College Golf Coaching Tree Project

A Survey For Coaches

One of the less obvious aspects of college golf - and really all athletics - which has always fascinated me is the notion of coaching trees. Even in the present age where some kids enter college with a literal team of instructors and psychologists, college golf coaches still play such a crucial role in the development and cultivation of their program, especially to those who eventually go on to coach as well.

That coaching community is both a vast and tight-knit one which frequently trades a wealth of information, however there is still an inherent bond between player/assistant coach/head coach which leaves an indelible mark. As each of these folks moves along, they take bits and pieces of others with them, creating a really cool network. They may not be “trees” in the straightforward sense, however the interconnected tangles making them all the more interesting.

As a part of our overall goal of archiving and preserving college golf history, we want to chart these networks and present them back as a vast coaching tree. It’s interesting to see the movements of people and ideals, and we want to be able to explore these as the backdrop to so much of the history we enjoy. In order to do this properly, we created a survey in the hopes that all college coaches - past and present, and at all levels - might help us create that definitive record.

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A CALL TO COLLEGE GOLF COACHES

The purpose of this form is to cultivate a definitive college golf coaching tree by mapping out all of the position changes and influences over the course of each coach's tenure in the sport. This is a HUGE endeavor and we need your help!

We ask that coaches answer each of these questions below in as much detail as you can recall, keeping in mind the more info you can provide the better and more complete the historical record will be:

https://forms.gle/Ujs7F54yXoSnQx6y9

Responses will NOT be made public, however the resulting info will be included in the growing college golf history database. We’d also appreciate if you’d share either this post or that form directly with any of your colleagues!

Thanks for taking the time to read and participate! If you would like to know more about this specific effort or the overarching College Golf History project, feel free to reach out to David:

For anyone interested in seeing how this kind of info is applied, here are some of the coaching trees and coaching carousels we’ve explored so far:

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