Where college students go for golf

Each semester our staff at Nextgengolf strives to find a new, unique venue for NCCGA Nationals. Having hosted at amazing facilities like TPC San Antonio in Texas, Disney Golf Courses in Florida, and The Resort at Glade Springs in West Virginia, our goal is to find awesome golf courses that give club golfers across the country an amazing experience.

The spring semester can be tough. Preparing for midterms, finals, the last few months of college and, for seniors, graduation, it can be a busy time for many in college. With the NCCGA spring season being so short, sometimes the fall season is the last thing on a Club President's mind.

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.

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.

The penultimate weekend of club golf saw golfers go low, defending regional champions successfully defend their title, and a couple new teams punch their ticket to the Fall 2016 NCCGA National Championship at Walt Disney World Golf.

Another week of club golf is in the books, and two teams have officially punched their ticket to the Fall 2016 NCCGA National Championship.

As a college student, the end of summer can be bitter-sweet. It means leaving your summer job and hometown friends for college dorms and 8 am classes. But for those playing NCCGA golf, the end of summer also means a chance to play club golf with friends and teammates that you haven’t seen all summer.

The Fall 2016 NCCGA season kicked off with a bang this past weekend, with 10 tournaments taking place all across the country. 10 teams took the first step in qualifying for the National Championship at Walt Disney World Resort, and many more teams with some ground to make up in the second tournament.

A recent post was made on the Nextgengolf blog by Corey Stamper, who transferred from playing club golf team at a large state university to a varsity team at a much smaller college. My situation was exactly the opposite; I went from a Division II golf program to Florida State University’s club golf team.

One of the most important aspects of building a club golf team, and maintaining it, is a solid recruiting plan. Even if you have the best college golf club team in the nation, eventually the players will graduate and you don't want to be standing there with an empty cupboard. Even if you attend a massive school, failing to spread awareness to the student body will prevent your club from growing beyond a few people.

Does your school have club golf?

Here at the NCCGA we hear all kinds of challenges that club golf teams face each season. One of the most common problems we hear about semester after semester is funding. Many teams don't receive funding support from the school, or only receive a small amount, leaving the team to foot the rest of the bill. Fundraising for your team can seem daunting, but it doesn't have to be!

We have seen and heard all kinds of great ideas from teams around the country. These ideas have ranged from extremely simple to execute, to moderately difficult (but financially worth it). These fundraisers do a great job of bringing in money to support the club's expenses, but are also fun to do as a team. After all, you can’t spell fundraiser without FUN (corny joke, I know).

Here are 6 fundraiser ideas we've heard from club golf teams across the country:

Interested in starting a club golf team but not sure what to do before school starts? It can seem tough to start a team during the summer, when the large majority of students are off-campus. However there are a lot of things you can do to really get the ball rolling and ensure your club will be up and running as the new semester begins.

Here are five steps to start your journey before school starts: