By Brian Davidson
When choosing a college, it is all the more important to understand a coach’s policy on awarding scholarships. The 2nd Annual Golf Digest Coaches' Survey shows they have begun to evaluate their players the same way a professional general manager would; and scholarship dollars are on the line. One misconception about scholarships is that they represent a four-year offer. They are one-year arrangements--and 82 percent of coaches said they re-evaluate them in some form. When asked to explain their philosophy, the coaches have a common theme. "I reward hard work," one Division I coach wrote. "When others see hard work rewarded, it motivates them to work hard."
Golf is an "equivalency" sport: Programs may split the value of a scholarship among multiple students. This leads to the slicing of the funding pie into smaller increments according to a majority of respondents of the survey.
Coaches of men's teams reported an average roster size this season of 10.51 players, up slightly from last year's inaugural survey, which found a typical roster of 10.1 players in Division I and 8.0 in Division II. Of those 10.51 players, coaches said 8.58 players (82 percent) received partial or full scholarships. Only seven coaches said they gave scholarship dollars to fewer than half their players. Many young men (and their parents) dream of getting a full athletic scholarship, but that's not the reality. A majority of players on men's teams receive scholarships of less than 50 percent of full value, often only enough to cover books and incidental costs.
The opportunity to re-evaluate scholarships on an annual basis gives men's coaches a method to maximize the way they dispense those dollars. However, unlike women's coaches, men's coaches are more pointed in the process of re-evaluating scholarships because they have fewer dollars. Scores and tournament finishes are the major determining factors in whether a young man will retain or increase his funding. When asked to explain their reasoning and philosophy for re-evaluating scholarships, several coaches said they did not reduce scholarships, because of a personal or college policy.
"It's only fair to reward players who've achieved at a level higher than expected when recruited," wrote a Division I coach. "It's not permitted to decrease an athletic scholarship unless team rules have been blatantly violated." "Coaches are evaluated on how their team performs," another Division I coach wrote, "and players should perform up to their scholarship amount."
Source: Golf Digest, September 2007
Full Artilce: http://www.golfdigest.com
