Experience shows us that often your pre-recruiting priorities start more aligned with what you really want, and the priorities after you’ve interacted with persuasive coaches can get skewed (just a general observation and not a rule). Having clear priorities before you start will help you stay focused during a very emotional process.

Here are reasons we’ve seen recruits choose a school:

• Affinity—you’ve grown up loving a school, it’s in your local area, and you feel a connection to it. You have always imagined yourself playing for that school. You might even have pictures of you wearing their gear or attending their events.

• Geography—Generally people go to schools closer to their home. This allows for familiarity, affinity, access to friends and family, and sometimes more affordability. Perhaps no factor predicts where someone will go to school more than proximity to home.

• PGA Tour U/ WAGR—You want to go to the place that gives you the best chance to play the top fields to position yourself to have maximum opportunity after college. PGA Tour U has become a big focus of both coaches and players and it’s widely known that a more competitive schedule accelerates opportunity.

• Scholarship—Your financial situation demands that you go where you can get the best scholarship. Maybe it’s because of your family financial situation, or because you see the scholarship offer as a display of how much they value you. Scholarship amount has always loomed over the entire recruiting process, but now with increased scholarships at many schools, it may become less of a factor.

• NIL—You want to be able to maximize your financial potential and try to accumulate as much money as possible. We’ve heard a recruit, when asked where he wanted to go, say “whoever pays me the most.”

• Education Reputation/Rankings—You want the name on that diploma hanging in your office for the next 50 years to say something . Not only will this give you some swagger when walking around town, but it might help open career doors after college that aren’t available at less-renowned schools.

• Area of Study—You have a passion to study something and this school has a strong program that fits your interest. People often assume they can easily study whatever they want at each university and are surprised when secondary admissions to their preferred major proves challenging. Look into this!

• Weather—It doesn’t always have to be warmer weather, but often recruits choose a place, or don’t choose a place, because of the weather. Generally this favors schools further south where one can “play year round,” but that doesn’t have to be the preference. Snow and cold can be a lot of fun, and a nice break from the grind. While many golfers chase the sun, others like that off-season to reset.

• Facilities—The combination of practice facilities and home courses carries a lot of weight for most recruits. While some like variety, others might like convenience and consistency. Regardless, facilities are where you practice every day with your team so we understand why it is important to almost everyone.

• Coaches—You either feel a special connection with the coaches and how they communicate with you, or you know they have a reputation for running a great program and helping their players have success. In college golf the coaching styles and roles are surprisingly diverse. What connects with some won’t connect with others. The player/coach connection matters a lot and we recommend considering the connection with the head coach more than assistants because they tend to be there longer and have a greater impact on the program culture.

• Friends - You and your best friend choose to go to the same place, and maybe you both commit at the same time. This can be a really fun and powerful reason if you are have other reasons as well—assuming it isn’t just to hang with your buddy.

• Location—Do you like a small town or a big city? Is there some part of the country you like or want to experience? Do you feel comfortable there, like the feel of the place, and the people drawn to it? Is it somewhere you might want to continue to live, and have a connection to, after college?

• Team Culture—Every team has a unique signature and vibe. They value different things, practice and compete in their own way, and speak their own internal language. One team can be intense grinders while some can be freewheeling swashbucklers. They may be all about school and golf, or be famous for off-course fun. Finding a culture that fits your vibe will resonate. It will feel like you fit.

• Parents/Family Legacy—“He needs to learn, like I learned from my father, and he learned from his father, etc.” It’s cool to carry on a family tradition and this means a lot for many recruits and families. Both schools and families value this multi-generational connection and choose a university accordingly.

• They Wanted You Most—It can be as simple as this! They really liked you, spent a lot of time and effort showing how much you mean to them, you know they need you, and it feels great to be important and wanted. We’ve found that the more a coach wants you and believes in you, the harder they will work for you.

• You Just Felt It—You don’t even know why, but you just feel something and you trust that over time you’ll learn why. You can’t explain it to everyone, but you feel in your heart that this is the right place for you.

• Post-college Connections—College can set you up for life through experiences and connections, and you want to make sure to take advantage of it. As a golfer you’ll be introduced to many who will help and support you if you make the effort to connect with them. This can turn out to be a life-changing value, and some schools might provide you more opportunities in this area than others.

• Competitive success of program—You want to be on the best team possible, around the best players, and you want to have a chance to win the national championship every year. At least you want to be there and have a chance! Winning and success is very important to you and some teams simply do it way more than others.

• Teammates—These are the people you’ll be around all the time. They will influence how you feel and how much you enjoy your time. They’ll impact your skill and development. The team members can be both a reason you choose a place, or a reason you don’t choose a place.

• Legacy—Some want to be part of a long line of success, to add their name to the lists of greats. Others want to be the pioneers that got it all started. Either way, that feeling that you matter and have a unique role and impact gives a deeper sense of mission, and many recruits feel this and choose accordingly.

We could rank these based on our experience. We could tell you which of these often proves to be overrated and which is underrated. At some point we might get more personal on these things with premium subscribers, but for most, this is something you need to think through for yourself. Even your parents and best friends will have a different list.

We recommend asking former players the question: “what things mattered most to your college experience and what things did you think would matter, but didn’t?” You will get insightful answers. In reality, too often recruits prioritize things that won’t matter, and undervalue things that could make all the difference. Then after the recruiting winds down and they’re left with daily life at their chosen school, they see through a totally different lens.

In part, that’s what this Best Four Years Substack is all about. We simply want to help more of you make the choices that will help you have the time of your life and use your college experience to catapult you into the best life possible.

We started this Best Four Years Substack to answer the many questions that come to us in our coaching jobs at ASU and UCLA. We care deeply that more can have incredible junior golf and college golf experiences, like we did, and want to help in any small way we can. By subscribing to Best Four Years and sharing our articles, you literally help us reach more people who might benefit from this content. Thank you for supporting this effort. We hope it makes a difference.

—Matt and Armen

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Before any hard conversation I always take a few moments alone to meditate/pray/ponder and remind myself of how I expect to communicate in tough moments. Every human is a beautiful creation and deserves empathy and compassion. I don’t always do things perfectly, but starting here prepares my mind and heart to have respectful and connected conversations, even when it is tough. For both coach and recruit, telling someone you didn’t choose them is a hard moment and it should be done with sincerity and decency.

Here are a few do’s and don’ts for how to do it.

DON’T DO THESE THINGS:

• Nobody but the recruit should do this. Not the parents, coaches, or anyone. This is between the recruit and college coach.

• Don’t go into detail on all the different reasons you made the choice. Coaches will often ask why and it’s hard to give an answer that won’t cause them to fight back or explain. I often say that “the answer they give is never the real answer.” If you give reasons why, they will probably argue and it won’t be a quick ending.

• Don’t send a quick text when you’ve spent many hours talking. A quick text is okay if the relationship isn’t deep with lots of live conversation, but for those that are the hardest to tell because of all the time they’ve spent on this, a quick text is probably not enough.

• Don’t feel like you have to tell which team you did commit to. They will find out soon.

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DO THESE THINGS:

• Either call or leave a thoughtful voice message. It’s good for them to hear your voice and feel your sincerity and gratitude for having an interest in you.

• Thank them

• Ask the coach you commit to if they have suggestions about how to best tell the other coaches.

• Tell people and post on social media only after you’ve notified the other coaches. They shouldn’t find out from anyone but you.

• Celebrate and be excited, and don’t let an immature coach take any of that away from you. This is a really big moment and you should feel great.

Most coaches will act happy for you, wish you well, make you feel like you made a good choice, and take the news with confidence and grace, knowing they will have plenty of other options (although it’s not cool to say those words).

Some, and most of us know who they are, may not be nice. They might be upset, accuse you of misleading them, suggest you didn’t keep your word, make you feel bad for wasting their time, and simply make you question if you did the right thing.

A grown adult person in a strong position of authority doing this to a 16/17 year old should reveal to you that you made the right decision by not selecting them. Nothing is gained from a hostile ending. Still, it’s hard to be told No, and this is our livelihood as coaches, so it can be a painful blow to the ego.

Often the recruit is someone coaches spent a lot of time and money recruiting, and they imagined and believed this golfer could make a big difference in the team success. So give them a little break if they aren’t as graceful as they should be. Maybe you’ll find in a couple years that they’re pretty cool, and just had a bad moment.

Every YES to someone, for both coaches and recruits, means a NO for many more others. That’s tough, but it’s part of life. If you handle it with maturity and warmth, it can be a bonding moment. You will see these coaches again and it’s better to have that coach saying things like “that guy was really cool when he called me to tell me No” instead of “he didn’t even tell me and I had to find out on Instagram.”

