Building a Golf Resume

A college golf recruiting resume is the single most-viewed document in your junior's recruiting process. Coaches click it from emails, share it with assistants, and use it to decide whether to keep talking with your junior. Most junior golf resumes are bad — too long, too generic, missing the specific data coaches care about. Here is what actually belongs in one. The resume vs. the recruiting profile These are two different things, and you need both: - One-page PDF resume. Sent as a link in coach emails. Used for first impressions. - Online recruiting profile (NCSA, Junior Golf Hub, Recruit Golf, or your own page). Living document with full tournament history, videos, and a deeper bio. The resume points to the profile. The profile is where coaches dig in if interested. The one-page resume — what goes in Order matters. Coaches scan top-to-bottom and stop reading at the first weakness. Top of page (left): - Player name, class year (e.g., "Class of 2028") - Hometown, state - Email and phone - A clean headshot (not a swing photo) Top of page (right): - Current Handicap Index + GHIN number - JGS national ranking + class ranking (if ranked) - AJGA Rolex ranking (if ranked) - Last 12-month scoring average from ranked events This top section is the "who is this and how good are they" snapshot. If those numbers don't justify a coach's time, they stop reading. There's no fix for that — keep playing and re-send when the numbers improve. Academic section (small, dense): - High school name and city - GPA (unweighted and weighted) - SAT or ACT score (only if strong — leave off if mediocre and you're still testing) - Class rank if available - Notable academic recognition (honor roll, AP courses, etc.) in one line Tournament results section (the meat): - Your 8-12 best tournament finishes from the past 12-18 months - Format: [Position] / [Field size] — [Event name], [Course], [Date] - Example: T6 / 142 — AJGA Junior All-Star at Greystone, July 2026 - Order by importance, not date — biggest events first - Include event tier in parentheses if helpful: (AJGA Open), (USGA Junior Qualifier), (JGS-rated) Be honest about field sizes. A win in a 20-player field looks different than a T10 in a 144-player AJGA Open. Coaches know which is which. Coaching and references section: - Current swing coach name and contact - High school coach name and contact - 1-2 character references (priest, teacher, employer — not family) Bottom of page: - Link to recruiting profile or website - Link to swing video (YouTube unlisted is fine — don't attach to emails) - Upcoming tournament schedule (next 3-4 events with dates and venues) That's the entire one-page resume. Anything more is filler. What NOT to include - Long mission statement or "passion for golf" paragraphs. Coaches skip these. - Every tournament you've ever played. Pick the 8-12 best. Coaches notice if the resume is padded. - Generic stats like "average drive 280 yards" without context. Coaches care about scoring, not driver distance unless you're a freshman trying to project upside. - Photos of you with celebrities, pros, etc. Unimpressive. - Made-up titles like "President, High School Golf Club" if it's not really a leadership role. - Multiple pages. If it's longer than one page, it gets edited or ignored. The online recruiting profile — what goes in Once a coach is interested, they'll click your profile link. This is where you go deeper: - Full tournament history — every event from the past 2-3 years with results, scores, and links to leaderboards if available - Swing video — 2-3 angles (face-on, down-the-line, behind), with a few full swings each, hit with different clubs. Keep it under 60 seconds total. No music, no slow-motion drama. Just clean swings. - Course management / on-course video — optional. A 60-90 second clip of a tournament hole helps for D3/NAIA where coaches can't recruit in person as much. - Practice round footage — short game, putting, range work. Optional but humanizes the player. - Longer bio — academic interests, intended majors, extracurriculars beyond golf, character signals - Tournament schedule — full upcoming calendar, updated regularly. This is what coaches use to plan scouting. - Stat sheet — fairways hit %, GIR %, putts per round, scoring average by event. *Only include if the data is accurate and from real tournament rounds.* Estimated stats are worse than no stats. Recruiting platforms — which one? You don't need to pay for an expensive platform. The free or low-cost options work fine: - Junior Golf Hub — free; widely used by college coaches; coach-search tool - NCSA Athletic Recruiting — paid; mixed reviews; some coaches use it, many ignore - Your own simple site — works great if you're organized. A free Notion page, Wix site, or Google Site is plenty - Recruit Golf — paid; smaller user base The platform matters less than the content. A great profile on a free platform beats a thin profile on a $1,500 paid service. Updating the resume - Refresh after every significant event. New top-10 finish? Update. - Update Handicap Index quarterly. Stale Index numbers signal a stale resume. - Replace the swing video annually. Even if the swing hasn't changed much, fresh dates signal an active player. - Re-send to your full coach list after a major result. "Updated resume — just finished T4 at [Event]" is a good touch. The one thing that ties it all together Coaches look for evidence that a player is organized, honest, and improving. A clean resume with honest data and an upward trajectory beats a flashy resume with inflated claims. The point of the resume isn't to sell the player — it's to give the coach the information they need to decide whether to invest time. For how to actually send this resume to coaches, see [Contacting Coaches](/topic/college-recruiting/contacting-coaches). For the timeline that determines when each of these pieces matters most, see [Recruiting Timeline](/topic/college-recruiting/recruiting-timeline).