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College Recruiting Help: Keys to an Effective Resume

College Recruiting

The Keys to an Effective Resume

October 13, 2017 | Ponte Vedra Beach, FL

By Mike Smith, ForeCollegeGolf

During today’s college recruiting process, it is more important than ever to have an established game plan. If you are a Junior Golfer who aspires to play college golf, you probably already know the basics of developing a resume, cover letter and swing video. However, college coaches are overwhelmed with hard copy and online resumes on a daily basis and can’t tackle the duties of recruiting by themselves. Saying that, most collegiate golf programs have a staff of one, the head coach. It’s also not uncommon to find Division III and NAIA schools where the head coach advises both the Men’s and Women’s programs. At the Division I level college programs have assistants which may offset the additional athletic duties but still take on the obligations of sorting through the countless numbers of resumes they receive. Bottom line, college coaches simply don’t have time to look at each and every detail on your resume. For this exact reason, it is crucial that you arrange your resume in the format they are looking for. Here’s a list of things they will look for and below you will find a sample resume for formatting purposes:

  • Graduation year
  • Tournament finishes and scores
  • Junior Golf Scoreboard or Polo Golf Ranking
  • Personal references, Instructor Contact Info, other points of contact 
  • Academic profile (GPA, test scores & transcripts) and which parts
  • Community involvement 
  • Leadership roles (sport or non-sport)
  • Fitness / other sport involvement 
  • Swing video
  • Time management techniques

Keep in mind: A well written golf resume provides college coaches a quick and clear understanding of your ability to contribute, athletically and academically, to their respective golf program as soon as you enroll Freshman year.  

So, is your golf resume ready for college coaches? Take a look below at ForeCollegeGolf’s sample resume.

Attached to your resume should be several letters of recommendation. High school coaches, instructors and other personal references serve as great recommendations. In addition, your recruiting profile also included an original cover letter addressed (individually) to each college coach. 

As you can see from the above image, all of your resume content should fit on one or two printed pages and be neatly organized. Thus, giving college coaches the ability to quickly see your successes as you mature through high school. While a few individual tournaments can be left out, the bulk of your recent successes AND failures should be included on your resume. Upcoming tournament schedules should also be included for coaches’ reference and to give them an opportunity to come watch you play.

Hope this clears up some of the confusion and frustrations you’ve been having during the recruiting process!


Now Available is a Detailed Recruiting Help Manual for Parents and Players

Mike Smith is the Founder & CEO of ForeCollegeGolf and specializes in assisting junior golfers & their families through the college recruiting process. Email him @ mike.smith@forecollegegolf.com

 

           

1 thought on “College Recruiting Help: Keys to an Effective Resume”

  1. Help give us a call. Lowest scores are 76 & 79 goal is 69. Grade point average 3.9. Irene & Mario Williams 760 637 4047

    Thank you!

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