How Not To Develop Players?

How to best develop a player? Heard a podcast recently of Tour Player caliber teachers sitting around in a bar like setting, talking about the development of young players. This is far from Golf Course Owner Guy’s area of expertise, but they raised a ton of compelling arguments.

Argument 1: They claim college golf programs don’t actually develop players. They say college coaches treat college golf as the end point, not a step along the journey. You’re a good junior player, we recruit you, you are fortunate to be signed by us, now go do your thing, and help us win a championship. A college program is not designed to help you become a great player 5-10 years from now, it’s expecting you to be great now.

Who Knows How To Develop?

If you look around the world, other countries like Korea, Australia and such; have these “institutes of sport”. Kids go off to these because they are totally developmental. These institutes are not designed to profit on how the kid plays today, but they profit by how they can get a kid to play tomorrow. The teachers sitting around this table were emphatic that maybe college golf is not exactly what will “best’ prepare you for the future.

They also noted the eruption, and soon dominance of other countries on the world golf stage. The teachers really believe that if we are to be a golf power house in the future that we need to abandon the current model of college golf, and find ways to be more developmental.

For those of you who played college golf or know someone who did, think like this…as a junior player, you have had a dedicated instructor who gave you the fundamentals and started your development. When you left for college under the premise you were going to get better and attain another level…did your college coach push you further? It’s not a slight on college coaches, the system is not set up to develop…there in lies the point. 

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