BREAKING: NCAA Granting Extra Eligibility for College Golfers

Currently, the entire world is dealing with the new reality of having to remain indoors during the coronavirus outbreak. There have been countless events that have been canceled or suspended but some organizations are doing their best to provide positive news.

Some of that positive news comes from the NCAA, where collegiate golfers will be given an extra year of eligibility since many if not all, tournaments and events have been canceled. Many people have been clamoring for this idea in all collegiate sports and for now, it looks like it is only spring athletes that have been given their extra year of eligibility to replace the lost season.

In an official statement, the NCAA stated that, “Council leadership agreed that eligibility relief is appropriate for all Division I student-athletes who participated in spring sports. Details of eligibility relief will be finalized at a later time,” the NCAA added. “Additional issues with the NCAA rules must be addressed, and appropriate governance bodies will work through those in the coming days and weeks.”

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The NCAA was rapid in its decision to grant the extra year of eligibility, announcing the decision to do so just days after canceling all events and tournaments for all spring athletes. This seems like a smart decision on the part of the NCAA because there were several seniors in all sports that had prepared and in some cases, rehabbed from serious injuries to compete one final year.

For golfers in particular, this opens up a whole new door of options for seniors. While many thought this could be an opportunity to jump to the professional ranks months earlier than they otherwise would, the PGA TOUR and several other organizations across golf have also suspended events for the time being. So now the pressure is off of those players to make their decision to go pro now that the option exists to return and play one more year in college.

Time will tell how many players will utilize this option heading into next year and for others who may still decide to go pro. But if anything is certain, it’s that we’re going through uncharted waters at the moment and hopefully, some of the uncertainty in the golf world will be settled in the coming weeks.

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