Golf
Golf is one of the most popular American sports. As a result, golf is also strongly promoted in college. College golf is often referred to as the talent factory for young golf talents and aspiring professionals as it is often used to prepare for a potential professional career.
Golf Season
Golf at American universities is one of the few sports that has both a spring and a fall season. The first college golf tournaments are usually held in September, and this fall season lasts a few months. After a non-competitive period from November through January, teams return in February and compete in a series of college golf tournaments through April. The top college golf teams then compete in their respective NCAA championships in May.
In Division 1, approximately 70-80 teams plus 25-45 individuals who are not on those teams are selected to compete in regional championships. From these results, approximately 25-30 teams and 5-10 additional individual players will advance to the championship. Other regional and national championships have similar formats. In most cases, these events will have a combination of stroke play and match play.
Practice
The tournament season for college golf is intense, and so is the practice schedule. Since each team can only have a limited number of participants to play in the competitions, the college coach must decide before each tournament which players he will take to the next competition.
Therefore, there is almost never a break from competition in college. In addition to strength, balance, endurance, mental and precision training, you also fight for your place in the team during practice in order to qualify for the next competition.
Of course, between tournaments, training and team strengthening is very important, but most coaches have qualifying competitions to determine the team that would travel to the next event.
Requirements
What does it take to play college golf? Understandably, this heavily depends on the quality of the team you want to join, as the top college teams will have higher expectations than other golf colleges. However, the level to play golf at American universities is quite high at all colleges, as just a small percentage of high school golfers make the transition to college golf.
In golf, however, it can generally be said that a handicap of 3 or less for men and 6 for women is a minimum requirement for college golf. The coaches often orientate themselves on the stroke average in tournaments of regional, national and international relevance. For women, the stroke average should be at least 79 and for men around 75.
PGA / LPGA Tour players, who successfully played college golf
Tiger Woods - Stanford University
Rickie Fowler - Oklahoma State University
Adam Scott - University of Nevada
Dustin Johnson - Coastal Carolina University
Jordan Spieth - University of Texas
Annika Sörenstam - University of Arizona
Natalie Gulbis - University of Arizona
Angela Stanford - Texas Christian University
Next steps
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