Congrats on your commitment. Enjoy the amazing moment and celebrate it. That celebration will be even better after you let the other coaches know and do it in a classy way you can be proud of.

Matt and Armen

Part of being a good teammate is being good in both chats.

For college golf teams the chat is usually on iMessage, WhatsApp, GroupMe, Facebook, etc. Other types of groups use those or Teams, Slack, etc. On video games the team chats are usually in app. The leader/coach needs to first find the app that all have access to and will look at regularly.

In the coach-led chat the minimum level of success allows the coach to know that: 1) you got the information, 2) that you are good with the information. This is the bare minimum. A simple “sounds good Coach,” “I love it,” “See you there,” “We got this,” “Thanks Coach,” is expected. Some might argue that if it’s an active chat, a simple “Tapback” (be careful on the mix of hearts and thumbs up usage), is sufficient when passing basic information. Over time, when the chat functions effectively and the coach knows everyone always see the messages, even a Tapback isn’t needed for basic information-based messages.

Some messages are more important than simple information sharing. These are messages where the coach is hoping to inspire, give a shout out, or offer some feedback/coaching. It can also be important announcements. In these messages, a Tapback is usually not enough. The more emotion and passion a coach puts into a message, the more the team member should reciprocate with similar energy. A great teammate will not disagree or criticize, or be quiet, when someone is trying to share something meaningful. They surely won’t change the subject. Instead they will build on it by adding their own comment with similar energy that extends the message and shows support. They might also ask a question that extends the conversation and pulls others in. The coach and team members will feel and appreciate the matched energy and willingness to grow the conversation.

The leaders and top performers, by participating in the chat, and matching coach’s energy, signal to the other members of the team that participating and adding to the team chat is the right and cool thing to do.

Ideally, the coach-led team chat becomes a nest of inspiration, connection, and collaboration. As it becomes better, and team members bring their own leadership and energy, and sharing of ideas/enthusiasm/inspiration becomes something all members of the team do. They know it’s safe and that their thoughts will be appreciated and respected. They begin to find and think of good things to share themselves. They become producers of the team inspiration and energy, and not just users.

This is a coach’s dream. Not only are the messages being heard and supported, but now everyone is part of the discussion and all are both producers AND consumers of inspiration and energy. This moves the team forward with a dynamic communication forum that keeps all moving toward team goals with inspiration and motivation.

If you want earn the sincere appreciation of your coach, be a guy that matches their energy. Make sure they feel you are fully bought in, that you enjoy the messages, appreciate their efforts, and that they are making you better. Don’t be “too cool” to share ideas and inspiration. Become a leader who doesn’t just leave it to the coach to coach and inspire, but who adds their own ideas while inviting all on the team to do the same.

It’s hard to express how valuable to a team culture an awesome team chat can be. A great teammate will carefully consider their participation in the team chat and make sure they are showing support for the coach and program objectives, while also taking the responsibility to provide enthusiasm and energy themselves. They will blur the line between coach and player by also providing coaching and inspiration that lifts the coach. The coach never wants to feel alone. The coach always notices who doesn’t participate or show enthusiasm for the messages.

By participating actively and effectively in the team chat a player shows they care about more than themselves. They think about the bigger picture and want others, including the coach and whole program, to be successful.

You may wonder what you should share. Here are a few options:

• Support others who share something by agreeing, building on, or following with a relevant question

• Share your thoughts from the practice/competition and express how much you care by praising those who did well and encouraging the group to do better

• Share something you learned on the course that might help the team the next day

• Share things you are reading or viewing that you believe might help others

• Praise and recognize members of the team who have success

• Express gratitude to the coach, team, or certain members of the team

• Make and share funny memes—every team does this!

• Remind the team of shared goals and expectations to get everyone back on track

• Share links to cool things you find—but remember that your own thoughts and experience is always more powerful than simply sharing someone else’s

Now we have to address the “No Coaches Chat,” which is also an important part of team culture. This chat will inevitably have worse language, more inappropriate content, funny or goofy things, and sometimes behind-the-scenes controversy. Each team needs this outlet and it’s up to the leaders on the team to make sure that while it is different and maybe more gritty than the official team chat, it should not contradict the information, feel, and messaging of the official chat.

Complaining or blaming is the kryptonite of any team. The “No-Coaches Chat” can’t have whining, complaining, or anything to undercut the team and coaches. It can have stories from last night, funny pictures, ongoing banter and teasing, information about non-team activities, etc.

On our team the leaders have the responsibility for picking our daily practice uniform. This is communicated on the “no-coaches” chat and the coaches are not in the same uniform. It’s a team thing. It’s also a place to coordinate rides and plans (At least I think, since I’m not on the chat). Occasionally I’m shown a funny photoshopped pic or meme created by a teammate from the chat. It always makes me happy to know there is a place they can communicate and be a team, outside of the coaching staff.

Everyone is talking about “culture” these days. You can know a team culture by their team chats. Both of them. Great teams will have dynamic and active communication together, with all members participating. Ideas are shared and grown. It’s cool to be “into it” and offer your enthusiasm and inspiration to the group. The best teams do this. The best teammates do this. The best coaches create space for this and set the tone.

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A special energy exists at every Hole 1 teeing ground. I’m sure if you think of it for a second you would agree the air feels thicker with more intensity, energy, and nervousness on that tee. You would feel this at any course, on any day, across the entire golf world. Maybe I’ll write about it sometime.

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That first tee energy is heightened in the final round of a tournament, and as I walked to over that day I could feel it, as three young men, ages 10-12, anxiously prepared to start the final round, and try to win a golf tournament.

I can’t remember the first to hit, but I remember the next two because their differences taught me something I won’t forget. The second player was announced and walked quickly to the tee, a slightly hunched and rounded back, with his eyes narrowly focused. He teed up his ball, took a quick practice swing and hit the ball right down the middle of the fairway. Good shot! He knew he hit a good drive and instead of watching it, quickly picked up his tee and scurried back to his bag before the ball had even stopped rolling. I thought to myself, “nice drive but it seemed like he really wanted to get that over with.”

The final player was announced and he slowly walked behind the ball where he stood in perfect posture, holding his club and looking down the fairway for a few seconds. Then he slowly walked into the ball, waggled a little, and hit it down middle of the fairway, like the player before him.

But unlike the other boy who quickly raced off the tee when he knew the drive was good, this guy held his finish tall and proud, and watched the ball. He watched it fly, land, roll, and come to a stop. Only after it stopped he slowly walked off the tee, even once looking back at his ball now resting in the fairway. The other players and spectators were anxious to leave the tee and walk up the fairway, but they hesitated because the last boy was still enjoying his moment. After watching this, and in contrast to the previous player, I thought to myself “He really enjoyed that and wanted it to last forever.”

I don’t know who shot the better score that day and never heard who won, but I have a guess!

The moment stuck with me and I started to see the same pattern over and over. In the biggest moments, when the pressure is on, and when the eyes of many are on you, do you hope it gets over quickly or do you wish it would last forever? Now that I’ve identified this simple difference, you will find it easy to see when you watch others.

I started to watch for this in recruiting and it’s become a key in my evaluations. Do they love the pressure? How do they physically show their confidence in the moment? Are they comfortable in it? Does time slow down for them in those key moments? Do they look like they want it to last forever?

Or on the other hand, are they uncomfortable owning the big moment? Do they shrink physically? Do they want it to end quickly? Do I see stress in their eyes and face?

Beyond recruiting this can be a great question to ask yourself. When you feel nervous and the pressure is heightened, how do you feel? Nervousness will never go away, but I believe you can develop a comfort in these moments if you practice. Everyone can learn to own the moment, even when the stomach is churning.

Remind yourself of this simple mindset and develop a desire to make it “last forever.” Stand tall and pull your shoulders back. Look around and smile. Move a little slower. Remind yourself that you were made for these moments. Imagine that everyone bought a ticket just to observe your presence and mastery in that moment. Enjoy being the center of attention and enjoy putting on a show. You’ve worked hard for this moment, so enjoy it.

The first time I saw Josele Ballester play was on a first tee at a junior golf tournament. His group waited for the fairway to clear ahead so they could start the round. Josele held his driver by the shaft, close to the head, and slowly walked all around the tee while looking down the fairway. He was like a caged animal ready to attack. Another coach accurately said “he looks like a silverback gorilla,” which is incidentally how he got the gorilla emoji signature we use to represent him on Instagram.

The other players in the group stood quietly by their golf bags off to the side of the tee because there simply wasn’t enough space on the tee for the pacing gorilla and anyone else. Josele owned that tee. He loved the moment and his aura filled all the space. He went on to play great that week.

