My Recruiting Experience

Ranked 84th by the American Junior Golf Association in 2007, Durham won the Georgia High School 4A title and reached the Women's Southern Amateur quarterfinals. She finished in the top 10 five times in her AJGA career.

• Start assembling your playing résumé now. I waited until questionnaires arrived from coaches. It was painstaking to sift through the names of tournaments, courses, scores, size of field and yardage. Updating as you play will save a lot of time.

• If I had it to do over again, I'd do more online research during my sophomore year.

• Take initiative and contact coaches on your own. Let them know you're interested.

• Choosing a college hangs over your head every single day of junior year, like a huge exam or paper. I was almost always talking about colleges, filling out applications, or preparing for tournaments so scores would look good for coaches.

• One of the best questions a lot of coaches asked: If you get injured and can't play, will you still be happy at this school?

• When you make an unofficial visit, take the regular student tour. That'll allow you to see everything, and not just the best parts of campus where a coach will take you. The regular tour gives you a peek at how an average college student would be looking at it. You should also work time into your visit to see the area around campus.

• I took five unofficial visits to see different schools: public and private, large and small, ones with different climates. Visit as many schools as you need to narrow it down to the type of school you prefer.