Because of the rapid expansion in the NCCGA over the past five months, we will be running a series of articles that can guide students who will be starting a club team in the fall. This will also be a good tool for students who have recently heard about the NCCGA and want to start a club.
While summer is the time for college students to relax, catch up with friends, play golf and intern, it is also the time to ACT! In the last five months, the NCCGA has increased from 55 competing teams to already 200+ teams planning to compete in upcoming tournaments. Similar to Rome, a club golf team cannot be built in a day. They take time to form and grow although we have seen some teams come together faster than we ever believed possible.
For teams to launch, it usually requires starting at the foundation through communication between the NCCGA team and campus directors of recreation, club sport coordinators, golf courses, etc. However, all of this communication is actually very minimal for the campus recreation staff and us. The real drive, the guiding force, or really what we refer to as the “push” is from the STUDENTS. Most recreational directors agree with us when it comes to growing the game of golf on their campus, but we hear time and time again, it’s the STUDENTS WHO NEED TO TAKE INITIATIVE.
As a rising senior at Syracuse University and the president of the club team, I understand the struggles with taking the initiative. Like a lot of other students, I have a double major and also participate in club golf, a student run ad agency, a part time job, and I like to have a social life as well. While taking the initiative and being a leader as a student can be difficult, it can also be very easy if you simply plan ahead.
Say you find out about the NCCGA over the summer and learn from your college that if there is enough student interest, there will be a team. You are interested of course being an avid golfer. DON’T WAIT for your school to do it for you. THE TIME TO ACT IS NOW! Take the initiative, tell your school that you are interested, and go to work. Saying you have interest and waiting until one week before school starts will not cut it. From experience on the Syracuse team, in previous years, we have had several of our local matches cancelled in the beginning of the school year purely because the school we were supposed to play had no communication with their members until the week of the match. Starting a club team is not hard, especially if you start organizing throughout the summer. Here are several ways to go about campaigning during the summer:
- Start by calling/emailing people you know that like golf, or even just your friends that might be interested (It can be as easy a one mass email)
- Once students see someone acting as a leader, they will follow.
- Create a public Facebook page for the club golf team and post links to it in university Facebook pages or send a university wide email.
- The key of having a successful Facebook page is being active on it and constantly updating. Engage your Audience
- Stay in contact with the campus recreation staff or the person who advertised for the club golf team. Chances are if the person was advertising for it, he wants to help.
- If you can, try to plan some of the logistics out during the summer. These can include club rules, practices during the week, club positions, etc. This will make your life easier in the fall and people will join because of the laid out plan.
- Ready to get going? Click here to fill out our prospective team form
Still feeling lazy? No problem, the NCCGA team would be happy to walk you through and help complete the steps you need to take in order to form a club golf team. That is our mission; grow the game of the golf for all college students.
**Bram Berkowitz served as an intern with Nextgengolf.
