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Information for Students and Parents Looking for a Golf Scholarship
Typically by the time most kids are 13 or 14 years old and they have a desire to use golf to meet their educational goals through athletic or academic scholarship, they have already begun the “process.” Process on the athletic side means that they have been competing in local area junior golf events or national events. They and their parents have started with the necessary steps in working with local golf organizations to help "introduce" their golfer to the amateur golf world. But, if you are 15 or 16 years old and have not been competing in local or national tournaments, it is not too late if you have a pretty good golf game. If you don't have a good game, then it IS late; very late and you really need to work hard at your improving your golf game for the next couple of years. That does not mean that you can substitute golf for everything else in your life! You still need to focus on academics, because even if your golf game does get great, if you do not have good grades in school and can get scores to support getting you in the college you want, then you will be looking for something else to do with your life. There are very few Tiger Woods or Paula Creamer types out there today that can make a leap from teenager to TOUR player. So, study, practice, play competitive golf and enjoy your teen years leading to college. You need to also make sure you are doing something in your community to give back in some way. It not only looks good on your resume, but it will make you feel better as a person. Now, the important stuff. There are some great places to find helpful information. First, the PING College Golf Guide. It is a great resource for student and parent. It provides a lot of answers to questions that will arise about the many elements of preparing for college via a golf scholarship. It can be found at www.collegegolf.com. Once you have registered and understand all the elements of the value of this publication, there is also a link on this site to Golfstat. Golfstat is the place where scores and performance is tracked for hundreds of amateur collegiate bound golfers. One of the best elements of this service is that it has a predictive tool that will help match a student with the best college for him or her. Golfstat is in continual contact with the NCAA, which is also a big benefit. The third place to make sure you are connected is the Junior Golf Scoreboard, www.juniorgolfscoreboard. Here you can find just about every event and player ranking. Your student must play in four events in a calendar year to be ranked! There are other sites and places to look and track your student’s performance. Many will offer to get a scholarship for your student. Be careful…very careful. Don’t be misled. Caveat emptor. Play. Play. Play. There is little substitute for competition. Believe me; I learned the hard way. Join the local golf association; join the local junior golf association. Sign up to play every junior event possible. USGA events are important; particularly the USGA Amateur and Publinks…sign up and try to qualify. The AJGA (American Junior Golf Association), www.ajga.org, has more than 100 events scheduled this year. Many are already full. Sign up for as many as possible in hopes of getting into a few. This may entail some travel, but…parents, this is going to be required to build credibility for your student and more importantly help them learn to compete. Compete at the highest level you can based on your game. The PGA Junior Series is another important golf tour. There are nine events scheduled this year beginning in May and ending July 30 with the PGA Junior Championship at Trump National in Washington, DC. One last thought. If your student can play well…really well, don’t worry too much. Coaches will find him or her. It may take a while as coaches work through all the better players in Division I, but a great player will find a place to play. And realize this, times have changed. There was a time years ago when scholarships were readily available, particularly for girls. But, with the influx of talented foreign players wanting to come to America, that is no longer the case. So, encourage your student to practice...and study. It won’t help the coach if he wants to offer a scholarship and your student cannot qualify to get into his or her school due to poor academic performance. Don't hesitate to contact us with any questions or comments. We love to help and would be honored to do so.
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In recent years schools have been challenged to provide more for their students, not only academically, but athletically. And costs to provide these programs have increased incrementally. Athletic facilities have gotten bigger, fancier, and more expensive; not only to build, but to operate. Then there is the desire to have more information. We live in an age of information overload. But, that seems to be what consumers and fans want.
Therefore many arenas and stadiums are adding new information centers…also known as digital electronic scoreboards. With these boards fans have the ability to not only tell the score, but have access to minute details along with full video and instant replays. These are great benefits; but, they come with a price. So schools are challenged with finding a way to provide these benefits and elements in a time when school budgets are at their tightest with most schools facing cuts in many areas. Back in 2002, Alice Costello Elementary School in tiny Brooklawn, NJ was just another 75 year old elementary school. But, then they became the first! Something new was added outside the gym: a seven foot illuminated sign that read “ShopRite of Brooklawn Center,” and with that ad, Costello became what is considered the first school to sell naming rights for its gym to a corporate sponsor. Since that day as schools have looked for additional revenue means, many other deals have been made with various corporations and local sponsors. In Texas, three small towns sold naming rights to their football stadiums for more than a million dollars. In today’s image driven advertising arena, there are multiple identity deals from stadium naming rights to high school cheerleaders being sponsored by a company. Sport sponsorship has evolved into a huge business enterprise with more than $15 billion being spent annually in North America alone. There are some who feel that the commercialization in schools is not only detracting from the purpose of schools, but that it is damaging in many ways. Having been involved in sports marketing since the early 1980’s, I am a strong believer in its merits. I know it works and can be beneficial not only for the corporate sponsors, but also for school districts. For schools that have little or no expertise in this arena, there are a number of seasoned professionals who can assist school districts in creating revenue programs that will enable them to offset operating costs for athletic facilities and in some cases even keep programs going that might otherwise be cut. Using these outside sources does not cost schools anything in most cases. There are several very experienced and quality sports marketing companies throughout the United States that can assist schools not only in the evaluation of how to fulfill their needs, but actually even handle all the work on the school’s behalf. The question remains, “is it better to have a facility and elements within that facility that bears a corporate identity that allows students to continue to have quality facilities, or not to have any facility for them at all?” |
AuthorCJ McDaniel,
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