1. Starting the Process Too Late

One of the biggest mistakes families make is delaying their start in the recruiting process. Many assume that reaching out to college coaches or preparing a resume can wait until junior or senior year. However, by that time, many teams have already filled their rosters or identified top prospects.

How to Avoid It

• Begin Early: Start exploring options and building your recruiting strategy during your freshman or sophomore year.
• Develop a Plan: Research colleges, understand their golf programs, and create a timeline for tournaments, academic milestones, and outreach efforts.
• Stay Consistent: Keep updating your tournament results, academic achievements, and swing videos throughout high school.

2. Overlooking Academics

While golf skills are essential, academics often play an equally important role in the recruiting process. Coaches are looking for well-rounded athletes who meet the academic standards of their institutions. Neglecting academics can disqualify even the most talented golfers.

How to Avoid It

• Maintain Strong Grades: Prioritize your studies to ensure you meet the eligibility requirements for NCAA, NAIA, or NJCAA programs.
• Take Challenging Courses: Show your commitment to academics by taking AP, honors, or advanced-level classes.
• Prepare for Standardized Tests: Set aside time to study for the SAT or ACT and aim for scores that align with your target schools.

3. Targeting the Wrong Schools

Another common mistake is focusing solely on “dream schools” without considering realistic options. Some families aim for top-tier Division I programs without evaluating whether the golfer’s skills, rankings, or academic profile align with those schools.

How to Avoid It

• Be Realistic: Assess your skill level, tournament performance, and rankings to identify programs where you’re a good fit.
• Explore All Divisions: Consider programs in Division II, Division III, NAIA, and junior colleges. These often provide excellent opportunities for growth and competition.
• Research Thoroughly: Look into each school’s roster, player stats, and coach expectations to find a program that matches your abilities and goals.

4. Failing to Communicate Effectively with Coaches

Poor communication—or no communication at all—with college coaches is another frequent misstep. Some families assume that coaches will automatically notice a junior golfer’s performance or wait too long to initiate contact. Others may come across as overly aggressive or unprofessional in their outreach.

How to Avoid It

• Be Proactive: Don’t wait for coaches to contact you. Send emails introducing yourself, sharing your golf resume, and expressing interest in their program.
• Stay Professional: Address coaches respectfully, proofread your messages, and follow up appropriately.
• Keep Coaches Updated: Share updates about tournament results, new videos, and academic achievements to stay on their radar.

5. Neglecting Tournament Selection

Playing in the wrong tournaments—or too few tournaments—can limit a golfer’s exposure to college coaches. Many families focus on local or less competitive events, which may not provide the visibility needed for recruiting.

How to Avoid It

• Play in High-Visibility Events: Compete in tournaments that attract college coaches, especially two or three day events such as your state junior championship, state amateur championship, or USGA qualifiers.
• Balance Your Schedule: Include a mix of local, regional, and national tournaments to gain experience and exposure.
• Track Your Progress: Analyze your performance in each event and use it to refine your skills and tournament strategy.

The golf recruiting process can be complex, but avoiding these common mistakes will set you on a smoother path toward success. Start early, maintain a strong focus on academics, target schools where you’re a good fit, communicate effectively with coaches, and choose tournaments strategically.

Most importantly, remember that the recruiting process is a team effort. Involve your junior golfer in the decision-making process, seek guidance from coaches or mentors, and stay organized throughout the journey. By avoiding these pitfalls and approaching recruiting with a proactive mindset, you can help your golfer achieve their college golf dreams while fostering personal growth and resilience along the way.

For more posts like this one, check out our blog here: Path Fore Success Blog. You can also follow us on Instagram & Twitter for more!

The post The Top 5 Mistakes Families Make During the Golf Recruiting Process appeared first on Path Fore Success.

Our Perspective

Rankings can be both helpful and a hindrance to the junior golfer and their families. Rankings are a great way to see where you stand in comparison to the fellow golfers in your state, region, or world. The issue with rankings is that we lose focus on our individual goals and personal growth to become the best player possible. Constantly comparing your success to others can be degrading.

Now let’s ask the coaches!

DI Assistant Men’s and Women’s Golf Coach

“Junior rankings are most definitely important to me as a college golf coach during the recruiting process. A ranking is established by playing highly ranked tournaments with very competitive fields. If you are able to perform under pressure at the highest level consistently, you’re going to impress college coaches.

