<p>Still early for our family, but our son is getting to be a pretty good golfer and people are coming up to him and asking him where he'd like to go to college. He's only a freshman, but of the private colleges and universities, which ones have really good mens' golf teams? I know Duke and Vanderbilt, maybe Davidson but any other suggestions? Div. two or three would probably be the most realistic. Our son's not a 4.0 student this year so far, more like 3.2-3.4 in a good private school.</p>
<p>well you must know that any SEC team would be good. davidson and vandy are obviously good. you were a dke? i'm in another fraternity on campus here, but they've got some great guys</p>
<p>thanks, Calling. No, I'm not a DKE. That's just my name here on CC.</p>
<p>As a varsity golfer with D-3 aspirations, if you look at the top D-III finishers from last year's championship, a few teams really stand out.</p>
<p>Univeristy of Rochester: a really top-notch school that gets to play Oak Hill, host of numerous PGA Championships and US Opens</p>
<p>Emory is an amazing school with a good golf team in Georgia, where the season is surely a lot longer than in Rochester.</p>
<p>Washington Jefferson, Skidmore are up there, too.</p>
<p>Division II generally doesn't have the best schools, because all the top schools that are big enough and can afford to recruit whoever they want are in Division I, while all the top schools that aren't big or athletically inclined choose Division III, leaving D-II with the leftovers.</p>
<p>The Division I powerhouses year-in-and year out are Stanford (Tiger Woods, Michelle Wie); Oklahoma State (Scott Verplank, Hunter Mahan); Georgia Tech (Stewart Cink); Arizona State (Phil Mickelson, Billy Mayfair); Ohio State (Jack Nicklaus); Wake Forest (Jay Haas); Florida (Chris DiMarco). </p>
<p>Any school in North Carolina is going to have access to awesome golf courses. Other top school courses are those of Stanford (I believe they get to play Pasatiempo in addition to their own course), Duke, Lehigh (I believe they get to play Lehigh CC in addition to Saucon Valley), Rochester (see above), Ohio State (course recently updated by Nicklaus), and by far the best of them all...</p>
<p>Yale gets to play Yale GC, one of the most fun courses to play in the country.</p>
<p>Other schools with awesome access to top courses include:
Harvard (The Country Club) - D1
Williams (Taconic) - D3</p>
<p>Good luck to your son. As long as he keeps working hard on the course and in the classroom, things will fall into place.</p>
<p>Check out these rankings. They divide them by focus on athletics, focus on academics, and best mix of both.
Exclusive</a> College Rankings: Rankings: golfdigest.com</p>
<p>I didn't know Harvard has access to The Country Club, which is the most exclusive club in the northeast.</p>
<p>In terms of secrecy and elitism, it rivals Augusta National in Georgia and Cypress Point in California.</p>
<p>Of course, if you got into Harvard, that's elitism already.</p>
<p>I had a friend in college who was on the Harvard golf team and yes, they have access to the Country Club course, at about 4am! Thanks so much for all of your suggestions. Much appreciated!</p>
<p>dke:</p>
<p>That's really awesome!</p>
<p>Nowadays, I'd say that NU has a stronger golf program than dOSU in the B10.</p>
<p>Holy Cross and Colgate.</p>
<p>How does it work in with the Northeastern golf teams since its not exactly golf weather after what, October? Do they travel during the season to more temperate climes?</p>
<p>dke:</p>
<p>They generally don't play during this time period and wait till spring. Bigger northern schools, I know Northwestern is one, have indoor ranges and stuff to keep from getting rusty.</p>
<p>However, you will notice that most of the top golf teams are from climates that are relatively mild in winter: the south or on the west coast.</p>
<p>I forgot, East Carolina, Middle Tennessee State, and Rollins are also excellent teams from schools you wouldn't expect to be powerhouses at any particular sport. Dunno about ECU, but Mid TN is easy to get into and not particularly distinguished...even if he ends up with that 3.2-3.4 sort of stat by senior year (unlikely...I can almost guarantee his grades will improve), he could get in.</p>
<p>I didn't know Colgate and HC were particularly good golf programs, but I'd trust a guy with username par72.</p>
<p>I've heard that at Rollins you have to be scratch because I guess they won in their division last year. Thanks for the info, 2-iron.</p>