“ You will find Will2Golf addresses and solves some of the largest challenges facing junior golfers and their families .” — Maggie Will
Drive , Chip and Putt competitions . Looking to play in a qualifier for a tournament ? You will find it on Will2Golf . com .
Will2Golf received national exposure last October during Golf Channel ’ s Junior Golf Week . As Will told Damon Hack during a Morning Drive program segment , “ What we have done is create a database that junior golfers can sort through and find events … they can find events by dates ; they can find them by type of event ; by age ; by gender ; even by location … we have taken all that data and put it all in one space .”
Susie Hanson was spending hours going to the websites of various tours and tournaments searching for events in which Charlie could play . Will says some families spend 20 to 30 hours trying to figure out a tournament schedule .
It ’ s “ a one-stop shop . It ’ s all right there for you so it saves a ton of time ,” Susie said of Will2Golf .
You can see the video from Will ’ s appearance on Golf Channel on the Will2Golf site .
Another key feature of Will2Golf is the “ Maggie rating .” She doesn ’ t rank junior golfers ; she rates the level of every event . If a golfer is a 3.0 , Will recommends playing those events . If a player wants to go up another level , she will guide you through the process .
“ The level of event is through the junior golfer ’ s eyes and the pressure they are going to feel because they are going to feel more pressure at the State Amateur than at the State Junior ,” Will said . “ They are going to feel more pressure at the State Junior than at just an event they can sign up for and play versus one they have to qualify for .
Will doesn ’ t rank players , but for other sites focused on junior golf , player rankings and tournament results are central elements .
Will2Golf helped open Charlie Hanson ’ s eyes to a future in college golf .
“ You will find Will2Golf addresses and solves some of the largest challenges facing junior golfers and their families .” — Maggie Will
One of those sites is the Junior Golf Scoreboard , founded by Mac Thayer and based in Glen Allen . The site is celebrating its 20th birthday this year .
The arrival of Will2Golf means two of the most comprehensive junior golf databases in the U . S . are operating only a few miles apart .
Charlie Hanson says he started to dream about playing college golf during the spring of 2017 .
“ I didn ’ t know how reachable it would be . Then throughout the summer I started to realize that I actually had a good chance of doing it . You ’ ve got to have high ambitions to get somewhere ,” Charlie said .
Will added , “ If you put a dream in somebody ’ s head , they might make it come true . Most people don ’ t know what to dream because if you don ’ t have the knowledge , how would you ever know ? You don ’ t know what you don ’ t know .”
With Will ’ s guidance , Charlie has made use of another feature of the Will2Golf website : a list of more than 2,100 college golf programs and recruiting schedules . The idea is to match a player ’ s tournament schedule with the coach ’ s recruiting schedule at the college or colleges in which the player is interested .
While in North Carolina for an American Junior Golf Association ( AJGA ) tournament in August , Charlie met Wake Forest University men ’ s golf coach Jerry Haas . Will , who has a long list of contacts and connections , set up the meeting . Susie and Fred Hanson are Wake Forest graduates . They hoped for five minutes with Haas and got 45 minutes .
“ I didn ’ t know what I was getting into yet . I kind of wish I ’ d had that visit a little later [ in the process ] just because I didn ’ t have any really good questions and I didn ’ t have any great tournament scores ,” Charlie says .
Great scores came after Charlie , now a sophomore , returned from the trip . He stepped back into the Deep Run starting lineup and helped the Wildcats win their third straight Virginia High School League state championship . Charlie was the individual runner-up in the Class 5 , Region B tournament , and he finished second in the Class 5 state tournament after a one-hole playoff .
Will grew up in Whiteville , N . C ., and started playing golf when she was 10 years old . She wanted to be an Olympic swimmer , but her parents said no and told her to pick another sport . She chose golf .
She showed her entrepreneurial side early on by mowing lawns , shining shoes , doing whatever she could to make money so she could pay for her golf .
She went on to be named Carolinas Golf Association Junior Golfer of the Year , won the North Carolina Women ’ s Amateur title and was a member of a Furman University golf team that finished runner-up in the NCAA tournament .
She spent 20 years on the LPGA Tour and won three times before entering the college coaching ranks as an assistant for women ’ s teams at UNC Wilmington and N . C . State before becoming head coach at the University of Richmond , where she was named CAA Coach of the Year .
The genesis for the website came during her coaching days .
“ I realized the real key was seeing and being seen , but in order to know where people are going , you had to have a common database ,” she says . “ I realized there was no national database .”
The joining fee for Will2Golf is $ 75 , and then $ 10 a month . In addition to the information and features provided on the website , those who join get a 45-minute phone call with Will . She often splits the phone time between the junior golfer and the parents , who might not play golf but are trying to learn what they have to do .
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