In big moments consider how you carry yourself physically. Hold a strong posture and make your movement slow, powerful, and graceful. Position yourself and move in a way that reminds you how much you love this moment. Develop a desire to want it last forever. Be in relaxed control. Over time, you’ll become comfortable and you’ll own the moment, hitting big shots at big times, and giving all those people a show that maybe someday they will write about in a Substack article.

Matt and Armen

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The coaches should assume the same. Usually what is said to one recruit is passed along to another, and once that happens, everyone knows a version of it.

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You’ve probably played the game “telephone” where you whisper a simple sentence to one person and have them pass it along quietly to the next. After passing it several times, the latest version of the sentence is completely different from the original. This is how information spreads in the recruiting process and even on teams.

The amount of misinformation is astounding. Things you hear about a recruit, a coach, a team, a conversation, an offer, NIL, etc., are rarely accurate. Unless you hear it directly from the actual person, it’s safe to assume it’s probably inaccurate.

I have a couple suggestions that have served me well on how to deal with this:

• If you always tell the truth you don’t have to remember all the things you said. Be honest and consistent, and even though your words and stories will be misrepresented, you can rest easy knowing you will always have the facts straight. This will help people trust you and give you peace of mind.

• Don’t believe anything you hear. We have a recruiting principle that says “don’t believe any gossip and do all of our own research.” I’ve landed program-changing recruits that others didn’t recruit because of false information. Recruits and parents should also not believe many of the things they hear about coaches/programs/recruiting/etc.

• Keep your circle small. If you have a few people you can discuss things with, those you know you can trust, it’s best to keep all information within that group. Make sure all understand that it’s best to keep information tight.

• Do not share private information about offers from coaches with anyone but your immediate family. Agents, other recruits, other parents, coaches, etc. all have something to gain from sharing your key information. You will quickly lose a coach’s trust if you share information too loosely.

• Don’t shop offers. It’s okay to say “I would like this” or “I need this,” but it’s not okay to say “they offered me this and they offered me this, etc.” It may feel good in the moment, but you’re basically telling that coach that you will do the same with the next coach when this conversation is over. As I’ve mentioned before, soon all coaches will know that you are shopping the offers and it will hurt you.

• Keep your antennae up for people who gossip, love drama, and talk too much. Avoid sharing anything with those people. You know who they are.

A deep relationship of trust is essential to a successful relationship between coaches and players. Both need to feel safe with each other. Protect each other. Be honest with each other. Prove yourself by not sharing private things. Few people can do this and those that do are a treasure—you want them on your team. Encourage your parents to do the same. Too often the parents gossip the most.

I know this sounds negative and paranoid, but I’ve seen it now for a very long time. Your relationships with your teammates and coaches will be stronger if you and your parents protect information. Coaches will also earn the trust of their players and their parents when they keep information private. This lesson is important on a team, in recruiting, and in all relationships and all areas of life.

When we make offers we ask that they be kept within the people on the call or in the room. This is important to protect the player and avoid jealousy on the team. It doesn’t do any good to have other people know your scholarship/NIL situation.

Start your college golf career with relationships built on trust and integrity. Don’t gossip. And when you hear gossip, don’t believe it or pass it along. I’m talking to myself, coaches, parents, and recruits themselves.

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For some recruits and coaches the recruiting process revolves around, and culminates in, these visits. For others, visits don’t even happen before a commitment is made. We both have recruits that definitely need and want to take at least a few visits, and some that are comfortable committing before any visit.

Over the last few years and with the current recruiting rules, visits have become more popular, in general. So if you do have a visit or visits scheduled with schools, what should you expect? And as you prepare, what things will be most important for you to learn to help you make the best decision possible?

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Let’s go over the basics of the official visit.

Who Pays? - The school will pay for essentially all of your expenses, including flights for the recruit and parents. They’ll pay for all the meals and the coaches will probably sit and chat at most of them. Hotel accommodations will be booked and paid for by the school. Transportation to and from the airport will be arranged by the coaching staff, or they will pick you up themselves. On an official visit the recruit will have essentially no out-of-pocket expenses, other than a stop at the university store to pick up some swag.

A few key things are accomplished on every visit:

• See campus and the facilities

• Recruit, parents, and coaches take time to get to know each other

• Meet and spend time with current players

• Connect with key people that will be a part of the student’s development (trainers, academic support, administrators, etc)

• Get a feel for the area and location

Each program and coach will have slightly different philosophy about what to accomplish on a visit, but the nuts and bolts of the day will probably be similar from visit to visit. You can expect see a lot of things, eat lots of food, and do lots of talking.

The Campus Tour: This will last a few hours. They’ll show you around the university, mostly focusing on where the recruit will spend their academic life. Classrooms, lecture halls, general student body dining areas, etc. In some cases the coaches will have never stepped foot in these buildings unless they are an alum so maybe they’ll ask a student to show you around. I’ve found that usually the parents are more engaged during this part of the visit than the recruit. If the timing is right, part of this campus time could include a big event, like a football game. These amazing game are a highlight of a visit and many schools carefully plan to bring in recruits when the campus is most electric for the big games.

Facilities Tour: When a coach uses the term facilities they are talking about athlete-only areas. These are places like gyms, training rooms, locker rooms, athlete dining areas, athlete study areas, and golf-only practice areas and buildings. This is when the recruits get excited. They envision themselves training and improving, and get a real feel for where and how they will spend much of their college lives.

Golf Courses: This could be included in the facilities tour. Time spent on golf course visits will depend on a program’s access or proximity to courses, or how much they want to show their practice facility. Are you okay playing the same course everyday? Do you want variety? How long does it take to get there? What are conditions like during the school year? These are questions you can ask during the visit. Most recruits enjoy seeing the courses, but some coaches may take them to a few too many. Certain rules allow, or don’t allow, the recruit to play the courses. We won’t go into that here, but there are scenarios where a recruit might actually play and practice with the team. Ask the coach if you should bring the clubs.

Daily Life: The everyday environment will play a big role in your success. Your living situation, culture of your daily life, and all types of daily interactions shape your experience. The perfect cultural fit will be very individualistic and will be different for everyone, but while you’re on a visit, make an effort to get a feel for what life would be like if you lived there full time. Coaches will sometimes try to assist with this by showing you the surrounding areas, taking you to favorite local restaurants, shopping malls, movie theaters, attractions and parks. Make sure to see the basic things too, like a dorm, the laundry room, the walk to class, the airport, etc. This is how you’ll develop an idea of life outside campus and golf.

Time With Current Players: Depending on what time a year you visit, the current players may or may not be around. If they are, it’s a great opportunity to spend time with them. Have them attend a dinner or share a dessert together. The players will be a great insight to what the program is really like. Ask them questions, watch them interact with each other, and most of all ask them about the coaches. The coach will always make the place seem amazing. The students will usually be able to do it for a short period of time, but as you spend more time with them they will become more and more honest with you. You’ll either realize how much they love their experience and have a great team culture, or time could reveal that maybe it is a bit different than the coach says.

You will see a lot, and speaking as coaches, we will put our best foot forward to make this visit great. The facilities will wow, the courses will impress, campus will be beautiful, and the you’ll eat some (or way too much) great food. Everything you see will be important in helping you make a great decision so you can have the best four years possible.

We tend to think that of all things, what will make or break your experience in college is the people you will be around all the time. Your relationship with the coaches, your teammates, and all the support staff will turn out to be the key aspects of an incredible college golf experience. Be extra observant of those people and how you feel with them.

Here is a list of things we would watch for and think about while on an official visit if we were taking our own children:

• How comfortable do you feel talking with the coaches (especially the head coach)?

• How do the players treat each other and do they seem to genuinely like being together?

• How do the coaches and players interact with each other and speak of each other?

• Does it feel right? Does it feel like you fit it?

• Does it feel like the people will bring the best out of you and be the kind of teammates who you want to be around?

• Are there any cultural red flags that just don’t seem to vibe with you (students don’t take school seriously, party too much, party too little, aren’t really into golf, etc)?

• Do the players on the team seem to have the same expectations and passion for improvement that you do?

• Can you imagine living in this town/city for four years, and returning over and over the rest of your life?

• If you’re in a golf slump, will you still like the place or are you only considering it for golf?

• Do you feel like the coaches and players really believe in you and want you on their team?

Have a great visit!

We started this Best Four Years Substack to answer the many questions that come to us in our coaching jobs at ASU and UCLA. We care deeply that more can have incredible junior golf and college golf experiences, like we did, and want to help in any small way we can. By subscribing to Best Four Years and sharing our articles, you literally help us reach more people who might benefit from this content. Thank you for supporting this effort. We hope it makes a difference.

