5 Features of a Great College Golf Resume

 

If you’re a junior golfer looking to be recruited to play golf in college, you’ll need to write a college golf resume to send to coaches.

Having a golf resume is an essential element of the recruiting process. Your resume is the place where you list all of the key “data” about yourself that allows coaches to quickly and easily determine an initial impression of whether you are a good fit for their team.

Want to make a strong first impression? Here are five features of a great college golf resume…

 

The numbers speak for themselves

Focus on the numbers. The phrase I like to use here is that your golf resume should be “data driven”. Be sure to include:

• Weighted and unweighted GPA
• SAT, ACT (and possibly PSAT scores)
• Tournament results

These pieces of information are the meat and potatoes of the college golf resume. They should be listed near the top of your resume so that coaches can see it right away. Part of your goal in emailing coaches, especially early on, is to make it as easy as possible for them to assess your level of play and ability to help their team. And remember, let them assess you — don’t tell them why you know you are a good fit for their team — let the numbers do the talking. Sharing the wrong information is one of the main reasons why a coach might not be responding to your emails.

In addition to listing your tournament scores, include some information about the event — where it was played, the dates, course length, course par, and your finish in the field. Here is an example of how to list tournament scoring data on your golf resume:

Name of Tournament

Location

Dates

Scores

Par

Yardage

Field Size

Finish

 

Keep it short and sweet

The ideal length for a college golf resume is 1-page. Just over or under is fine, and you should feel free to play around with the margins to help keep things to a page if you are running over. 

College golf coaches don’t have a lot of time to scour through resumes, and they don’t need to know everything you’ve ever accomplished. Focus on the important details that will help you get recruited, i.e. the data and most impressive non-golf accomplishments and essential details.

 

A golf resume should be well-organized

What you share in your college golf resume doesn’t matter if coaches can’t easily absorb the information they’re looking for. It’s essential that your resume is well-formatted and features the most important information right at the top of the page.

Give the coaches the information (data) they need to evaluate you and come to their own conclusions about your level of play. 

Along these lines, make sure that your resume is free of typos, spelling errors, and formatting issues. Attention to detail goes a long way in demonstrating maturity and genuine interest.

 

Your resume is about more than just golf

Your tournament scores and academics should absolutely be the focus of your college golf resume, but your resume should include a lot more info beyond that! 

Make your resume more personal by adding a headshot and an action shot. You should also have an entire section of your resume dedicated to non-golf activities. These might include volunteer experience, club involvement at school, awards you’ve earned, etc. Anything you think someone should know about you! 

Be sure to include other athletic accomplishments, too. I once worked with a multi-sport athlete who included a link to a video of him dunking… coaches loved it! 

 

A great resume is accompanied by a great intro email

When you initiate contact with coaches during the recruiting process, you’ll include your resume as an attachment to an email. All the work that you’ve put into writing a great college golf resume doesn’t matter if a coach doesn’t click to open your resume. 

How do you increase the chances that a coach is going to take that step and click to open your resume? Write a great intro email. Here’s everything you need to know to help you write a great intro email, so that coaches want to open your college golf resume and start recruiting you.