Aug. 2, 2006
NEW YORK, N.Y. - As part of its second annual College Golf Guide, Golf Digest ranks the NCAA's best colleges for golf in its September issue (on newsstands Aug. 8) and Lamar University was ranked as the 47th best collegiate golf school.
The rankings and College Golf Guide package provides a blueprint for high school students with dreams of playing golf in college and professionally ("Golf First" rankings).
"Our purpose with the College Golf Guide is to promote the idea of playing golf during the college years," said Jerry Tarde, Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of Golf Digest. "Technology today has given students the ability to have complete control over the college search process, and for the 225,000 boys and girls playing high school golf, our guide offers a crash course in getting started."
Five criteria form the basis of the rankings: a college golf team's adjusted scoring average, player growth while on the team, academics, climate and coaches/facilities.
This year's academics numbers come courtesy of U.S. News & World Report's respected "America's Best Colleges" guidebook. The climate numbers were provided by Longitudes Group and measure each school's 30-year average of playable days from September 1 to May 31.
The player-growth category is a refinement to Golf Digest's rankings this year and is based on two measurements: the number of players on the roster during the last four seasons who lowered their adjusted scoring average on a year-over-year basis, as well as the team's combined improvement or decline.
UCLA took the top spot in the men's "Golf First" ranking, being the only school to rank in the top-10 percent in three of the five categories--scoring, climate and coaches/facilities. Rounding out the top 10 are: No. 2 Georgia Tech, No. 3 Pepperdine, No. 4 Rollins, No. 5 Florida, No. 6 Wake Forest, No. 7 Southern Cal, No. 8 Stanford, No. 9 Duke and No. 10 North Carolina.
Lamar was the only Southland Conference school among the Top 50 and fourth among five schools from the state of Texas (TCU, 13; SMU, 16; Texas, 23; Lamar, 47 and Baylor, 50). The Cardinals have won four SLC Titles in the last six years, advanced to six straight NCAA Central Regional Tournaments and advanced to the NCAA Championships this season where they tied for ninth place.
In establishing the rankings, Golf Digest rated 772 NCAA men's programs in the five categories mentioned above, grading each category on a 100-point scale to determine overall scores:
• Team adjusted scoring average: (40%) Spans last four seasons and applies the formula used by NCAA committees to select postseason teams. (Source: golfstat.com).
• Player growth: (19.5%) A new judging category, player growth determines whether players on a program's roster during the last four years lowered their adjusted scoring average on a year-to-year basis and the team's combined improvement or decline. (Source: golfstat.com).
• Academics: (14%) Overall score from U.S. News & World Report's 2006 guidebook America's Best Colleges. (Source: usnews.com).
• Climate: (12%) A 30-year average of number of playable days between September 1-May 31. Allows for play in poor weather but not in extreme, dangerous or snow-covered conditions. (Source: Longitudes Group).
• Coaches/facilities: (14.5%) Measures coaches' experience and past performance; quality of campus-affiliated or available courses and practice facilities. (Source: Information provided by colleges and Ping American College Golf Guide.)