—Matt and Armen

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Nobody imagines a college golf experience where they don’t travel with the team. This more than anything else, whether right or not, is what motivates the college golfer. They want to play. And to be fair, traveling with your team to college golf tournaments really is the best part of the whole experience.

With 9-10 players on a team, and just five competing in most tournaments, those not in the “starting five” usually stay home. Nearly every player, no matter how good they are, stays home at some point. It’s always memorable and always painful. Everyone wants to travel and nobody wants to stay home.

“Qualifying” then, is generally the competitive system within the team to determine which five travel to each event. There are countless ways to organize qualifying. Some coaches have a very consistent system, and others create new schemes every week.

Because golf is an objective sport, with scores easily tracked and compared, it makes sense to “play for it,” but let’s be honest here—most coaches probably believe they could choose the right five guys more accurately than a qualifying.

Most teams have those guys who play well in qualifying and don’t play well in tournaments, and those who don’t play well in qualifying, but do play well in tournaments (at least they think this, and it may happen for a while, but the results usually catch up and the same who play well in qualifying play well in tournaments).

In most sports the coaches simply select the lineup, but in golf, qualifying can make the coach’s decision. The coaches simply create the format/competition then the results select the lineup. Often, even after qualifying, the lineup is not the one the coach would have selected. So why do it?

The most important reason for qualifying isn’t selecting the lineup, but for creating a fair system on the team and keeping the peace. In a sport where the scores do the talking, “playing for it” will always be the safe way to have a fair system. A coach who avoids qualifying and simply selects the lineup will eventually have disgruntled players (and their parents) who feel they haven’t been given a fair chance. This comes with accusations of favoritism or political decision-making. Nearly everyone can find some statistic to convince themselves that the coach should have chosen them instead of someone else. No system brings less frustration and drama than simply having a wide open qualifying system. Even if qualifying gets the wrong lineup, the integrity and predictability, and “fairness” of the system could be best for the team in the long run.

Qualifying creates a heirarchy on a team. Scores and averages are recorded. You earn the competitive respect of teammates by delivering in qualifying. Every team needs this. Early in the season qualifing are generally more open, but after a heirarchy of results has been built over time, it becomes simpler to select the players who have clearly deserved it through repeated performance.

Qualfyings build confidence because they are tough. Usually you come from class, eat quickly, have an abbreviated warmup, play a variety of courses, and play against someone you see every day. Earning your spot through demanding qualifying gives a player the confidence they will need to stand on the first tee of the next tournament knowing they deserve it and earned it.

Sometimes you already know who the starting five should be, but you haven’t competed for a while and you need to create qualifying to keep people competitively sharp. Having qualfying brings risk of getting the “wrong” players, but the value of competing and staying sharp probably outweighs that. The point of it all is to have a team ready to compete in the tournaments and qualfyings prepare a team well.

Now, I have some important advice. Learn to see qualifying positively. Embrace it. Love it. Get excited for it. I have coached two players specifically, two of the very best I’ve ever coached, who have been successful professionals, who never wanted “exemptions.” They wanted to beat the other guys on the team again. They loved competing and asked to play in the qualifying even when they could have been exempt.

For your entire career in golf you will have to re-earn your spot. It will never stop. At every level you will have this pressure. No matter how good you get, you’re are always a couple years away, or a couple weeks away, from not getting into the biggest events. If you understand this and build your career around loving this process, it will serve you well. Seeing this competitive cauldron as a negative, and wanting it to be easy and guaranteed, will not lead to greatness and will probably be a mentality that will stunt your career. Learn to love every single chance to test and prove yourself before, during, and after college, and throughout your entire career. This process will lead to continued growth and help you keep your edge.

The last thing to remember about qualifying is this: it’s a really big deal to the coach. The coach is under immense pressure to perform. They want and need the team to play well. Their family’s livelihood and even their career depends on it. You can assume they are doing the very best they can to select the right players and create the right preparation for success. They won’t get it right all the time, and many will think reasons the coach should have done it differently, but for no one are the consequences of these qualfying decisions more important than the coach. You can trust that they have good reasons for the decisions they make—their job depends on it.

In the coming months I plan to have a “Qualifying Series” where we share legendary qualifying stories and also thoughts about how to make qualifying more effective for all.

We started this Best Four Years Substack to answer the many questions that come to us in our coaching jobs at ASU and UCLA. We care deeply that more can have incredible junior golf and college golf experiences, like we did, and want to help in any small way we can. By subscribing to Best Four Years and sharing our articles, you literally help us reach more people who might benefit from this content. Thank you for supporting this effort. We hope it makes a difference.

—Matt and Armen

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Modern equipment development minimizes the dispersions of “missed” shots, gurus use math and satellite imagery to teach strategy, and every player has a sophisticated statistics program. They can compare themselves, in any part of the game, to both peers and the world’s best. Without a doubt, these and other things have lowered scoring averages and neutered courses at every level, including college golf.

Despite junior and college golfers being better in almost all areas of the game, I have observed that creativity has been lost, or at best, has become dormant.

Hitting recovery shots from all different lies is an art form that fewer and fewer players possess. Surprisingly common is the elite college golfer, maybe even an All-American level player, who struggles to hit a punch shot from the trees. Having an ability to control trajectory and shape from different lies, with obstacles in the way, is a skill that isn’t practiced enough.

The very top players I’ve coached and observed find joy in hitting all different types of shots. While in practice they exhibit an almost childlike behavior and joy of experimenting with fun shots. When Matt and I worked together we planted several trees on the team facility just to practice shots under, over, and around them. Our guys loved using those trees.

We make our players play with few clubs, hit flop long irons out of bunkers, sling big hooks and slices, and many other creative shots.

An observer of this type of creative and fun practice might even describe it as “goofing around,” or question why you would practice something you may never use on the course. I would argue the exact opposite. I believe players that practice creatively learn at a far faster rate than their peers.

When you watch the very best players in the world hit shots that amaze you, that’s not by accident. Their minds allow them to see different types of shots and they have nurtured their creativity so in competition they have a deep well to pull from.

Next time you are at the course, drop balls in bad spots and see how you score. I can promise if you are comfortable making par from from the worst places, your confidence will soar.

We started this Best Four Years Substack to answer the many questions that come to us in our coaching jobs at ASU and UCLA. We care deeply that more can have incredible junior golf and college golf experiences, like we did, and want to help in any small way we can. By subscribing to Best Four Years and sharing our articles, you literally help us reach more people who might benefit from this content. Thank you for supporting this effort. We hope it makes a difference.

—Matt and Armen

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His answer tapped into a theme I’ve seen among the best I know. It’s a desire to be coached hard. It’s a willingness to know the difficult things that the ego doesn’t want to hear.

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Receiving hard feedback is tough for all of us. It hurts. We generally know we aren’t perfect, but someone reminding us can sting. We’d rather just come to it ourselves, but we can rarely see the hardest things in mirror. We have blind spots. We have a very foggy lens through which we see ourselves. We need others to help us.

Being willing to take hard feedback is a sign of self-confidence. It basically says, “I know my value and I know I’m good, so go ahead and tell me what I need to know to help me get even better.” On the contrary, those not wanting feedback, or more specifically, difficult feedback, usually have a self-esteem wrapped up very closely in their performance and results. Tough feedback suggests something is lacking in golf or performance (or in other areas of life), feels a bit more personal, because the line between the golfer and the person is so thin.

David’s answer reminds me of an answer I give to the often-asked question “have you seen a common trait among all the best players you’ve coached?” I usually answer “The Stockdale Paradox” or some explanation of what that is without using the exact term.

The Stockdale Paradox, something I’ve shared with my team many times, refers to an epiphany that Jim Collins had after talking with Admiral James Stockdale, a famous surviving American prisoner of war. Collins was working to crystallize a pattern he had seen in the CEO’s of all the great companies he was studying for his best-selling book Good To Great, and the conversation with Stockdale clicked. What Stockdale was describing, when asked which prisoners of war made it out and which did not, is exactly what he found with these great CEOs. In the book he called it the Stockdale Paradox. This paradox represented a duality he saw in the CEOs, and it’s the same thing I’ve seen over and over in great golfers and other top performers I know.

The Stockdale Paradox is to “retain faith that you can and will prevail in the end, regardless of the difficulties, AND at the same time confront the brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.”

