CGX Top100 Camps: Redefining the Route to Playing College Golf

For competitive junior golfers and their families, the dream of playing on a college golf team looms enticingly large. Parents see talent and potential in their junior golfer and want to support his/her dreams but don’t understand the recruiting process or how to get the attention of the college coaches. Before you know it, thousands of dollars are invested each year chasing rankings points while entering local and regional tournaments.

Players then hope to graduate to higher-level tours, get invited to invitationals, aspire to play on the AJGA Tour, and try to qualify for U.S.G.A. events. All the while, coaches are watching players from behind trees at junior tournaments will little connection or getting to know a player beyond their golf swing. CGX Top100 camps help players make those connections, get comfortable performing in front of coaches, find their fit and spot on a college golf team, improve their game and hear accurate information straight from the horse’s mouth…the coaches.

Mike Small, head men’s golf coach at Illinois is looking forward to helping kids improve, while getting to know them at the upcoming CGX Top100 Camp at Chateau Elan in Atlanta, GA November 11-12.

“As coaches, we use our time at these camps to help the kids become better players and, the better we get to know them as people – beyond just watching shots, swing speeds and short game skills, the more we can help them,” said Small.

There will also be more than 20 additional DI collegiate coaches and golf programs from around the country at the camp.

Top100 East Boys Showcase Camp: Blaine Woodruff – Chattanooga, Jake Amos – East Tennessee State, J.C. Deacon – Florida, Glen Millican – Missouri, John Handrigan – Notre Dame, Jay Moseley – Ohio State, and Jerry Haas – Wake Forest.

Top 100 East Girls Showcase Camp: Mic Potter – Alabama, Shauna Estes-Taylor – Arkansas, Emily Glaser – Florida, Amy Bond – Florida State, Kelly Hovland – Maryland, Erika DeSanty – Princeton, Kalen Anderson – South Carolina, Gerrod Chadwell – Texas A&M, and Ria Scott – Virginia, Greg Robertson, Oklahoma State.

To register for the Top100 East Showcase Camp in Atlanta, visit: https://collegegolfx.com/camps/

CGX Top100 camps break down the barriers between coach and player bringing their tournament resume and ranking to life. When some of the country’s top golf coaches come together with aspiring college golfers, the experiences are transformative and lead to lasting relationships that are vital to a junior becoming a collegiate golfer. Junior golfer John Carter Tafner called the CGX Top100 South Camp he attended, “the most valuable junior golf experience thus far. I got more insight and instruction in two days than years of camps and individual instruction.”

At every CGX Top100 Camp, juniors and their parents engage with the top-level coaches over two days where they experience: immersive education sessions on college golf and the recruiting pathway, NIL conversations, open Q&A sessions, and on-course coach engagement and instruction during simulated college golf practice and tournament rounds. The real-time evaluation and personalized feedback from the coaches is helping players discover the right collegiate program fit.

Small is looking forward to impacting and helping top junior players define themselves and become better players. “An important part of coaching is helping these kids learn to correctly evaluate themselves and understand how to make adjustments to compete on their own without always needing us there,” he explains. “We want them to really process and figure out how to use those answers to form their own brand or their own body of work. The Top100 Camp is a great opportunity to learn as much as they can from some very experienced coaches.”