June 15th is right around the corner!

JEANNE SUTHERLAND

MAY 31, 2026

As a former college coach and a current private coach working with high school players, I’ve seen both sides of the coin of recruiting. My currrent players and their parents are starting to get nervous about the June 15th calls and the players are working hard to perform and impress coaches. Let’s talk about some things that recruits can think about and how they should approach this process of choosing a school and golf program. 

If you’re a recruit, I have some questions for you. Are you working hard to impress coaches, but you’re not sure who they are or what would actually impress them? Are you trying to get a spot at a school that might not have a spot open? Are you comparing yourself to other players who are also in the recruiting process even though you don’t know what their goals are for playing in college? Does every round you play feel like it’s the one to make you or break you as a recruit? Are you constantly thinking about the future and wondering what it will look like for you? Most importantly, are you wrapped up in your score and losing the joy of playing the game?

If you’re a parent, I have questions for you, too! Do you feel like you’re lost and have no idea what you should be doing in the recruiting process? Are you putting pressure on your son or daughter to play well for coaches, knowingly or unknowingly? Are you feeling the pressure to rush the process along because you keep hearing of other players who’ve committed? Do you think of junior golf as an investment in your child’s future, especially toward their college costs? Do you talk to other parents for information that might or might not be true or helpful? Do your aspirations for your golfer mirror their aspirations?

I ask these questions, because these are often the things I witnessed over the past 30+ years of coaching, teaching and recruiting. Most families feel like they’re entering a dark tunnel at a Halloween Horror House. They don’t know what to expect around the next bend and while it seems like it should be fun, it creates a lot of anxiety. Here are some ways you can reduce your anxiety and make decisions from a place of peace instead of panic.

Remember that recruiting is a two-way street. Many recruits feel like a flower waiting to be plucked. That feeling is rough and powerless. Instead of being a passive participant, use the recruiting process to gain information, build relationships and compare programs. Decide that you’re going to be in charge of your decisions whenever possible. Write down the values that are important to you and see if you can sync them with the programs in the mix. Below, I wrote some steps that will help you get started.

1. Decide what’s important to you as a student and as an athlete.
   1. Do you want to stay close to home? Do you want to be near the beach? Do you have a specific major that you need to find? 
   2. Remember that some things can change, such as the coach and the team members. Base your decision-making with that in mind.
2. Figure out a budget for your college years and have a clear idea of your needs and what schools will cost.
   1. I’m generally amazed that all parents don’t do this and understand what to ask for from coaches and what to deny if not in budget. If you don’t worry at all about money, then you’re exempt from this step, but few of you are in that category.
   2. The second step of this is, be clear with the coaches and your player what you need to make it happen. It’s okay to tell your child that you can’t afford something and they need to keep looking. The alternative could be years of student loan debt and if that can be avoided, it should be!
3. Create a database of twenty schools. These are your top picks as of now. Then, go to each webpage and put the following information in your database: Head coach’s name, the assistant’s name, and their emails and their phone numbers. If they have a third assistant, include them too! I’ll place a list of criteria below that can help you figure out your priorities to put your list together.
4. On June 15th, call each of those 20 head coaches and at the very least, leave a message of your interest in their school and your contact information. If you get to talk with them, have a loose script to follow. I’ll place some things you can include below.
5. Follow-up immediately with an email, whether you talk with anyone or not and reference either the call or message. Copy all coaches. Keep it to ONE page! This email should include:
   1. your name
   2. graduation year 
   3. contact information
   4. your scores and place finishes from your last ten events in reverse order (last one first) with a link to the results if there is one available
   5. any notable wins or finishes outside of those ten events
   6. your grades and class rank if you have it
   7. any other pertinent information, such as my mom went to your school, or I’m playing in the State Am next week. 
6. If you don’t hear from the coach or the assistant, call them again a week later and introduce yourself again or leave another message and follow up with another email stating your interest in their school. Let them know your upcoming competitive schedule and invite them to come and watch you play. 
7. If you don’t hear back after the second round of calls and emails, add another school to your list. You don’t have to scratch that school off, but continue with emails only.
8. Other things to include in your database is the cost of each school, scoring averages for their top five players, and notes from any conversations you have with the coaches. Create a folder in your email inbox for each school and keep all of the correspondence there. Stay organized! The coaches are doing the same and you want to have equal footing.
9. If you receive calls from schools not on your list, decide whether you’d like to add them to the list or tell them you’re not interested. Before you tell them no, it might be good to figure out the cost of the school and whether they have the things that you noted for a good fit. 
10. Keep an open mind. For example, you might think weather is important, but six of the teams at the Women’s NCAA Championship this year can be considered as Northern teams. Indoor facilities and robust travel schedules might be as important as location.
11. Remember that the top ten schools might all be targeting the same six kids and they can’t all sign them! Recruiting is fluid and as time goes on, things change. Bet on yourself and don’t panic!

Forget the idea that you have to fit a mold or that you have to compare well to other recruits. Everyone develops at different times and if your goal is to play in college or even professionally, it might be more important for you to go to a school where you play every tournament than to go to a school that’s ranked in the top ten. If you look at the top 20 players on the PGA Tour, none went to the same school and seven didn’t go to college in the States. One played four years at Rutgers and one played at San Diego State. Would you consider either of these to be a top school? The point isn’t where you play, but what you can gain from playing every tournament at the school you choose. Few players get better on the bench, even if the bench is located at a top ten school. 

