Six decorated college golf coaches from all over the country graced the PGA Merchandise Show’s Forum Stage Jan. 24 at 2 p.m. in Orlando to offer insight into the recruiting process and life as a collegiate student-athlete.

Panel moderator Scott Kmiec, PGA of America’s senior director of PGA career services, addressed a wide variety of open-ended topics including what it means to be a prospective student-athlete, dates for initial contact, the importance of swing videos, desirable character traits, the promises behind scholarships, tournament play and the role of recruiting services.

"The discussion was a great opportunity to educate PGA professionals on the intricacies of college golf recruiting and coaching and was very well received," Kmiec said. "The panel provided greater insight into the integral role PGA professionals can play in supporting their junior golf students as they search for colleges. It was also inspiring to several PGA Professionals in attendance who aspire to coach a college team in the future."

Kmiec looks forward to making this panel an annual PGA Show event.

Jeffrey Labelle, father of freshman Webster Thomas High School golf team member Ava Labelle from Rochester, New York, attended the college golf coach panel and asked for the microphone near the end of the presentation.

He inquired how to start researching schools with the best academic and athletic fit for his daughter. Todd Oehrlein, president of the Women’s Golf Coaches Association (WGCA) and women’s golf coach at the University of Wisconsin, recommended Labelle utilize universities’ websites to discover which degrees are offered and how competitive their golf teams are. Oehrlein also pointed out coaches would not be able to respond to contact attempts made by Ava or her father; coaches are not permitted to communicate with prospective student-athletes until Sept. 1 before the student’s junior year of high school.

His daughter Ava has played golf for approximately five years and joined her school’s varsity golf team in the seventh grade. Ava intends to study biology while playing college golf.

"If you’re good you’re good. If you score you score. But the thing is, how important is academics? A lot of these people don’t go to the LPGA or PGA [Tour]; they don’t make it. They become coaches," Labelle said.

Oehrlein believes PGA professionals who serve as swing coaches for junior golfers should get in contact with college coaches on behalf of the athlete in an attempt to begin communicating prior to their junior year in high school.

Ryan Cabbage, second vice-president of the Golf Coaches Association of America (GCAA) and director of golf at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte looked forward to sharing his perspective as a college golf coach with the PGA professionals in the audience.

"We can help the PGA professionals to better prepare their students to become student-athletes one day," Cabbage said.

According to Cabbage, finding the right golf tournaments to play is a key factor in creating name recognition for recruiting purposes.

"It comes back to performance," Cabbage said. "I think a lot of kids maybe focus more on getting their message or their brand out there when ultimately performance will get their message and their brand out a lot faster than a note to a coach."

Kevin Williams, first vice president of the WGCA and head women’s golf coach at East Carolina University, believes athletes should play in tournaments which present legitimate opportunities for victory.

Cabbage does not discount sharing contact information, upcoming schedules and recent tournament results with coaches; however, he does think it is important to understand if you play well you are going to gain interest. Although Cabbage says most talented players gain interest naturally, he feels contacting coaches is still important in cases where athletes may not already be on a particular coach’s radar.

According to Cabbage, coaches view emails from prospective student-athletes as a means of name recognition rather than character reference; emails should be used to share results, being as numerical data is the main focus during the recruitment process.

"Spend more time chipping and putting and less time making some fancy website or whatever it might be and then the results will take care of itself," Cabbage said.

Time management is one area Cabbage believes student-athletes often struggle with upon arriving to their respective universities. He feels coaches should share how to best implement beneficial time management practices with their teams.

"Take that 24 hours in a day and seven days in a week and let’s best utilize it so that our golf performance [and] our academics are at the highest level they can be,” Cabbage said. "[While] at the same time, still enjoying the college experience."

For the past 18 years as head coach of the Texas Tech Red Raiders’ men’s golf team, Greg Sands, president of the GCAA, says he found his niche in recruiting which has positively affected his team’s tournament results. He continues to learn more about taking care of his team every day; the end goal is to love on each player in an effort to make each individual a better golfer and better man, according to Sands.

When recruiting, Sands tries to get to know each player by avoiding sole reliance on first impressions.

"We may call the bag guy at the local [golf course], you know, because he’s not going to pull any punches," Sands said.

Sometimes it is difficult to find an acquaintance of the athlete who will give an honest character assessment. In these cases, Sands feels contacting a PGA professional who may provide a character reference or experiencing a parent-child interaction is equally as telling.

"It’s hard to figure [character] out in a short amount of time, but how they treat their parents is a good start," Sands said. "You can always watch the kids who don’t treat their mother with respect, it’s a pretty big turn off. You’re like, hey, that’s probably going to be me in a few years."

J.C. Deacon, head men’s golf coach at the University of Florida, thinks student-athletes must learn discipline before beginning their college golf recruitment search.

"Living a disciplined life I think is really important because in high school, you do it for yourself and you do it for your parents but you get to college and all of the sudden you’re doing it for a team. . . there’s a bunch of other people depending on you," Deacon said.

Embracing the change that comes with enrolling in a university with over 50,000 students is one aspect Deacon believes is shocking to most freshmen joining his team. Time management and decision-making skills become increasingly important with this drastic adjustment.

Over the five years Deacon has held the position of head golf coach at Florida, he has learned to make a positive out of every situation.

During the panel discussion, Deacon raised the point addressing which tournaments junior golfers should be playing in order to impress college coaches. Deacon believes prospective student-athletes should play in any tournament that requires a posted score; American Junior Golf Association (AJGA) events are not the end-all when it comes to testing the skills of young golfers.

Emily Marron, head women’s golf coach at the University of Central Florida (UCF), urges female golfers to play tournaments at courses with longer yardages to prep them for collegiate tournament rounds.

Marron also addressed a common misconception within collegiate golf involving “unused” women’s golf scholarships during the panel discussion.

"It could come from programs maybe not being fully funded. So let’s say Division I, you’re allowed to have six [women’s] scholarships but maybe your school only funds four and a half," Marron said. "The other one and a half may statistically go unused."

Division I schools are allotted six women’s scholarships and four and a half men’s scholarships per academic year; although this may seem promising, not all golf programs have the funds to offer these amounts of scholarships to student-athletes. Also, golf is considered an equivalency sport; these sports allow for scholarships to be split between players.

Marron does not believe women’s golf scholarships go unused. Having been a walk-on for Penn State in her freshman year of college before eventually earning a full scholarship, Marron knows the importance of dedication on and off the course in order to earn financial help while attending school.

"If you work hard and you believe in yourself, you just have the confidence to go out there and compete with anybody," Marron said. "I had to earn everything I ever got. That has taken me a long way in life. . . you start from the bottom and you can work your way to the top."

The general consensus regarding the production of swing videos came back as being a beneficial and useful tool for swing evaluation. The panel’s coaches also agreed on their position involving recruitment services; although they can be helpful for athletes who may not have much time on their hands, these services are costly and do not make as great of an impression as a personal email would.