Where college students go for golf

It's March, which means a couple things. It means the club golf season really heats up, with the majority of regions beginning their spring tournaments and the road to qualifying for the NCCGA National Championship at Hot Springs Country Club.  It also means madness and the annual NCAA Division 1 men's basketball tournament.

Hey all! My name is Leia Schwartz and I am the NCCGA Women's Golf Ambassador for 2017. I am extremely honored to have this opportunity to work with the Nextgengolf staff, leadership team, regional coordinators, presidents, and golfers across the nation this year. I’m really excited to work on continued growth, improvement, and opportunities in the game that we all love.

The Spring NCCGA season continues this weekend with four tournaments, as four more regions kick off their college golf season. Last week four teams took the first step in qualifying for this season's National Championship at Hot Springs Country Club. Who will join them this week?

We've been waiting all winter for this. The Spring 2017 season is finally here, and over 300 teams in 27 regions will soon begin their journey towards qualifying for the NCCGA National Championship at Hot Springs Country Club in Arkansas. 31 teams and 8 individuals will make up this season's field, with the first ticket already punched by the defending National Champions: University of Georgia.

Opening weekend of the Spring 2017 NCCGA season kicks off with four tournaments, including two of the most competitive regions in the country. The Desert, Ozark, Southwest, and Texas Regions will be taking advantage of their area's warm weather to start the season early. Combined, 32 of the top 100 players in the Fall 2016 individual rankings came from these four regions, including individual national champion Tyler Ware.

Hey everyone! My name is Grant Johnson and I will be the NCCGA President for 2017. I’m extremely honored and excited to be working with the Nextgengolf staff to help put on more than 100 regional tournaments, 2 National Championships and many other events throughout the year. I’m really looking forward to meeting as many regional coordinators, club presidents, and golfers across the country as I can.

As the winter months slowly pass, and each day the sun stays up a little later, the itch to get back out on the course starts to kick in. This is also the time of year where preparation for the upcoming college golf season should kick in. These vital areas of preparation could prove to be your team’s difference in winning a tournament or falling short:

Hello! My name is Erik Laaksonen and I am the Sales and Marketing Intern for Nextgengolf this Spring semester.  I am currently a Senior, Marketing and Sport Management dual-major, at Western New England University where I am also a member of the Men’s Varsity Golf Team.

It's one of the rarest achievements in golf: the elusive hole in one! The odds of an amateur golfer scoring hole in one is 12,500 to 1 according to Golf Digest. Despite the odds, the NCCGA had eight golfers hit a hole in one at regional tournaments during the Spring or Fall seasons. We wanted to take a minute and recognize their incredible accomplishment, and hope it leads to many more!

Earlier we took a look at the Top 15 college golf tournament rounds from the NCCGA season. While the numbers were impressive, something was missing. NCCGA tournaments aren't about individual scores, they are ultimately about the team's score. One hot individual performance doesn't necessarily mean the team comes out victorious. A team victory requires five scores, and teammates picking each other up when a bad round happens.

Let's a take a look at the Top 5 NCCGA team scores from 2016 (Spring and Fall season), including a mind-boggling performance in the Southeast Region.

Each year we recap the top performances of the NCCGA, and this year there were some particularly low scores. The lowest single round in 2015 was 66, and this year we not only saw a 65, but there were MULTIPLE 65's! It was great to see such high-quality college golf play, but it did made putting the list together more difficult.

Here's the Top 15 NCCGA tournament rounds in 2016, based on round score, including both the Spring and Fall semester. We understand the list isn't exhaustive, and there were plenty of other performances that could have easily warranted a spot on this list.

Were there any performances that we missed? We'd love to hear from you on Twitter @NCCGA!

 A teammate coming down with food poisoning the night before Round 1 of the NCCGA National Championship wasn't the start the Georgia club golf team drew up.

The UGA club golf team has always been solid, but never quite the perennial powerhouse team that everyone in the region feared. Joe Reichard came in as club president and decided that needed to change.

“UGA is growing with all of its educational programs." Reichard said. "With so many students here, you know there has to be some great golfers on campus”.

Golf in Minnesota has had it’s fair share of excitement over the past few months. Between the Ryder Cup madness that was bestowed upon Hazeltine and the surrounding communities, there has been no shortage of excitement for the game in and around Minneapolis. That includes the NCCGA Twin Cities Region.