This principle doesn’t just apply to golf, but to all areas of our lives where we hope to grow and achieve. It takes the self-esteem to understand and deeply believe you will find a way to prevail and eventually come out on top, while also being willing to see where and what you really are. The gap between the two is often painful to see, but it is necessary. It will motivate the truly high achievers. Both sides of the paradox are vital to understand and develop in ourselves.

We all have things that are hard to learn about ourselves. Sometimes when we hear about them we wish we didn’t know, because the work it will take to change comes with a heavy dose of humility and struggle.

I’m not suggesting that all negative feedback is good and that this principle gives me or any coach or parent (or internet troll) the right to share really difficult or unwanted things to people. We are talking about very sensitive stuff here. And high performers will not listen to those who don’t listen themselves and/or take the time to build a relationship that can support candid feedback. In fact, there are many who would be willing to hear hard feedback, and confront the brutal facts, if we do enough as coaches/parents/friends/leaders/mentors to build a deep relationship of trust that would allow these conversations to happen. Too many people give the feedback without building the relationship that can support it first.

That’s the job of a coach or teacher—to build the trust so high that a student is willing to hear hard things from you. It’s also the job of the coach/leader to be sure to have the right info to share in those key moments when the feedback needs to be heavy. Maybe there will be things that only you can tell them, and their top-end potential depends on you building the relationship that can facilitate it. This can take years of real relationship development.

Legendary coach Mike Krzyzewski said “the best players want excellence demanded of them.” I think that is what David was telling me when he said “I want someone who will tell me the truth.” He was saying that he had the confidence to be willing to hear hard things. I hope I did a good job for David and helped him along his way, and I’m so happy for who he is becoming as a person and player.

We started this Best Four Years Substack to answer the many questions that come to us in our coaching jobs at ASU and UCLA. We care deeply that more can have incredible junior golf and college golf experiences, like we did, and want to help in any small way we can. By subscribing to Best Four Years and sharing our articles, you literally help us reach more people who might benefit from this content. Thank you for supporting this effort. We hope it makes a difference.

—Matt and Armen

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August 1 is the first day that a coach and recruit can meet together in person (this includes families). Specifically, this means they can have an “official visit” or unofficial visit at the school, connect at a cafe/restaurant to talk, hang out in the parking lot after a round, or even sit together in the recruits living room. Things are going all different directions on June 15 with unlimited possibilities and options, but on August 1, you find out what’s really happening.

June 15 was always going to be fool’s gold. In reality, no coach can regularly communicate and show interest with dozens of recruits. Further, no recruit should be spending all waking hours talking and texting with 20 coaches. It just doesn’t make sense and it can’t last for long. From early on, both sides feel an urge to simplify this process and shrink the list of options down.

That’s why August 1 makes sense. This is “going to second base.” This is where you find out if the coach and recruit are really interested. They’ll do something after August 1, or they won’t. It takes a much greater commitment to set up a visit or spend time with someone face to face than it does to send off a bunch of texts.

What exactly, will the coaches do? Many coaches these days build their recruiting model around bringing recruits to their campus. These coaches might bring in several or more recruits to see a football game, tour facilities, take photos, eat meals, and do everything to make a recruit feel like every day will be this amazing if they go to that school. Coaches jockey for priority with recruits to be one of the schools on the visit list and can feel good about “getting a visit” from a desired recruit.

Other coaches may ease into it a bit more by opening an off-campus in-person dialogue with recruits, lurking to chat after rounds, scheduling a more formal meeting at tournaments, and using this time to get to know each other before planning elaborate visits. Sometimes that first in-person connection accelerates to a visit, and sometimes a lack of connection or other factors make the visit pointless.

A step further is planning a “home visit,” which happens, but is much less common than it was years ago. For a home visit a coach will simply travel to visit the family, potentially seeing the high school, home course, home town, and the shelves of trophies won by Johnny over the years. Because this usually involves travel, is only for a single recruit, and is very personal in nature, a home visit usually represents a different level of interest and commitment.

All of these options represent a huge step forward in the process. This is the real stuff. When a coach wants to have you for a visit, meet you at a tournament, and/or visit your home, you can know that it’s for real. They don’t do this for many recruits.

To close out this article we thought it would be good to offer some quick FAQ on these things, based on the common questions we hear:

• Should I push for an official visit with the coach? We often have recruits wanting to set up a visit. Understand that having a recruit on a visit is a huge thing, and it is uncomfortable for both the recruit and coach if there isn’t deep and sincere interest. We would recommend letting a coach know you would be interested in a visit, official or unofficial, if available, but letting them drive if it actually happens.

• What happens on a home visit? We can’t say exactly what others do, but generally it’s a simple visit to talk. The visit might last anywhere from an hour to a day and probably includes a meal at some point. It would be a rare home visit that doesn’t talk specifically about actual interest from both sides. The more personal environment lends to deeper and more real conversations.

• What if I heard from a coach on June 15 and after, but am not hearing from them as it gets closer to August 1? That probably means they are either not interested, or they’re focusing on someone ahead of you for now. Because it is hard to show deep interest in many recruits at the same time, sometimes silence just means you need to be patient and see how things play out. It does probably mean that you aren’t their first priority at the moment, but most coaches don’t end up their first choice, so hang in there.

• When do the official visits happen? Usually they take place from August to early October when recruits are deciding.

• If a coach wants me to take an official visit, but I don’t really want to, what do I do? We believe being open and honest is always the best choice. A simple, “thank you coach, but I’m just not sure I want to schedule that just yet as I’m still working on narrowing down my options.”

• Is it okay to “take a visit” when it is offered even if I have no interest in going to that school? That’s really up to you. We probably wouldn’t do it, but lots of people have imagined doing these visits for a long time and simply want to have the experience. It can be hard to pass up. Know that by you saying yes to a visit, a coach will assume you at least have some sincere interest in their school.

• If none of these things are happening for me am I just out of luck? No! This is a typical timeline for the most high profile recruits at the top programs. There are many pathways different than the one we are outlining. Remember, if you are really really good, coaches will eventually be beating down your door to come to their school.

We started this Best Four Years Substack to answer the many questions that come to us in our coaching jobs at ASU and UCLA. We care deeply that more can have incredible junior golf and college golf experiences, like we did, and want to help in any small way we can. By subscribing to Best Four Years and sharing our articles, you literally help us reach more people who might benefit from this content. Thank you for supporting this effort. We hope it makes a difference.

—Matt and Armen

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We’ve seen time and time again the huge impact of having a great chipper on your team. Every team needs the “did you see that,” and “how’d he do that” guy. Assuming you have an environment of growth and learning, where golfers practice together and push each other, when you insert a talented short game into a team it just might lead to a bunch of great short games.

Why is this one great chipper so powerful? How can one player make such an impact? Can’t you just coach players to be better chippers? Is it a technique thing?

Of course all golf personalities are different. Often the creative, playful, and experimental type are more inclined to building that self-made and magical short game that makes people gasp.

Other less creative players learn by watching and seeing them do it first, and that’s fine too.

We’d like to think that this magical short game can be coached by us, but in our experience the fastest development of our team’s overall short game skill comes when an elite chipper is inserted into the group. The team sees them doing cool things in an often “different” way and their collective minds expand. They say “how’d he do that?!” They start trying stuff. It becomes cool to develop new advanced skills. Creativity abounds and becomes part of the culture and before long, you have more than one great chipper.

In the book The Talent Code, by Dan Coyle, he shows that humans are pre-wired to imitate and that the most powerful learning tool, especially at a young age, is watching others. Coyle shares how the most talented people, or groups of people, increase their own learning by simply watching others perform a skill at a high level.

We’ve always said college golf is a team sport because we become like those we are with all day, every day. In no other sport do teammates spend more time together.

We, as coaches, must make sure we cultivate an environment that encourages this type of intra-team learning. Our environment needs to promote time practicing together, watching and learning from each other, teaching and competing with each other, etc.

There’s something good about lining up on the range and hitting balls together, but when you see your team chipping together every day, you can know that this is where the magic happens!

What does this mean for the junior or college golfer?

Push yourself to become the best chipper you can. Expand the possibilities of your potential. Find the best chipper at your course or on your team and compete against them, ask questions, develop an understanding of how they execute shots, and why they do it that way. Simply watch and observe, then copy.

Another option is to seek out a coach that specializes in chipping. These are not easy to find, and they need to be good.

Tap into your creative side. Don’t be afraid to mess around and try different shots. There are so many ways to chip, and you’ll find what works for you through massive amounts of experimenting and an open and learning mind.

Some short game learning will come from copying others, some will come through technical coaching, and some of the most magical stuff will come to you all alone through effort and experimentation, and it will be uniquely yours.

