By Roseanna Smith
Communications Intern

College recruiting is a tough game.

Coaches flock to events worldwide to scope out the best prospects in their sports, spending hours with parents and potential recruits on a mission to compose a championship squad. 

AJGA Tournament Director Tommy Tangtiphaiboontana (right) is one example of an AJGA player who enjoyed success at Yale, an Ivy League school.

In all the travel and cajoling, some might think Ivy League coaches have a tougher sell without promise of an athletic scholarship, which are not awarded by the conference.

Not so said Will Green and Chawwadee Rompothong.

Green, Princeton men’s golf coach since 1999, has had tremendous success. Of the Tigers’ 24 league championships since 1961, Green has won the conference championship seven times (2000-2002, 2004-2006).

Rompothong, who was recently named the Yale women’s golf coach after Mary Moan left to continue her professional playing career, guided the Bulldogs to a title in 2006. Rompothong, a 2000 Yale graduate, was a three-time All-Ivy golfer, helped the team win three conference titles as a player, and she played in the American Junior Golf Association in 1995-96.

Both coaches select juniors who are motivated to achieve in all aspects of their lives.

“We recruit talented players,” Green said. “I’d like to tell you there’s a secret, but there’s not. There are a lot of schools where players are forced to make a choice – to be a student or an athlete. Here our student-athletes are inundated with doing a good job at both. It is an investment for them.”

“You are a normal person who has less time to study,” Rompothong said. “There’s no special treatment – you get the whole college experience.”

Despite the accommodating life, education is the center of all life at an Ivy League school. Coaches look for juniors at the top of their game and on top of their studies. But unlike some universities, to make the cut, juniors must be competitive with the elitist of students across the U.S.

The Ivy League and individual schools do impose tougher guidelines on golfers to ensure an academic focus. The NCAA restricts teams to a maximum of 24 missed-class days, the conference allows 14-plus championships.

This balanced approach to athletics also benefits students. Golfers have the option of playing competitive golf to many ends both in professional golf and many other career paths. The first hurdle for all recruits is to clear academic standards. The second is to match up with coaches who want low rounds and high GPAs.

“It’s often difficult,” Green said. “It’s easy to look at AJGA scores, but to get a great fit, we have to dig deeper, see where their interests lie.”

Green emphasizes that the Ivy Leagues were not “an ivory tower of geniuses and bookworms” because the key to being a normal student is the broad-based programming of the conference. Offering 16 NCAA Championship sports and a plethora of non-varsity opportunities to students, Green estimated that nearly one-third of Ivy League students were involved in athletics.

The advantages to selecting an Ivy League school aside from the elite education vary. At Princeton, Green highlights a supportive athletic department, two top golf courses close to campus, the location (situated the furthest south of any Ivy), a phenomenal financial aid package and the campus culture. Yale’s assets include its No. 77 of Golf World’s Top 100 golf courses, long history and unique student life where students are assigned to one of 12 “residential colleges.”

So, while the road for recruiting may be long, the benefit for both coaches is the wealth of junior talent.

“It makes me feel old,” Rompothong said. “It’s great to see more girls out. I love that [the AJGA] has grown so much – with the Web site, tournaments, number of girls competing. It’s very exciting to see that big selection and good competition. It makes my job easy and helps my cause.”