bring the team as much success as possible. While most practices and tournaments are very fun, and great ways to meet new people and get a lot better at golf, it is not always "fun." There are days when you have multiple exams, projects, and studying to do, and you feel like you need to sit in the library all day, but you have to get out there, work hard, and fight for your spot in the lineup. With golf practice usually 6 days a week, we certainly play a lot of golf, which can get tiring, but it is great that the team is very close with one another — this makes long practices very enjoyable. Everyone on the team is vying to get into the starting 5, but this does not change our team chemistry in a negative way. In some ways, this is a good thing — it makes it so that everyone pushes each other to be the best they can be. Getting into the starting lineup is always hard work, but well rewarded once you get there. I enjoyed van rides all over PA to play in different matches and tournaments, going out for dinner after matches and tournaments, and meeting new players and playing some beautiful courses. One tradition of ours after matches and tournaments is "Best Shot, Worst Shot" while we wait for our food at the restaurant. This is a fun way for everyone to share the highs and lows of their respective rounds that day, and always leads to some great stories and lots of laughs. Though we practice many hours each week, everyone seems to have figured out great ways to balance school, extracurriculars, social life, and golf, in a way that promotes success in all four. This sometimes comes down to study groups and team dinners. While it may take a few weeks for first-years to figure out what works best for them, everyone gets the hang of it. While it is always hard work, anyone on the team would agree that they love every minute of it and would say that it is one of the highlights of their overall university experience."
Will: NCAA D1 Men's
"I played collegiate golf at a top D1 program in CT. I am originally from San Diego, CA, and never thought about moving or playing college golf on the East Coast. I had a really good summer of my junior year in high school, which made me assess the possibility of playing collegiate golf. I was given some offers for tryout opportunities at San Diego State University, University of San Diego, and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, which were top-100 schools while I was in high school. I really wanted to play college golf, so I committed to moving to the East Coast for a different experience. To backtrack on how I ended up emailing the coach: I went through The First Tee Program at The First Tee of San Diego, and they gave extra scholarships to about a couple dozen colleges on the East Coast, and this school was one of them. Luckily, the coach responded to my email and liked my tournament resume. I was lucky in the sense that I did not play any major tour such as the AJGA in my career, and had the opportunity to play college golf. I played many tournaments in the San Diego area, mainly the San Diego Junior Golf Tour, which built up my tournament resume.
Once I made the traveling squad, academics, workouts, practice, and travel to tournaments became my whole life. Managing all of that along with a healthy social life was tough at times, but I would not trade it for another experience. In my career there, we were able to move our rank up from 230 to top-100, which has not been done in a while in the school's history. My teammates were great — we supported each other all the time, wanted everyone to improve, and overall were just good guys to be around. We would have golf practice 5 or 6 times a week, but I played almost every day because I loved the challenge of improving, so I always wanted to find time to play or practice every day. My class schedule was basically from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m., practice from 1 to 4 p.m., and class from 5 to 7 p.m., and maybe head back for some more golf after that. We also had a great college tournament schedule, which was one of the reasons why I committed to playing for this school. We were able to travel to Bandon Dunes for Gonzaga's tournament, Los Angeles for USC's event, and Newport Country Club for Rhode Island's event, which were only a few of the courses and tournaments that I will always remember.
All in all, my college golf experience was great. I learned a lot about myself moving from San Diego to Connecticut, which I think helped me grow up a little quicker. Finding the time to balance all of the aspects of golf, social life, and academics was a challenge, but I believe I did the best I could. It was a great time."