A common question we get at our camps or from our incoming recruits is “what do I need to do as a player to have a smooth transition to college golf?” We’ve noticed a gap between the short game skill required in junior golf and the short game skill required in college golf. Work on that gap.

Sometimes good young college players feel like they have lost their ability to chip when they arrive. That’s usually not the case. They feel this because the pins are closer to the edge, rough is thicker, greens are faster, fairway lies are tighter, and they’re surrounding by a bunch of golfers who were also the best where they come from. This is part of the journey, and it’s time to level up.

New skills are required. If you are a junior or senior in high school and are planning to play college golf, now is a great time to push your short game to the next level.

No matter what level you get to in this game, the short game is a never ending pursuit of learning and creativity. Have fun with it. Maybe one day you will be the one that changes everything on your team!

We started this Best Four Years Substack to answer the many questions that come to us in our coaching jobs at ASU and UCLA. We care deeply that more can have incredible junior golf and college golf experiences, like we did, and want to help in any small way we can. By subscribing to Best Four Years and sharing our articles, you literally help us reach more people who might benefit from this content. Thank you for supporting this effort. We hope it makes a difference.

—Matt and Armen

Each year represents a different phase in the recruiting cycle. Coaches go through the same cycle over and over and over again, but each recruit only does it once. We want to share with you what that cycle, or “timeline,” might look like for a recruit.

The “Getting Good at Golf” Phase: This phase starts when you first picked up that golf club and fell in love with the game. You didn’t pick it up so you could be a college golfer and you don’t go putt with your buddies all day to impress a coach. This is you just loving the game, learning how to improve, and growing as a player. You don’t think about college golf and don’t base any of your golf journey on that. You just love the game and can’t get enough of getting better.

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The “There‘s this thing called college golf” Phase. The phase starts when college begins to be a thing in your mind. Maybe the older players you admire commit to a school, you follow the top teams and amateurs, or you start to imagine a future as a world-class golfer. You see possibilities and realize this could be you, which is an awareness that changes everything.

You start to think about school in a different way (gotta get good grades!). You might look to attend some camps to get that college experience and vision. Maybe your parents take you to a college event to watch. You might even start reaching out to coaches, even though they can’t respond. College golf sneaked into your mind, and a vision begins to develop of you wearing a college uniform and playing for a team. And can we just tell you something? It’s worth it. College golf is amazing. Nurture this vision and make it happen!

Usually during this multi-year phase you take a possibility and vision and turn it into a real goal. How you pursue golf begins to be shaped by this massive goal to play college golf for the school of your dreams.

The “I see you” Phase (Begins around 9th Grade). One would think this phase begins on June 15 after the 10th Grade, because that is the first day coaches and recruits (and recruits’ families) can directly communicate.

However, connection and communication develops before that in many indirect ways. A young recruit can send messages to coaches, even if they don’t get a response. Swing coaches and other advisors can reach out to a college coach to talk about a player, and college coaches can do the same, as long as it is within certain boundaries of conversation.

Following someone on social media sends a message, and liking their posts strengthens that message. It says, “I see you.” Coaches recruit young players sometimes for years, watching them in person, long before they can directly communicate. That’s clearly a strong form of communication. Know that long before June 15 we know who the top players are in every class. Coaches follow results for almost every tournament around the world. We see a lot during this time.

Then it all speeds up, and on June 15 the calls and texts start flying. This begins a few-month window of intense communication with coaches and recruits in the “current class.” Coaches have a long-curated list of recruits they’ve developed and recruits have a list of schools of interest. They both work through possibilities and begin to refine the list. What might have been a list of twenty can quickly become only a few. The biggest moments are getting close.

The “I Like You and You Like Me” Phase (June 15-Oct 15 of 11th Grade). Both recruits and college coaches begin to feel it’s time to take things to another level. Sometimes a coach decides this before the recruit, or vice versa, but it isn’t time to move forward until both decide. A coach becomes more direct and aggressive, leaving no doubt that they have sincere interest in the recruit being on their team. The recruit, after considering many possibilities feels it’s time to narrow things down and move closer to a decision.

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The communication and connection phase can be fun, but usually it gets old quickly and both recruit and college coach begin to feel anxious and ready to decide. Conversations become more direct and specific. Visits begin to be scheduled. Roster spots and scholarship specifics enter the conversation. In this special time, a heightened anxiousness about making life-shaping decisions is balanced with a satisfaction of knowing that all the work is paying off, and you’re probably going to have a good college team to play for. This is going to happen!

“The Engagement” The moment arrives. Maybe it came sooner or later than you expected, or maybe it isn’t exactly the school you dreamed of, but you have an offer and you are ready to accept it. Congratulations!

We remember the moment of commitment with every single recruit we’ve brought to our teams. The commitment moment will always be one of the most memorable moments of your life. It’s the end of a very long journey for both you and the coach. You’ve put your trust and future in their hands, and they’ve put their trust and career in your hands. The moment creates a sacred bond between the two of you. They need to be a great coach for you and you need to be a great player and teammate for them. In this moment, you both believe that will happen. Great feelings abound.

It’s a time for celebration. A coach will immediately tell their team and other key people because this is a really big deal. The recruit will tell their inner circle, thank all those who have helped along the way, and will probably make it public by posting about it in social media.

One of the hardest things, and it’s always in the back of the mind of both the college coach and now-committed recruit, is that this decision impacts others negatively. The coach now either has one less spot available, or is no longer recruiting the class, and must take action. All the other recruits now have less (or no) opportunity to join this school. Equally, the recruit must now tell all of these coaches who have followed and called and cared, often for years, that the choice to attend another school has been made. This is tough (we will give advice about this in another article). Even so, do not let difficult consequences take away from a life-impacting moment and the attainment of one of your biggest goals.

The “It’s For Real Now” Signing Day. The main “signing day” is actually a window of time that begins in the second week of November of the 11th grade year. Until this moment the commitment was “unofficial,” but now it’s even more real. You signed the official paperwork, and the school has announced it in their official media. Go ahead and celebrate again.

The “I Still Have to do All of This Stuff?!” Phase and Applying for School. The official application for your university of choice still needs to be completed. This usually begins just before or after signing. For some schools it takes a couple hours, and for others it might take weeks with essays and in-depth information. As exciting as the commitment and signing are, the “application process” is the opposite. But you have to do it. Don’t let your parents do it for you. It’s time to be an adult. You got this. Show your coach that you will be responsible and mature and get this done quickly and smoothly.

From “Signing to Starting” Phase. When someone makes a verbal commitment they go from “recruit” to “team member.” The conversations are different and you no longer need to convince each other. You’ve decided to be teammates. This can be really fun for both. This process accelerates at signing, and again when you are officially admitted to school. During this time you are talking about first day of practice, signing up for housing, uniform sizes, tournament schedule, other recruits, teammates, etc.

A surprisingly long “to-do list” keeps you busy over this time when you already want to be at college, wearing that team uniform, and competing with your teammates. You’ll be completing countless applications, downloading apps, logging on, resetting passwords, and finalizing all details. Be patient with your parents during this time because they might be extra-emotional, over-controlling, nervous, and clingy. They’re dealing with sending their child to college and more comes with this than you could ever realize until it happens to you in 30 years.

“Off to School and Time to be an Adult” Phase. Maybe your parents drop you off or maybe they send you on your own, but that moment of leaving home and arriving at school has come. What a day! Congratulations on getting to this point. Few people make it this far. Even fewer thrive in college golf, and from those even less have success as a pro after college. Enjoy this milestone, but also remember that it is a beginning and not an ending. Now is the time to recommit and take your game and life to another level. You’ve become someone who rises to the top of the competition, and now it is time to do it again. It won’t be easy, and the best and toughest and most mature players will be the ones to continue to thrive amid new opportunities and distractions. Good luck!

Note—This is a general timeline, but it can change. If your process is different, that’s okay. As one of our great former players always said, “You can get away with anything on the course as long as you find a way to make par.”

NCAA Eligibility (during high school). You should always be aware that your NCAA eligibility is part of this. Your golf scores always count, but your academic scores count too, starting in 9th grade. You need to pass certain classes with successful scores and avoid breaking NCAA eligibility or amateurism rules. Consult with your academic advisor at school about these things early on. Discuss any concerns with coaches as soon as you can. Sometimes a lack of awareness and/or unfortunate decision can have big consequences. So always be aware of your need to be “eligible” per NCAA rules. Your final certification will be just before the first day of class in college, where you will have to continue to meet NCAA requirements to stay eligible.

