If you are a young golfer aspiring to play college golf, or a parent looking for insights into how to best help your juniors play at the college level, please listen to our interview with coach Conrad Ray of the Stanford Men’s Golf Program.

In this interview you’ll get answers to questions like …

• How many scholarships are available (for men’s and women’s teams), and how does that affect the size of the team?
• What do college players work on the majority of their time during practice?
• How much time do college players spend on their game?
• What advice would a college coach give to an aspiring young player?
• What is the difference between a scholarship and a non-scholarship player?
• What yardages do college players play from?
• What age do coaches start recruiting?
• What is the best way for high school players to connect with a college coach?
• At what age should juniors start reaching out to college coaches?
• What sort of scores do college players shoot?
• Besides scores, what other things do college coaches look at for their players?
• How often do college players play in tournaments?
• What is a typical week’s schedule for a college player?
• What grade point average does a high school student need?
• What can young players do to help their game when they are not on the course or range?
• How difficult is it to play two sports in college?
• Is it important to be a multi-sport athlete, or is it better to specialize at an early age in golf?

Conrad played golf for Stanford and then tried his hand on the pro circuit. Eventually he came back to Stanford to coach the team 12 years ago. Conrad has taken the team to the NCAA Championships 9 times, and won it in 2007/8. That put him on a very elite list of golfers who have won the NCAA title as both a player and a coach. He has been the Pac 12 Coach of the Year multiple times, and was national coach of the year in 2007. I had the good fortune to know C-Ray while he was in college, and watched him make a hole in one on the third hole at Stanford while we were playing in the annual Alumni-Team match. The team beat the Alumni. It wasn’t close.

Please listen in as the juniors in our Tournament level Junior Academy class get a unique chance to ask questions of Conrad.