Are College Golf Camps Worth It?
College Golf Camps are becoming more and more popular these days — more camps are being offered and more kids are signing up. But are they worth the investment of time, travel, and money?
Here’s some important information for you to consider as you are deciding whether a college golf camp is right for you…
Why attend a college golf camp?
There are two primary reasons why you might want to consider attending a college golf camp. The first is to learn about college golf, the second is to help get recruited to play golf in college.
Knowing what your goal is for a potential camp can be hugely beneficial in deciding whether that camp will be worth the time and expense to attend the camp.
If your goal is to learn about college golf…
If you are a younger student, going into 9th grade or younger, then signing up for a large college golf camp can be a great way to learn about college golf. You’ll get to interact with several college golf coaches, learn about how college golf works and how coaches instruct players, and ideally spend time on a college golf camp.
All great things to help fuel your fire and motivate you to keep working hard.
If your goal is to help you get recruited…
If you are thinking about attending a college golf camp because you want to have better access to college coaches, with the goal of being actively recruited to play on their team, you should be careful. This is exactly the kind of situation that can lead to disappointment.
Before you attend a college golf camp for recruiting purposes, know that the majority of players at camps are not actively going to get recruited by those coaches. Sure, it happens, but not to most players.
Still, a camp can be a great way to spend time with one or a handful of coaches who you have already had significant communication with. That last part is critical.
A camp will very rarely get you onto a coach’s radar. Rather, it will help solidify your place on a coach’s list when you are already on the coach’s radar.
Coaches need to see all of their top recruits play in person, and with summer schedules being as busy as they are, camps are an easy way to ensure an in-person evaluation.
Coaches also love to spend some time with their recruits. It’s one of the reasons why the recruiting process lasts so long… so that coaches can spend time getting to know you. This is one reason why a coach might really want you to come to their camp.
How coaches use college golf camps for recruiting purposes
The landscape of college golf recruiting is changing… RAPIDLY! It used to be that most college golf camps weren’t about recruiting. Sure, camp organizers have always pitched their camps by highlighting “exposure to coaches”, but that was often a smokescreen. Camps were a way for coaches to supplement their income.
But now, that’s changing. Camps are a great way to get in front of coaches, and an even better way to have some meaningful facetime, especially before the NCAA recruiting rules would otherwise allow you to.
Increasingly, college golf coaches are using camps as a way to not only evaluate top recruits’ abilities, and also get to know them personally. In a day and age where so much information is available online, via live scoring and online scorecards, swing videos, launch monitor data, rankings, and differentials, coaches have a pretty good sense of how good you are before they ever talk to you or meet you in person.
So why do they care about meeting you in person? Because your personality, demeanor, and goals are a huge part of whether you will be a successful college golfer at their school. These are subjective factors that coaches care a lot about. And camps are a great way to get a sense of them.
Other reason college coaches offer college golf camps
The other main reason why coaches offer college golf camps is, to be blunt, to supplement their income. Coaches at top, name-brand schools can attract kids in droves, and they are willing to pay up for the opportunity to be seen by coaches at competitive schools.
This is another reason why you need to be sure that you are a solid candidate at a school before attending a camp just to get seen by a coach… It is a big investment of time and money and it’s highly unlikely that you will get discovered at a camp.
The “bubble” recruit and college golf camps…
It is still the case that coaches are looking to recruit kids who don’t need to attend a camp to get a coach’s attention. Meaning, they are highly competitive golfers (typically from the coach’s general geographic region) who coaches know will be successful in college. For example, if you are ranked in the top 20 nationally, coaches are going to go out of their way to see you and interact with you in person.
Think about it… if I’m a coach, I want to recruit somebody who’s out there shooting great scores. And when that kid emails me to set up a time to talk about my program, I’m going to make time to meet with that kid.
But that’s not most golfers. For kids who are on the bubble, if you’ve had some communication with a coach, a camp might be a great way to push you over the edge and help you get through and really get seen. But you will rarely get discovered.
This doesn’t mean that college golf camps aren’t worth it, or that attending a camp won’t help you in your recruiting process. It just means that you need to be realistic about the benefit for you in your personal recruiting situation. And to help you get a better sense of what is a realistic outcome for your recruiting process, I recommend downloading a copy of the School & Scholarship Finder (2025 update coming soon) or scheduling a free consultation.
Conclusion
College golf camps can be a great option, but you need to be sure that you have realistic goals for the camp to ensure that it will be worth your time. Here is a list of some of the best college golf camps I have come across:
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