We started this Best Four Years Substack to answer the many questions that come to us in our coaching jobs at ASU and UCLA. We care deeply that more can have incredible junior golf and college golf experiences, like we did, and want to help in any small way we can. By subscribing to Best Four Years and sharing our articles, you literally help us reach more people who might benefit from this content. Thank you for supporting this effort. We hope it makes a difference.

—Matt and Armen

What does it mean? We don’t know what they will call that fifth year but now in addition to freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior, you have another year. You can literally play your sport for five seasons. You can be a five-time All-American. You can be a five time letter winner. You can win an NCAA or conference championship in five straight years. You can start med school and while being on the team!

What about red-shirting? There is basically no more red-shirting. You have five years, from when you start, to compete in college athletics. If you get injured or don’t play one year, that will still be one of the five.

How does this impact school? At many schools, four years is enough to graduate. For others, this extra time will make it easier to finish the undergraduate degree “on time.” We think two main tracts will emerge. First, athletes will see this as an invaluable opportunity to complete more education, will speed up their undergraduate studies with full class loads and summer school, and plan to also get a Masters Degree within those five years. This could be the very best part of the new rules. Conversely, many will take less credits each semester (barely enough to stay eligible) to ease the academic burden and allow for more focus on their sport, and thus finish their undergraduate degree in five years. Both choices seem excellent.

How will this impact rosters? We don’t know if there will be any sort of exceptions or waivers in the transition process, allowing for roster sizes to expand. Very simply, with a roster limit of nine, and a portion of the roster now staying five years instead of four, less players will go through the program. So naturally, this will squeeze current recruiting classes as coaches now have to “save room” for those on the team who stay five years, when they were expected to stay four before. All recent rules changes seem to make it better for those on college rosters, but shrink the numbers of opportunities to get on those rosters.

What if I graduate and want to leave after four years? You can always choose to graduate and leave after four years. We think many will still do that. For them, four years is enough and once the degree is achieved, they’re ready to go.

Are coaches/schools required to offer the fifth year? Most schools write their scholarship agreements for either one year or four years. Schools feel a responsibility to support the student-athletes through to graduation. We assume the fifth year will be less of a “given” and more of a discussion between player and coach. Consequently, we believe there will be more “grad transfers,” those who have already played for four years and graduated from their school, who want to play one more year in college, but maybe it’s best for them to do it at a new school.

How will this impact the quality of play on teams? Generally players improve over time and more experience produces better results. We saw after COVID that teams were stronger than ever with those who had lost a year being granted an extra year of competition. We can learn a lot from that time period and believe we will see the same spike in competitiveness. The top teams are going to be really good!

Does this change the freshman season? Freshman will now be competing not only with sophomores, juniors and seniors, but also these fifth year players. While roster sizes will be the same, roster quality will be higher, making it even more difficult for freshman to excel and get playing time. However, because there is now five whole years, it might turn out that freshman become more comfortable with not having to be the star play in all the tournaments from the first day. The freshman year could become, for most outside of the super-elite, a bit more of a development year.

Should committed 2027 recruits be worried about their spots? Possibly. If there is no flexibility on the roster size, a coach possibly will prioritize keeping top players already on the team for a fifth year, even if it means having to make a hard call to a 2027 recruit, who is committed, but not signed. The timing will be difficult because 2027 recruits will start to sign in November but coaches and seniors may not know for sure if they will stay for a fifth year, or not. It will be interesting to see play out.

What about PGA Tour University? Many have been asking us about this and we will wait until we know more. We assume there will be a set date where current seniors have to declare if this will be their “final” year or their second-to-last year. More to come on this. It’s a really big question for the current senior class.

We started this Best Four Years Substack to answer the many questions that come to us in our coaching jobs at ASU and UCLA. We care deeply that more can have incredible junior golf and college golf experiences, like we did, and want to help in any small way we can. By subscribing to Best Four Years and sharing our articles, you literally help us reach more people who might benefit from this content. Thank you for supporting this effort. We hope it makes a difference.

—Matt and Armen

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First, I need to tell you what the not-great questions are. If you ask these you aren’t blowing it, but you’re missing an opportunity. Probably 90+% of recruits ask these same questions:

• How do you do qualifying? (Or how do you select the team for tournaments?)

• What’s a typical day/week?

• How many are you looking to recruit in my class?

These questions are fine, but the answers will generally be the same from every coach. We’ve answered them so many times that we probably just make stuff up to keep from falling asleep (maybe not, but we certainly don’t have to think to answer them). The reality is, most of us do qualfying similarly, and most of us have the same typical days, and most of us are looking for 2-3 in a given class. You’re not going to learn much about a program by asking these questions and you’re going to sound like all the other recruits by asking them.

So now you are thinking, “okay then, what should I ask?”

I believe each one of us is walking around with a few questions we wish people would ask us. These questions would tap into what matters most to us, what we are best at, how we’ve become who we are, in what we’ve worked the hardest, and how we envision the future. Find questions that tap into those things, things that the coach really wants to talk about.

If you can do this, you will not only learn a lot about them and their program, but you will make an impression.

Think about what the coach might be most proud of or what they feel is most important. Maybe ask about how they started coaching and why they love it. Ask about their coaching philosophy. Ask about what makes their program unique. Ask about what you can expect from your relationship with them. Ask them what they would like to see from a recruit to be a great teammate. Ask them how you can make the biggest contribution to their program. Ask them if there was one thing they would want you to know, what would it be? I could go on and on.

The time to talk live is limited. Make the most of it. Have a handful of questions that you think the coach will really like being asked, that will allow them to share what is most important to them.

If you do this, you will stand out. The coach will respect that you have thought about this and that you are truly interested in the coach and the program. You’ll make the coach’s day, and people don’t forget those who make their day.

And for the coaches reading this, it’s the same for you. Keep a list of great questions to deeply connect with the recruit and tap into who they are as a person and golfer. Not only will you learn a lot about them, you will also differentiate yourself among the other coaches.

We started this Best Four Years Substack to answer the many questions that come to us in our coaching jobs at ASU and UCLA. We care deeply that more can have incredible junior golf and college golf experiences, like we did, and want to help in any small way we can. By subscribing to Best Four Years and sharing our articles, you literally help us reach more people who might benefit from this content. Thank you for supporting this effort. We hope it makes a difference.

—Matt and Armen

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Recruit: Once a young golfer is in 6th Grade they become a potential recruit. At that point a myriad of NCAA rules, some that don’t seem to make sense, begin to apply.

Signing Day: The second week of November, of the 12th Grade year, is the beginning of the signing period. The first day, when most sign, is called “Signing Day.” There are many opportunities to “sign” after this day, even up to the start of college.

Commitment: When a coach and player agree to team up. The coach commits a roster spot and often a scholarship, and the golfer commits to attend that school. This “verbal commitment” isn’t yet binding until “signing,” but in golf commitments are generally kept through signing, with some exceptions.

NCAA: National College Athletics Association. This is basically the administrative structure created and led by the schools, to oversee and govern college athletics. The NCAA also operates the NCAA Championships. They manage the rules-making and ensure they are followed (in theory).

Roster Size: The NCAA now allows a maximum of nine golfers on any college golf team. *There are a few narrow exceptions

Divisions in College Golf: In college golf there are several “divisions.” They are Division 1 (D1), Division 2, Division 3, NAIA, and NJCAA. They often correlate with variations in size of school, competitiveness, resources, and rules. This Substack focuses mostly on D1, but many of the things discussed will relate to college golf at all levels and divisions.

Recruiting Calendar: Coaches are allowed to recruit in different ways at different times of the year. There are dead periods with no recruiting, quiet periods when in-person interaction isn’t allowed, and there are open time periods where all communication/evaluation is allowed. Note—D1 Men’s Golf is allowed only 45 days of recruiting between the entire staff.

June 15: On June 15 following 10th Grade, the “recruit” can be contacted by coaches by phone, email, text, DM, etc. This is typically a day with lots of calls and messages for the first time.

August 1: On August 1 following 10th Grade, the “recruit” and coaches can now actually meet in person, on or off campus. This the beginning of the season of “visits” to campus, or in some cases, the home of a recruit.

Official Visit: On August 1 after 10th Grade, recruits can begin to take “official visits” to schools they’re interested in. The schools will usually make the invitation and they can pay for all of it. These visits can only last 48 hours.

Unofficial Visit: These are like “official visits” but are campus visits paid for by the recruit. Unofficial visit are generally more simple, casual, and quick.

NCAA Eligibility: The NCAA has a series of rules and universal standards that must by met to be eligible for college athletics. They include academic benchmarks, ages, amateurism, etc. Note that each school will also have their own set of standards for admission beyond the basic NCAA requirements. Every recruit must apply through the Eligibility Center and be approved before competing.