Ranking is extremely important in college golf. If you win your conference championship at the end of the spring season, you receive an automatic bid to the NCAA post season, Regional tournament.

Just like junior golf, rankings are important in college golf. Rankings show who are the top programs in the country. If you fall short of winning the conference championship, but have performed well during the year and have established a great ranking, your team earns an at large bid to the NCAA tournament.

You want to play the most competitive tournaments you can against the most competitive players in the country. That’s how you learn, grow, improve, and gain confidence in your game and self. The success leads to you achieving your dreams of playing college golf.

Whether it’s WAGR rankings, ranking in your country, state, whatever your ranking is, work hard to become the highest ranked player you can become. Having that ranking will prove to any college coach the elite level of your game as a competitor.

But keep in mind, ranking isn’t everything a coach takes into consideration. There are many attributes college coaches consider; yourself as a person, your character, presentation, respect for others and the course, your academics, work ethic, and much more.“

DI Assistant Women’s Golf Coach:

“Sure, we definitely take a look at rankings, but that is just a small portion of the recruiting process. Rankings can be a great recruiting tool if you are a successful junior player, but if you find yourself as a middle of the pack player, don’t be discouraged. We take into consideration not only rankings, but how you’d fit in as a part of our golf family, your academics, your qualities on and off the golf course, your family dynamics, we look at it all.

Obviously competing in highly ranked junior tournaments will increase the likelihood of you being seen by college coaches, but it’s not the only way to be seen! We want to see your grit and determination, whether you’re having a good or bad day on the course!

Take care of what you can control, and I bet we’ll find you!”

In Conclusion…

As you read above, junior golf rankings are important but it is not the ONLY factor that coaches look at when recruiting. There are multiple checklists regarding the recruiting process and we suggest staying on top of your game both on and off the course because you never know who is watching!

If you would like some extra help through the junior golf recruiting process, contact the team at Path Fore Success today! Send us an email at info@pathforesuccess.com to get started today on your way to playing college golf!

For more posts like this one, check out our blog here: Path Fore Success Blog. You can also follow us on Instagram & Twitter for more!

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1. Stay Alert

There can be a lot of “down time” on the golf course while you are watching your student-athlete. It is important that you stay vigilant and pay attention at all times. Just because there’s down time for your group doesn’t mean that there aren’t other people on the golf course.

You need to be mindful where you are walking so that you do not interfere with the players, the golf balls or other spectators. It’s always acceptable to forecaddie – which means walking ahead to help spot golf balls, but remember that you should never touch any golf balls. Make sure you stand still while the players are swinging and putting, and be respectful of all players.

 2. Don’t speak to the players.

While it’s acceptable to offer encouragement to the players such as “Good Shot” or “Nice Par” avoid trying to engage with them directly. Casual chat is fine, but treat the golf course as the player’s office. Which brings us to our next tip…

3. Cheer, don’t criticize.

The traditional golf clap and words of encouragement are definitely acceptable on the golf course but don’t make negative comments about the players.

**Watch your language.

4. Don’t offer advice to the players.

This is a BIG no-no in the golf spectator world. During competition, you are not permitted to offer any advice to the player. If there is a question and a ruling is needed, most tournaments provide a cell phone number for the on site rules official.

** Spectators should not give rulings.

5. Dress appropriately.

Wear golf attire at a golf venue. Every course has specific dress codes to follow so it is important to abide by those rules. Check the venues website beforehand if you have any questions. If your child hasn’t committed to a university, we highly recommend wearing neutral clothes.

6. Silence your devices.

This should be obvious but it is a good reminder to make sure that your phones are always silenced when on the golf course. Cell phones ringing and buzzing is completely unnecessary and easily avoided.

7. Post Round Analysis.

It can be very helpful for your student-athlete to have a proper post round analysis but there is a time and a place to do this. Sit down with your child and come to an agreement of when it is best for you both to do this. Make sure you talk about realistic expectations and the good things that went on during the round. Always remember – the player doesn’t intentionally hit bad shots or make bad decisions!

In conclusion…

Did this help you with your etiquette at the golf course? We hope that these tips on how to act at golf tournaments helps you at your childs next event. If you would like to learn more about this topic, check out our blog posts. If you would like more assistance as a parent, check out more of our posts here: Parents in Junior Golf

Do you need help through the junior golf recruiting process? Contact the team at Path Fore Success today! Send us an email today at info@pathforesuccess.com to get started today! For more posts like this one, check out our blog here: Path Fore Success Blog. You can also follow us on Instagram & Twitter for more!

