NO Easy Way
The other day Dennis Hillman, Head Coach of The Golf Performance Academy, was talking about player development, parents, and the journey through junior golf and beyond. He brought up a great point I would like to talk about this week: Circumventing hard work, a short cut, the easy road to success, making golf easy. I know it sounds cliché, but this conversation comes up often amongst our coaching staff, players, and parents. Why, you ask? Because for some reason people have the impression that playing golf is easy. When someone works to earn the opportunity to play golf in college it is not easy. It requires a lot of hard work on the right things. Playing golf at a high level (typically a PDI of 70>,and scoring average below 74 ) means you need to be in the top 1% of golfers around the world AND be a good academic student to be admitted into those choice schools. What! That’s right, it is not easy, it requires a lot of attention to the small things that build up to the big things – playing at the collegiate level.
Playing collegiate golf is also a product of a good process and some luck. What coach sees you, hears about you, follows you at the right time along with many other variables that most people do not consider. If a student-athlete is desiring to play collegiate golf it is imperative to understand where their game is NOW and to create a plan to be able to go to the school that is the best fit (the right fit matters!). It takes working your plan to your maximum, no slacking if this is something you really care about. This journey is different for everyone, some juniors develop their games sooner, some later, some develop mental toughness earlier, some later, players have different academic interest, different life goals, by in large academic scores will be similar at the best schools therefore college admissions will be looking for other things to admit a student-athlete. What is going to separate you from the other 50,000 applicants? Most likely it will not all come from academics, like most things now, it is very competitive.
If you are considering participating, or your son or daughter are considering playing a collegiate sport such as golf, it is not going to be easy. Start earlier than you think, not that you have to worry about SAT/ACT but start creating discipline around actions that will help you along the journey will come in handy when the real push begins. We see and hear way too often about how athletes and parents “wait to see who’s interested” before acting accordingly to make things happen. Our Player Development System is an excellent way to stay disciplined on doing the right things for better outcomes. There is no substitute for goal setting, hard work and reflection to make improvements or adjustments. There is no easy route to success, there is no circumventing struggle or failure along the way, prepare early and often to make your dreams a reality!
Enjoy Your Journey!
