It’s probably been quite some time since Lesley McMahon has dropped off one of her daughters at school. The next time it happens though it will be for a little more than just the school day. Closer to four years in fact.
In early November she was in the United States with her 17 year old daughter Clare as they embarked on a trip to find a school and not just any school.
Playing golf and getting an education in the United States was something on her radar since she was 13 but her parents wanted to make sure she kept her options open in case that didn’t pan out. Sort of like laying up on a long par five instead of going for the green.
After winning five tournaments on the McLennan Ross Junior Golf tour her parents thought maybe a golf future was a possibility so the wheels started turning in that direction.
“I went to my school councilor and she recommended I get with a recruiting company because it’s really hard to do it all on your own to get those contacts,” said Clare.
Those companies are able to piece together a list of coaches, teach you how to write those important e-mails to begin contact and narrow down which schools might be a good fit for the student athlete.
“So you pay them and they set up a profile on line and then you give them the parameters you’re looking for,” said Lesley. “We were looking for a warm climate, Division II, a smaller school with a strong athletic program and academics also.”
Essentially by joining forces with this recruiting company it allowed schools access to her profile and she had access to schools she wanted to investigate.
But Clare took matters into her own hands to a point by handwriting letters which included a golf resume for the coaches to check out which outlined her strengths in golf and in school.
A website was also created so coaches could look at her swing videos which were attached to her profile. The recruiting company limited you to one video on the profile but she had a website where more examples of her swing were available for those coaches to view.
It takes some time to lay the ground work but after about a year you get a good feel for what you are looking for and how the coaches are responding to your inquiry, said Lesley.
“Some just send you basically an e-brochure. Some of them are very personalized and they say can we phone you, we want to find out more. What are you looking for? It moves pretty quickly to get it narrowed down to the school you are looking for.”
A few things played in Clare’s favour during the application process. The fact she is female helped as American colleges have rules which require them to have the same number of girls as boys on a team. Her distance off the tee was very attractive and so were her marks from school.
“It wasn’t, she’s a golf robot,” said Lesley. “It was what are her marks, what are her outside interests like dance and all the other things she did. It wasn’t just the golf and your golf stats. They look for the whole package.”
The McMahon’s went to the Easter seaboard to visit three potential colleges which met the requirements Clare had in mind with each having their own pluses and minuses.
She ended up speaking for about an hour with ten coaches in order to narrow down the choice.
“The phone calls definitely for me were the deciding factor between schools,” said Clare. ”I’m going to be with that coach for four years and I want one who is going to help me grow as a player and not one who just says you’ve got to play better or you’ve got to get better marks or you’re going home.”
It was Barton College in North Carolina which won out in the end. One of the factors was because the golf coach, Ashley Leonard, wanted her there and was excited about having at Barton, said Clare.
So what was once just on the radar was now right there in front of her as large as life.
“It’s a huge relief. I am so happy to have my decision made,” she said.” It’s stressful, especially at the beginning when you send a hundred emails and you get ten responses or 20 responses you start to think is this really right for me, am I going to find the right place?”
Making the trip down south to see the campus and meet the coaches was another very valuable tool in making the decision.
“Everything just kind of fell into place and I knew that’s where I was going to go. These three schools were completely equal until I got there and now I know Barton is the place for me.”
Another factor which played in the decision to go with Barton College was it was an opportunity for Clare to play more of a leadership role on the team. Instead of being one of many players on a Division I team she has the ability to be a bigger fish in a smaller pond.
“I’m not good at supporting roles. I like to be in charge. If I’m not then I’m going to work my butt off until I am,” she said. “I like to be in that number one spot. If I’m going all the way down there I want to be able to play. I don’t want to be on the roster for ten events, I want to be playing every event as much as I can.”
For Lesley it’s a mixed bag of emotions when it comes to how this journey has concluded. Clare is getting what she set out to achieve, will grow as a golfer and get a solid education at the same time. She admits it would have been great for her daughter to stay in the Red Deer area for schooling and be living at home.
“I’m so proud of her with everything that she’s done to get to this point. You don’t get a scholarship like she got without having high marks, good golf scores, a good attitude and an ability to sell yourself which is really what this has turned into.”
The teams are given a budget and the coach decides who gets what when it comes down to discussing financial terms. For Clare, it broke down to the athletic scholarship covering one third of her tuition, the academic scholarship the next third and her family was responsible for the remainder.
Lesley said it came down to a comfortable number to work with and it was nice to see all the hard work Clare put into the process from the start have a pay off because there is no guarantee you are going to get accepted into any college down in the states.
“She wrote the emails. She did the research. She checked every day who looked at her profile.”
Clare plans on taking business administration when she begins classes next fall with an eye on getting into a course over the next four years at Barton where she can learn sports management. For now she will finish off her grade 12 year at Notre Dame in Red Deer and then pack up to head to North Carolina.
The pressure of finding a school is off so now the focus is on her school work and of course playing well for the coach who recruited her.
“I want to be one of the best on the team but the pressure is not being put on me by my coach it’s going to be me pressuring myself to play the best I can.”
She has four years to work on all of that.