The post How to Act at Golf Tournaments – Parents Edition appeared first on Path Fore Success.

Parents are a hot topic among college coaches and can be a huge factor during the recruiting process. The Path Fore Success team had the opportunity to interview a few parents and ask them important questions regarding their involvement in the recruiting process. These parents have children who competed at the collegiate level. Below are their answers. 

Question: Having a child (children) who went through the junior golf recruiting process, what are a few pieces of advice you would give parents who are just beginning the process with their child?

A: Ask more questions. I definitely didn’t ask enough questions. Don’t be afraid to ask more questions to the coach about the university and the team. There are no stupid questions during this process!

A: I think you need to discuss with your child the colleges they would be interested in attending and playing golf for and visit the schools. Our child sent out his resume through an email to the corresponding coach for different schools. This will show interest by your child and the coach will be more willing to watch them play in tournaments.  Start early in sanctioned tournaments and focus on progression through those age groups.  Coaches focus on major junior tournaments.  Your child will not get the exposure they need to be recruited by only playing high school golf. 

A: Our advice to parents just starting the recruiting journey would be to strongly encourage your athlete to have regular communication with the schools he/she is interested in.  We encouraged both of our daughters to email the coaches regularly with the thought that the worst thing that could come of it would be a deleted email!  We’d also encourage you and your child to be realistic with the schools that they are interested in to ensure that their skill level matches that school’s needs.  One last piece of advice would be to encourage your child to think about whether or not they’d be interested in that particular school without golf.

Question: How did you stay involved with your kid’s recruiting process while also allowing them to make their own decisions about schools?

A: I always looked over whatever paperwork or information was delivered to my daughter. I wanted to make sure we were on the same page but I allowed her to make her own decisions. I also went on campus tours and helped her do a pro/con list of every university we visited.

A: Research the programs your child is interested in.  Find out about the coach from previous players, ask local golf professionals their input on the personalities and credibility of the coaches, and then allow your child to form their own opinions as the recruiting process intensifies.  Also, the school needs to be the right fit.  Coaches can leave, so you want to make sure the school is a right fit for you as well. 

A: We were very involved in the recruiting process for both of our daughters.  We constantly reminded them to stay in contact with coaches.  We also took it upon ourselves to make sure that deadlines were kept and that NCAA rules were followed (on our end) and that we all understood the limitations and expectations of the NCAA communications. To decide on the colleges we were interested in, we first went to the NCAA website and printed out the list of colleges divided into their Divisions.  Then we narrowed down our search based on location.  Our daughters were most interested in staying within 4 hours from home.  Then, once we had those schools narrowed down, we looked at their most recent scores to see if our daughters were competitive on their current golf team.  That’s how we decided which schools to look at.  As far as how many we visited, we only visited schools that were truly interested in them.  We ended up visiting less than 10 schools for each of our daughters.

Question: Do you think a recruiting service like Path Fore Success would have benefited your family during the recruiting process?

A: Absolutely. I would have loved to have direction and assistance in helping our family determine what the correct fit was for my child. There are a lot of parents who have no idea what goes on during the recruiting process, especially if you have no background of playing sports in college. This service would of helped tremendously.

A: I do think a recruiting service would have been useful for our family during the recruiting process. I would have loved to have had more guidance on how and when to start the process and maybe even a checklist/guidelines to go by for each year of high school.  

Question: Were you aware of the ups and downs that come with the junior golf recruiting process?

A: I wasn’t but I quickly found out how much of a rollercoaster this journey was going to be. The junior golf recruiting scene is so competitive and a service like Path Fore Success would of helped tremendously.

A: We were aware that the recruiting process would be a very stressful time until a decision was made and a commitment was agreed on by both our child and the coach. Playing junior golf allowed us to realize how competitive this sport is.

Question: Did you feel like a competitive junior playing schedule was important for your child in the recruiting process?

A: Yes. A competitive schedule is very important. Scores and a competitive playing schedule are what help your child get seen by college coaches. 

A: Certain tournaments, especially the bigger ones, give you better chances to be seen by coaches.  Coaches are looking for how you compete against the best in your area.  High school golf does not give you this opportunity.  Our child was recruited by different college coaches by playing in competitive junior golf tournaments.  Not only were the coaches looking at the scores but also how the golfers handled themselves on the course.  

