In college athletics throughout the United States, camps play a distinct role in guiding high schoolers to respective universities.
To become a point guard on a college basketball team, for example, a prospect certainly will have attended “point guard camps” or combines that showcase a unique talent. The same could be said for nearly all sports. Kids seek out camps to gain education about the recruiting process, engage with coaches and develop skills. Coaches seek out camps to engage with recruits efficiently and effectively on a more personal level – something often difficult to do during a normal competition schedule – which makes them better informed when offering scholarships or roster spots.
Strangely, this opportunity and structure has not existed in earnest within junior and college golf until recently. Started by Joshua Jacobs in May 2021, College Golf Experience is slated to conduct more than 100 camps this year for prospective college golfers. Although more effective recruiting is a byproduct, the main CGX premise is to offer junior golfers access, engagement and education to make smarter decisions about their future.
“There was nothing that allows kids, parents and coaches to engage because they can’t do that at tournaments,” Jacobs said. “If you think about what we’re building, think about the AJGA (American Junior Golf Association) in terms of quality, but instead of a tournament, it’s a camp.”
Jacobs played college golf and club tennis at Emory University before founding what would eventually be known as TGA (Tennis Golf Athletics) Premier in 2003. TGA began as a purely grassroots effort in Los Angeles – young kids at a school, church or other community center were taught basic golf skills – before evolving into a franchised product with 110 locations around the country. A part of that expansion came in 2012 when Jacobs orchestrated a partnership with the United States Tennis Association (USTA) to add tennis programming. Not even 20 years later, TGA Premier now impacts more than 1 million kids per year. That growth made Jacobs one of the most respected innovators in the golf industry; he has served on several important committees, including the World Golf Foundation Advisory Board and the PGA of America’s Golf 2.0 National Building Blocks Committee.
Last year, Jacobs sold TGA to New York City-based Youth Athletes United. During the sale process, Gregg Grost, the CEO of the Golf Coaches Association of America, reached out to Jacobs explaining how there was a dearth of quality junior golf camps for his college coaches to attend.
“I started doing the research and found that this really didn’t exist in junior golf,” Jacobs said. “Every other sport, (camps) are 20 to 30 percent of the recruiting and ID process … in golf, there are hundreds of tours out there, but nothing that allows engagement between coaches and players.”
“These kids are not only attending seminars, but they’re playing a practice round at the course where they’re going to play a tournament or a qualifier, and they have college coaches guiding them.” – Joshua Jacobs
Jacobs sensed CGX could make a resounding impact. In 2021, they held seven camps. That quickly grew to 28 camps in 2022 before even more rapid expansion this year.
The camps are described as 50 percent on-course engagement, where college coaches talk through shots with players who are going through simulated tournament rounds. Kids get to learn course-management skills, and coaches get a sense of how players react in competition. Another 40 percent of the camps are education straight from college coaches. Juniors get a detailed understanding of what college golf will be like when they step on campus. The remaining 10 percent is skill introduction and skill challenges, like what a college coach would put his own players through.
College golf recruiting has long relied on coaches going to junior tournaments to scout players, which is becoming more difficult. Since the pandemic, new junior tours are popping up, giving a lot of kids a chance to compete regionally against strong players. Not all the best players will be traveling nationally, exclusively playing AJGA events.
“These coaches are going to have kids where their rankings may be slightly off but their scoring average is right on top of a higher-ranked player,” Jacobs said. “So how are the coaches going to differentiate who they want on their team? Personality fit, the culture of the program … and that needs to go both ways. A coach needs to understand that as much as a player needs to know if they’re a fit for that coach.”
There are multiple versions of the camp, the goal being to create a progression where kids can start with a broad idea of what they want their college golf experience to be like before getting more specific over time.
One version of the camp is a geographic showcase. Let’s say you want to play college golf in Oregon. There could be a camp – for men and women – where Oregon, Oregon State and Portland State are there, along with D-II and D-III programs in the state. Or perhaps the camp includes a whole region, such as the Midwest or Southern California.
After a player gains information about where he or she want to play, a preview camp could be helpful. In that instance, the camp is built around a junior golf tournament. Depending on the level of tournament, coaches and players meet hoping to find a match.
“These kids are not only attending seminars, but they’re playing a practice round at the course where they’re going to play a tournament or a qualifier, and they have college coaches guiding them,” Jacobs said.
But at the end of the progression, kids and programs have even more opportunity. There are camps for particular schools, meaning a program can invite 10-20 kids or so if they have identified potential recruits that could be a good fit. And for players hoping to be among the elite of college golf, there are Top 100 camps. The first one took place this past December, as 12 of the top 15 men’s golf programs and 12 of the top 20 women’s programs had coaches on site. More than 60 percent of the juniors there were in the top 100 in the rankings for their class.
“Not only are the players getting direct one-on-one interaction with coaches, but parents are encouraged to engage with the coaches, as well,” UC Santa Barbara men’s golf coach Chris Massoletti said. “This is a fantastic opportunity to clear up recruiting myths and misinformation directly from the people who are involved: the coaches.”
In the future, there also could be specialty camps for certain skills. Similar to how quarterbacks have their own camps in football, there could be a short-game camp, for example.
In all of this, parents of hopeful college golfers are one of the biggest beneficiaries.
“Our first couple camps, I had parents coming up to me crying at the end,” Jacobs said. “The first one was like, ‘My daughter plays. I’ve never played, and I had no idea where to start.’ This at least gives them clarity and helps them pick a path.”
It is a valuable proposition for everyone involved. Coaches earn $600-$1,000 per day at one of the camps, which are typically one or two days. CGX has regional camp managers around the country who are college coaches. The coaches help set up events, get other coaches involved and work with golf facilities to coordinate the camps.
Jacobs believes CGX can get up to 250-300 camps per year. They want to saturate the market enough to where any junior golfer is within driving distance to at least two-to-four camps per year, which hopefully would cut down on their expenses. Camps have varied pricing depending on factors such as how many days, the location and how many kids attend. For example, an upcoming Boys Top 100 camp in Arlington, Texas, costs $1,500 per junior — but a camp specific to Abilene Christian University is only $275 per junior. Field sizes can be as small as a dozen and as large as 75 or so.
In the end, it’s a business set up to pair coaches with incoming college golfers. Finding the right fit is everything.
“As the coaches will say, if you want to play college golf, you can,” Jacobs said. “Whether that’s at a top-25 school or a junior college, there’s a place for you.
“You’ve just got to find it.”