0:00-0:30: Introduction
0:31-3:21: What do you look for when recruiting a player?
3:22-4:31: What is your response when a player withdrawals from an event?
4:32-5:42: Junior Golf Scoreboard
5:43-8:15: How can I make sure my player doesn’t get missed?
8:16-9:38: Websites, Social Media, Resumes
9:39- 13:35: What is the biggest mistake a parent/player can make during a recruiting process?
13:36-16:27: Advice for players and parents
My name is Mark laru I’m the women’s go golf coach at Barry University I started here in Fall of 2023 um I came here from the University of Missouri uh after being there for 19 years with the men’s program prior to that was at Austin PE State University
With both the men’s and women’s teams there um and and kind of got into golf um and the golf profession in graduate school in Southern California so that kind of where how I got to burying and how I’m here today awesome well thank you for sharing that um so we’ll get
Going with our questions uh the first thing I’m going to ask you is what you kind of look for when you’re recruiting a player um whether it’s ability uh mindset their demeanor on the golf course anything of that sort yeah sure so and this is probably the obvious answer to the question what
Do I look at first is the score you know um is this player um shooting under par or near par in tournaments um and then kind of going from there what’s their scoring average What’s um you know their junior golf scoreboard ranking and then after the playing it’s you know how
Scholarly are they what’s their GPA what’s their test score um and as you mentioned their demeanor on the golf course their relationship with their parents how they interact with them um and then the whole um kind of family thing too what’s the dynamic of the family so probably those things are the
Things that uh kind of come to mind first yeah absolutely so know you mentioned junior golf scoreboard can you elaborate a little bit more on what you’re looking for are you just looking for that low rating are you looking for a lot of scores what’s your first thing
You’re kind of looking at when you’re evaluating through junior golf scoreboard yes that’s great and so it that is one of the things generally the first thing that I do when I get a a resume or an email from somebody um or any kind of interest is I go to Junior
Golf scoreboard I’ll look at the rank ranking there and then also to the ajga website and see what the ranking is there and if they’re International it might be the European Golf Ranking or wagger um and so getting back to Junior Golf scoreboard specifically um then yes I’m looking at the whole
Um uh profile of what their Tournament results are and I’m I’m looking in there I’m looking okay are there sub scores how many rounds are there in the 80s how many rounds are there in the 70s and then also to look at how many tournaments there’s also uh the ranking
Can be skewed I feel if they played in a lot of tournaments and they play in all the ones that all the good players play they may actually be ranked a little bit better than they actually are and then if I see someone that might be you know
Um had a few rounds in the the 80s maybe one or two but a bunch in the 70s um and they’ve only played in four or five events that you know that person can be ranked a thousands still be you know potentially a pretty good Prospect so
Yeah is it important do I look at it yes and then I even kind of dive a little deeper into there to kind of put my own analytics in there my own analysis of of how potentially good this player can be can you speak at all to we got a lot of
Kids that you know they’ll play they first round and and maybe not do well and then a lot of times they want to withdraw because they think okay I didn’t play well in this first round it’s going to affect my junior golf scoreboard ranking I don’t want a coach
To see that I don’t know if this is your philosophy at all but I know in talking to other coaches a lot of them want to see a player bounce back can you speak to kind of that idea at all yes that that’s that’s a red flag for
Sure it is if you see you know a wd or a DQ in in the tournament postings that are listed yeah it’s it’s like you why did that happen it’s it’s either for the reason you mentioned the person’s just you know packing it in or there’s an
Injury you know and then now the person has it’s just like a you know a draft to the NFL from college or something you know you are you GNA take somebody with an injury or are you gonna take somebody that’s been healthy and come to you with
A clean slate so yeah that those are warning signs too and I’m sure most coaches are looking at it the same way right yeah that’s exactly what I was gonna ask so good question um so I know you touched on a few other um ranking sites outside of junior golf scoreboard
Would you say like personally from your experience that you would you know push kids towards junior golf scoreboard do you think it’s important that they have other rankings outside of that as well you think that one specifically is the only one they really need like what’s