NIL—Name/Image/Likeness: College athletes are now allowed to make money from their name/image/likeness. Many rules and protocols limit and manage what can be done.

Camps: Often coaches and third parties host junior golf camps to connect with junior golfers and provide instruction. These are permitted at any age, even before the allowed “recruiting age” which starts on June 15 after 10th grade. Of course, there are rules related to these camps :)

Offer: When a coach makes any sort of invitation to a recruit that could include a spot on the roster, a partial scholarship, a full scholarship, or other, and is now waiting for a response from the recruit

Walk-on: A non-scholarship player on the team. Sometimes they earn the spot through a qualifying (now rare) and often they are recruited as any other scholarship player on the team.

Violation: When a coach breaks one of the NCAA rules. Violations, depending on the severity, can lead to a simple correction or reprimand, to significant penalties that could impact scholarships, post-season eligibility, and even ability to maintain a job in coaching.

Transfer: Moving from one college to another. All must follow strict rules and timelines for this.

All of these subjects will be woven through our content and explained in more detail.

We started this Best Four Years Substack to answer the many questions that come to us in our coaching jobs at ASU and UCLA. We care deeply that more can have incredible junior golf and college golf experiences, like we did, and want to help in any small way we can. By subscribing to Best Four Years and sharing our articles, you literally help us reach more people who might benefit from this content. Thank you for supporting this effort. We hope it makes a difference.

—Matt and Armen

So much time to imagine how this day will go can lead to high expectations with low likelihood of being met. For some, it is a day of disappointment where little happens. For others, it kicks off an overwhelming flurry of communication and possibilities, that often calms down in a few weeks.

For all, we recommend having a clear plan, being patient, keeping expectations low, and understanding that time is on the side of those who work hard and improve.

We have one last tip. Think of a couple meaningful questions, some that most other recruits probably won’t ask. This is your only first conversation and you want to find a way to stand out from all the others. Be prepared, be excited, be honest, be yourself, and bring something memorable to the conversation.

Good luck to everyone on June 15 and beyond! You got this!

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In many of our articles here we will talk about communication with coaches, how to interpret what they say and do, and best ways to optimize your likelihood of success. Deciphering silence demands more discernment, but we will try anyway. Here is a list of possible explanations to consider:

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• Maybe they can’t respond. This is the most simple reason for no response. The NCAA rules prohibit coaches from responding (apart from a very basic and impersonal one-time message stating the rules). Right now, coaches receive many messages from 2028 recruits (and younger) and we generally drag them into a “2028 Recruiting” folder. This starts to be less of an explanation after June 15.

• They aren’t interested. The most disappointing reason they wouldn’t respond is that they simply aren’t interested in you. They looked at your message and made a quick determination that you don’t fit what they want. Coaches have limited space on the roster, and limited time, so if they know you aren’t the right fit they may not bother to respond. Most likely it is because your scores/rankings/results don’t measure up to what they expect. In this case, you maybe chose the wrong competitive level to contact. What could be below standard for some teams, could be the perfect standard for others, so don’t lose hope.

• No roster space. Maybe they already completed recruiting for your class. In this case you, you are a good fit, in theory, but they don’t have anything to offer.

• You messed up the message. Another common reason a coach might not respond is because of the quality of the message you sent. I once heard a great coach say “I respond to everyone, but if they just put ‘Dear Coach’ and don’t even take the time to look up my name, I don’t bother.” We will discuss in future articles the many mistakes when messaging a coach, but here are the most basic things to consider doing: 1) Address the coach and school by the correct names, 2) Don’t create a message that looks like a mass email to many schools, 3) Always put your graduation year in the subject line, 4) Keep the email and resume short, etc. (we will have more in other articles)

• They don’t want to lead you on. Maybe they made offers to someone else, or they narrowed down their list for now. Recruiting someone takes a lot of focus and energy. Their focus is on others for now, but they keep your message in case the other options don’t work out. They don’t want to lead you on, or tell you “No,” so they just choose to let time pass without responding until they have more clarity.

• There are non-golf reasons. Each program/school has a different set of standards, outside of golf, that the coach must consider. Most basic is academic. If the coach knows they can’t get anyone into school below at 3.5 GPA and someone sends a resume with a 3.3 GPA, they already know it isn’t a fit, and the recruit should probably know that too. Another possibility could be financial. It’s common for recruits to talk about a big scholarship and the coach may know they don’t have that available.

• You got the wrong timing. Recruits should always consider when they email. They should know where the team is competing, and what has their attention. I’m always surprised when I get first-time recruiting emails while at the conference or NCAA Championship. I can’t imagine any coach spending time on email during those times. A college golf season has so many ups and downs. Ideally your message arrives when a coach is relaxed in their office, considering recruiting, and responding to emails. If the message arrives at a particularly busy travel or competitive time, the message might get buried and never seen, or the coach is simply turned off because a recruit interested in their specific program should know the team is in a big moment.

Don’t give up and don’t be discouraged! Alter your strategy. Clean up your messaging. Personalize the content for carefully selected schools. Choose the programs wisely based one which one needs your scores. Send the message when the coach is likely in the office. Know the rules the coaches are bound by.

We have to admit that most coaches do not respond to all emails. Many only respond to few. We get a LOT of emails and most of the actual commitments and signings don’t come from an email interaction. Take note of the coaches who take the time to respond.

As we will say over and over, the key to the “best four years” is the fit. In your emails, Do more homework before drafting your messages and make sure you’re spending your time contacting the schools most likely to want and need you. They are the ones who will respond.

We started this Best Four Years Substack to answer the many questions that come to us in our coaching jobs at ASU and UCLA. We care deeply that more can have incredible junior golf and college golf experiences, like we did, and want to help in any small way we can. By subscribing to Best Four Years and sharing our articles, you literally help us reach more people who might benefit from this content. Thank you for supporting this effort. We hope it makes a difference.

—Matt and Armen

For most of us, that moment of commitment is the end of a long journey and moment of arrival, you’ve reached a huge goal! It’s easy to lose hunger when you arrive at a long-awaited accomplishment.

Whenever I make a commitment with someone, even in their moment of celebration, I remind them that “this is not the end, but a beginning, and now is the time to recommit and refocus to accomplish even bigger things.”

That’s the first thing. You have to treat the commitment as a start of a journey, not the end of one. Decide to work harder and with more focus than ever. One of the most troubling things for a coach to see is the work ethic and intensity of a recruit drop after commitment. Results usually follow and don’t always come back. Keep pushing!

The time between commitment and the first day of qualifying will determine how you start your college career. Take advantage of it.

If I were sitting with recently committed recruits and their parents right now, here are some other things I would encourage them to do, little things that might make a surprisingly big difference when they arrive at college:

• Move toward independence. The golfer should start owning things and being responsible. This would include tournament schedule and budget, college applications and processes, relationships with swing coaches, etc. Parents love being helpful, but remember the more you help, the less they learn how to do things on their own. They’ll need the basic life skills to thrive in college and beyond, and much of their confidence will come from knowing they can figure things out.

• Learn basic life skills. Learn how to wash clothes, do basic cleaning, manage a bank account, get a cell phone plan, fill out forms, drive and take care of a car, pay some bills, etc. These simple things can become overwhelming at first. It’s best to learn before college with less pressure and more time.

• Keep working hard in school. Some start to coast after commitment, or take a light class schedule, then start college with a full class load. They lose the usual school rhythm and don’t use high school to prepare for more difficult college classes. Those who take demanding classes in high school are more prepared for college.

Interpersonal relationships can bring the biggest challenges in college. It’s not a terrible idea to have a first girlfriend/boyfriend in high school, be on teams with accountability and teamwork, and learn to work through ups and downs with coaches. When conflicts arise in these areas of life, the student should learn to work through them without direct parental help.

You want to be ready to thrive on Day 1 of college golf. You’ve prepared your whole life for this moment. Your mind is locked in on that first qualifying. Maximizing the time after the commitment will set you up for the biggest success from the first day. It will be worth it.

In this Best Four Years substack some of our future content will focus on this crucial, but often overlooked, time period. We will discuss these life skills, scheduling, communicating with your team and coach, attending college events, admissions and eligibility, and more. All of this will help you start with success in the first of the best four years. The material will be important for both students and parents.

We started this Best Four Years Substack to answer the many questions that come to us in our coaching jobs at ASU and UCLA. We care deeply that more can have incredible junior golf and college golf experiences, like we did, and want to help in any small way we can. By subscribing to Best Four Years and sharing our articles, you literally help us reach more people who might benefit from this content. Thank you for supporting this effort. We hope it makes a difference.

—Matt and Armen