Trust the process. That’s a cliché, but it is true for recruiting. The programs where you can make an impact will be the programs that recruit you. If programs aren’t recruiting you, you might be reaching a bit too high. Don’t get offended or take it personally. Just reflect, learn and move on.

When I was coaching, I was often asked, “What are you looking for in a recruit?”. The simplest answer is low scores. The second answer is “upside”, which refers to the capacity to improve and grow as a player. The third answer is, coachable players with a good attitude. In over 30 years of coaching, I rarely had two players who were the same. Each player was unique in their combination of skills, personality and experience. No coach is looking for a cookie-cutter player. With that in mind, are you trying to be someone that is attractive to coaches or are you being yourself? Present yourself as you are. Be authentic and honest about where you are in your game and where you want to go with your skills. If coaches watch you play, they’ll see your strengths and weaknesses pretty quickly. If you can show a bit of self-awareness, it will show that you know where you are and where you want to go. 

There are 311 D1 schools on the men’s side and 285 on the women’s. There are over 200 men’s D2 schools and 185 women’s D2 schools. There are over 250 men’s D3 schools playing college golf and over 150 women’s D3 schools. There are also NAIA and junior colleges offering golf. As you look for a school, you can consider any of these factors when coming up with a list of schools that would fit your needs. I’ve seen great players pass up full rides to go to an Ivy League school and pay their way. I’ve also seen players walk-on to teams and take the chance to earn scholarship money going forward. Those are both unique occurances and most players will look for the combination of best scholarship and best fit. What makes up your fit? Pick some things off the list below to consider when narrowing down your schools from your top 20 to your top three or five schools.

1. Geography (weather, close to home, easy travel for competitions, urban, college town, etc.)
2. Academics
   1. First of all, can you get accepted? Do your grades and test scores match the entry requirements? On the other hand, is the degree program you want respected at the school in question?
   2. Does your focus tip toward academics or golf? Does the school you’re looking at require more time with the books or will you be free to stay at the course and putt? Figure out your desires and choose accordingly.
3. Competitiveness
   1. Ranking and scoring averages. Your scoring average as a junior will be comparable to what you can expect in college if and only if you’re playing tournament set ups of similar lengths. Scoring averages tend to go up in college due to weather, variety of setups and grasses, academic responsibilities, learning to be an adult and do adult things daily and length of set ups. You have to decide where you fit and whether you want to be challenged at each qualifier or if you want a constant spot in the top five.
   2. Competitive schedules. If you’re a guy, you can go to a school that gives you a good chance at a high ranking in the PGA Tour University standings which can give you a ticket to status on a professional tour. That means you need a school that plays a top-ranked schedule. 
4. Coaching and Team. These are factors that can change. Coaches move to other programs and with the transfer portal, players do too! Because there’s no guarantee, these probably shouldn’t be your main reason to choose a school. However, it can be very important to your experience, so it should be considered.
5. Type of School. Big school, power 4, academic, football Saturdays, small school, commuter school or campus-oriented, private, religious-affiliation, D2, D3, junior college, and the list goes on and on. You don’t have to know this before you start, but as you start to go on visits, either official or unofficial, take note of where you’re most comfortable and what appeals to you about each school.
6. Facilities. This is a big one! Where do you go daily after classes? Can you go there on weekends when you don’t have a scheduled practice? Do you have access to tee it up at one course or multiple courses? Is it hard to get a tee time? Do you have access to technology, such as Trackmans or Swing Catalysts? If the weather is bad, can you go indoors to practice? 
7. Support Staff. Do you have access to a gym and a good trainer? Are the medical facilities good? Do you get tutoring as an athlete? What extras does the school offer?
8. This section is for the elite. What is the NLI budget? What offers do you have and what do you need to do for those offers? Can you earn more NLI money? How does the school assist in this if at all?

Finally, let’s talk about that first call. Here are some things that are commonly asked and often answered, followed by some things that are commonly asked and not answered.

You can find out about any of the 8 things listed above. Figure out what’s important to you and ask some questions that give you more information about it. For example, here are some questions about geography.

Q: Do you drive or fly to most of the tournaments on your schedule?

Q: How long does it take to drive to practice every day? 

Q: How far are you from the airport you use?

Here are some questions about competitiveness.

Q: How do you set up qualifying?

Q: Have you seen me play? If yes, ask a follow up. Where do you see me fitting in my freshman year? What would it take for me to play in the lineup and help the team?

Q: Will your tournament schedule remain similar to this past year’s schedule? Are you looking at any different events?

Here are some questions about coaching?

Q: What do you think helps your players improve over their four years with you?

Q: Do you generally walk with a player during a round? How do you choose who to walk with if so?

Q: What qualities do you like to see in players on your team?

You can come up with 3-4 questions for each of the criteria you think is important to you as you choose a school. You should also be ready for questions asked of you, too. Coaches might ask you what sort of teammate you’ll be or how much you’re practicing. They might ask you for your strengths and weaknesses. Before a call, you should ask someone who knows you well to do a quick interview with you and ask you some questions so you can get a feel for how to answer honestly and succinctly. 

I’m certain I’m not thinking of everything here, but this should be a good start for you to have ownership in the process and be action-oriented instead of passively allowing it to happen without your input. Feel free to send me a message. I’m currently expanding my coaching by two players, so feel free to check out my page and send me an email regarding your process as a junior golfer. I’m currently working with six players who all hope to play college golf at some level and another player who is a college player now and in the transfer portal. We will be having a lot of conversations about recruiting this summer as most of them are getting started in the process.  Here’s a link to my site.

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