Your philosophy on that I think so M theer the owner of of junior golf scoreboard he he does it really good job um yeah and it’s I think it’s more inclusive players on your tour or whatever may not be may not have qualified in playing all the ajga events
And they may have not have the exemptions that doesn’t mean that they’re not a good player it just means they haven’t had that opportunity yet so yeah am I’m I’m probably you know a big supporter of junior golf scoreboard as opposed to the other rankings um and
If it could bounce back to um to wagger you know that the divisor is also something that you look at those two numbers need to match up if they’re different numbers then the the ranking is not very accurate so there they’re all these little um nuances of of the
Rankings that coaches kind of plug in or pay attention to yeah awesome well thank you for that um so we’re gonna switch gears a little bit here um I know a very common question that we get from parents is how can we make sure that my player
Doesn’t get missed um I’m sure um recruit like when they’re going through the recruiting process they want to make sure that their kids standing out and people are seeing them I think junior golf scoreboard obviously like we’ve discussed is a big way to kind of help them Elevate themselves would you say
There’s anything else in that realm that would be helpful for parents or players um when going through the process um yeah so how do they the the question is how do they not get missed how do they avoid being missed right and you know it’s you have you have to play
Tournaments you in multiple Day events so make sure that that’s there and then um you may not need a recruiting service probably not at least this has been my experience the the the US kids the Internationals may need um that exposure from a recruiting service just to get
You know promoted with coaches however I think um most coaches would look at the um the US kids and say hey um they need to be be reaching out so that they need to be have have an email have a resume made and then they they make their list
Of schools that they think they can fit or want to go to and then send that information out and I think the timing of it’s also important you know you want to do it right before or right when the recruiting window opens you know and that’s uh June 15th between their
Sophomore and junior year if I get ones that are too early I can’t reply I can only reply yeah thanks for your interest in Barry um but I I can’t reply until June 15 20124 it’s best um if they do it right then if they do it like I think ideally
You if I if I’m the a parent of a prospect and I I had my son played um played at Junior College played at division one and another division two school so kind of went through the whole mix um you want and the rules were different then um but it you would want
Them to do it June 14th send that email you know to your list June 14th so that you’re your first in that coach’s inbox on the day that they can actually give a reply and start the recruiting process yeah absolutely um so outside of like reaching out to coaches through email um
I know that’s a very common one are there any other um ways that you recruit kids whether it’s through social media I know lot of our kids have U websites now is that all stuff that you think is important to put in an email and send to
A coach or is that a tool that you use maybe social media to directly um you know link up with kids and um talk to them about recruiting I’m hay I’m saying haly that’s probably a great idea yeah I’m just I’m an old coach and like I’m not I’m not on social media
And I want to apologize to everybody that’s that gets to watch this video it was like I always thought that I was going to get in trouble like the recruiting rules used to be so restrictive that you can um like you could like but you couldn’t type you
Know and so on there were all these recruiting restrictions those have kind of gone away but I’m s of so old school and late in this game yes um all the boys and girls out there they probably do need to get cre those websites create those social media links and and that’s
Going to be a great way because I know the younger coach my son that I mentioned was a college player he’s now a college golf coach as well and I’m sure he all that about that let’s what’s in your opinion the biggest mistake that a parent or player can make when going
Through the recruiting process and maybe you can touch on both parent and player because I’m sure there’s different ones for both yeah let me see um and I kind of wrote some notes here yeah okay okay so here here’s kind of my list um you know I think one of the biggest mistakes
Probably in my mind the biggest mistake is trying to play up too far you know you’re trying to you’re trying to get a a scholarship at a place where you’re realistically not going to be in the top five and I think that there there a
Whole lot of things can kind of um grow out of that in a negative way and one is if you’re if you’re not traveling any not in the top five you’re probably not having as much fun as you could you know and you’re not getting better you’re not getting the the the tournament