Question: How can families balance the cost of junior golf (lessons, tournaments, travel, etc.)?

A: Two ways – you can pay upfront for the lessons and tournaments which will be costly in hopes of your child getting a scholarship which will ultimately offset the cost spent early on. If you don’t spend money early on, I’m not sure your child will have an opportunity to play college golf if they don’t have the competitive experience needed. The money spent in advance is such a huge benefit for the junior golfer because they start to balance a busy schedule with lessons, tournaments, balancing schoolwork and outside activities. You can only do what you can afford, but giving your child the best avenue for success is something I would recommend.

A: We allowed our son each year to get on the different websites for competitive golf tournaments.  He made a list of the tournaments he would like to play in.  We then discussed them together and picked the ones that would work for our family.  With me being a stay at home mom I was able to travel to all the tournaments and monitor the expenses of each tournament.  We tried to stay within a certain limit on how many tournaments he would participate in and set a budget of how much we could invest for junior golf.

Thank you for reading! We would also like to take the time to thank those parents for for taking the time to sit down with us and having this important discussion. the topic of parents in junior golf is an important one and we hope you were able to take something from this.

Remember, this is part 2 our series. If you missed part 1, you can read it here: Parents in Junior Golf – Coaches Edition For more posts like this one, check out our blog here: Path Fore Success Blog. You can also follow us on Instagram & Twitter for more!

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Parents are a hot topic among college coaches and can be a huge factor during the recruiting process. The Path Fore Success team had the opportunity to interview Georgia State Head Men’s Golf Coach Chad Wilson and former Georgia State Women’s Golf Coach Cathy Mant and ask them some important questions regarding parents in junior golf. Below are their answers.

What do coaches look for when recruiting?

Chad Wilson – “If a junior golfer is treating their parents badly, then how are they going to treat me? I have definitely passed on recruiting kids because of this. It’s one of the final boxes I like to check before making an official offer to a kid.”

Cathy Mant – “I watched how the golfer treated the parents and how much respect they showed and vice versa. For example if the parents went to give them a drink and they turned the other way or swatted the bottle –  if they treated their parents like that, how are they going to treat me and their teammates? Honestly they would be a cancer on my team and I don’t want that.”

Advice to give to the parents through the recruiting process?

Chad Wilson – “Do not allow your kids scores to impact your relationship with your them. Golf is the hardest game in the world and they WILL have bad days. During those bad days they need to know you are there to support them!”

Cathy Mant – “Make sure parents watch their own body language – kids pick up on it so quickly and that can really positively or negatively effect the junior player. The kid is trying as hard as they can! Positive body language and rewarding the good shots and forgetting the bad shots is my biggest advice. The kid knows what went well and what went wrong. No need to harp on the bad. Let everyone cool down before discussing the round! Parents also need to watch what kind of gear they are wearing on the golf course and use their head! If you are wearing gear from another school and you think we are going to recruit your kid, it’s a complete turn off. I’m marking you off the list because I don’t think we have a chance anymore.”

How should parents handle an official visit with their junior golfer?

Chad Wilson – “At the end of the day, it’s their kid and they could potentially be sending them to your school, so I would imagine there would be some questions that need to be answered. Parents are just as much apart of the recruiting process as the kid, but they certainly need to know it should be the junior golfer’s decision and not their own. At the end of the day, it’s the junior golfer’s college experience.”

Cathy Mant – “If parents are answering the questioning that you are posing to the student-athlete, that’s a big sign. When a question is delivered to the student-athlete, the student-athlete needs to answer it, and then maybe if the parent has something to add – they can. But when parents speak over their child, it first tells me that the parents might be domineering and also tells me that their kid can’t speak up for themselves, and personally as I coach, I want to recruit someone who has some “umph” and takes responsibility.”

Other Notable Quotes:

“Parents are such a big deal – I know some college coaches who put limits on when the parents can see their kids and have told parents to lay off of them and stop harping on the negative things.”

“Some coaches allow the kids to have dinner with the parents one night and the rest of the tournament the coach creates a bubble around his/her team so that the parents don’t get involved too much.”

Thank you for reading! We would also like to take the time to thank Chad Wilson & Cathy Mant for taking the time to sit down with us. Remember, this is just part 1 our series. Make sure you check back soon for part 2. For more posts like this one, check out our blog here: Path Fore Success Blog. You can also follow us on Instagram & Twitter for more!

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