There has been much anticipation for this signing class, and so we thought we would do the numbers and see how they stack up against previous classes and what, if any, trends are there?

Let’s look at the numbers as of Saturday, November 24, and see what the data says. (NJGS = National Junior Golf Scoreboard)

• Average NJGS for Division One Men’s Golf in 2019 early signing was 271 with a scoring differential of .79 compare to an average rank of 262.6 last year.
• Average NJGS for Division One Women’s Golf in 2019 was 152 with a scoring differential of .95. This is significantly better than last year when the average scoring differential was 5.25. Only 7 players who signed had scoring differentials above 5.25.
• top 100 men’s recruits choose mid major programs with BYU and North Texas both landing players in the top 25.
• Men’s major conference schools reload: Florida signs 3 players with an average scoring differential of -3.17 and average rank of 45, Baylor signs 4 with 2 in the top 25, Arizona State signs #9 in NJGS and 141 in WAGR,
• Arkansas signs 2 in the top 35 with an average scoring differential of -3.35.
• In women’s golf, Duke reloads with 2 players in the top 31 with scoring differentials of -6 and -4.19 respectively. Michigan and Notre Dame also nab two within the top 50.
• 10/41 top 100 women’s recruits choose mid major schools with Pepperdine signing two of them.
• Coaches care where you are from; in men’s golf 80% of the players ranked above 400 in their class signed at a school within approximately 400 miles of their house. In women’s golf 82% of Division 1 players ranked above 250 signed within 400 miles of their house.
• Academics matter to Girls: 80% of girls in the top 100 chose a top academic school like Michigan, Pepperdine, Wisconsin, Penn or Yale.
• 17% percent of male recruits who signed where international and 24% percent of women’s recruits where internationals

My major take-aways from the data are

Women’s golf is getting crazy good. Consider that in 1997/98 the winner of Golfstat Cup (best player in college) was Jenny Chausiriporn from Duke with a scoring average of 72.94. This would translate into roughly a scoring differential of one, or the average scoring differential of the average women’s Division One recruit in 2018/19.

The best junior golfers are simply incredible. Erica Shepard of Duke was the highest ranked player to sign. According to NJGS her scoring differential is -6. For boys, the highest ranked player to sign was Ricky Castillo of Florida with a scoring differential of -5.53. This means that these players are statistically 6.95 shots (Erica) and 6.32 (Ricky) shots better per round than the average Division 1 player.

Although the numbers for the average signee for men’s golf is about the same as last year, the data shows that about 30 percent more players signed early. Although I can only speculate, my guess is that this was a result of coaches moving quicker than usually and taking a larger than average class. Part of this might be luck; some schools have a disproportional amount of money some years, but it may also be influenced by the new recruiting and transfer rules.