Experience you’re not getting to play in tournaments in competition um and then there’s also probably some animosity that grows with the coach that recruited and offered this scholarship to the girls a lot of the girls are on full and if you’re on full and you’re at a school
And you’re not playing you know that coach is at some point going to want that scholarship back you know and now you’re halfway through school or you’re in a school that maybe you’re you’re comfortable with you’re doing well there but you’re not playing and now you’re losing your
Scholarship so kind of going backwards play I the biggest mistake is to go somewhere where you’re not in the top five another one is um they don’t use that scholarship as leverage you know so okay you’ve been offered uh just at you’ve been offered mid major division one and you
Know they they’re they’re going to give you full but you think that you can still be in the top five at a power five school you know you can say that power five you know look I I can go here that they want me I’m I might be the number
One for them um I’d really like to come to your school I think I can be in the top six you know I’d be willing to come here for you know for half um or the other way around you know it’s a parent that really needs a whole lot of U
Financial support so their son or daughter can play use it the other way around look he he we have an offer for this amount at a power five and you know we really need more so I’m gonna you solicit these mid Majors or from division one to division two you know
Does that make sense yeah definitely and this one um I don’t I hope I’m not hurting anybody’s feelings but sometimes I think the pl the parents may want their son or daughter to play more than the son or daughter plays so I you know parents if you’re listening you
Know try try not to make that mistake you know yeah that’s great yeah as you guys know if I could just expand a little bit on that too you know how difficult this how much work and energy and effort it takes not not only just to
Play you know and to play well it’s it takes so much of our time and and we’re and we’re we’re sacrificing so many other things to do this and now you get in school and now you’ve got academics on top of that and then you’ve got the
Things that the team in the athletic department and the school are making you do you got to go to this function you got to do this thing oh after you got to do this sack meeting whatever it is that list of tasks that you have to take care
Of grows and you’re like you’re you need to be really in this for yourself yeah definitely or or else that’s going to you know be pretty bitter you know and souring to you yeah for sure so kind of along the same line um is there any advice outside of what you’ve already
Given us um to players or parents who are kind of starting to navigate the recruiting process um that I guess anything you haven’t already mentioned I know you’ve given some already but uh yes so like again goes back to that can your son or daughter play in
The top five um ask questions of each coach and and try to ask the same question you know so if you go to school a and you’re asking the coach this question you want to do it to B and C and then you compare the responses and
See you know how it lines up with your values or what you want um have the kids talk to the players so if you know if you’re on a visit um and or even a zoom or a phone call um WhatsApp whatever um if the prospects can get
With the current players on the team and get the real feel for what’s going on behind the scenes that I think that’s really good advice yeah yeah um any have them talk about the team chemistry about the dorms about the practice facilities you know so they’re they’re you know not getting
The sales pitch from the coach they’re getting a kind of real insight as to what the players feel they have I think also to remember advice to parents and to prospects is um hey the transfer portal like this is a whole new thing you know back in the day there were all
These restrictions hey you couldn’t transfer to another conference School some of those still exist but or you couldn’t transfer until now or you could only transfer the with the portal and the way it is now um the decision it should be um easier you know you can jump in and
Know that hey if this doesn’t work out that I still have another chance or that I haven’t put all my eggs in one basket just know it’s yeah it’s it’s a whole lot easier now to um I don’t want to say to like get out of a mistake but you
Have you have multiple options and you can test the waters you know you can you can go either way too absolutely that’s a great place awesome well I think that’s all we have if there’s anything else you want to share um like I said before we really
Appreciate you hopping on um you gave us some really insightful information and we’re very excited to share it with our Juniors so if there’s any anything else we can ever do for you um feel free to reach out with more players if you have questions in following years and we hope
To continue this relationship and hopefully be able to help you out in the future as well yes thank you I appreciate it and and it’s kind of a the the road goes both ways that reciproc so thank you thanks for the help
