ABOUT

The Story behind the National High School Golf Association

Imagine if there was an organization that cared about high school golf and dedicated time, money and resources for this segment of the game? The National High School Golf Association is an organization dedicated to the overall growth and development of high school golfers across the United States. High school golf often get overshadowed by junior golf tournaments given most states only have one major high school state golf tournament for each division. If you are a high school student who cannot afford junior golf events and/or if there are no junior golf tournaments in your area, your high school state tournament is the biggest stage for you to showcase your talent and get ranked. Highschoolgolf.org was developed to unite high school golfers nationally by providing national high school golf rankings, showcasing tournament results, playing opportunities and providing access to unbiased information on college recruiting, coaching, and equipment discounts.

The NHSGA started because the team at Nextgengolf could not find a good, consistent and reliable resource nationally for high school golf. Our organization wanted to help high school golfers, their coaches, and families, but there was no centralized organization to help. Initially, our goal was to communicate with high school golfers about the opportunity to play club golf in college, but after understanding the high school golf market in more detail, our team realized there is a lot of work to be done to give high school golf the proper time and attention it deserves. It’s time for high school golfers to be united nationally as one!

As of April 2019, the NHSGA became part of The PGA of America through the PGA’s acquisition of Nextgengolf. Nextgengolf and PGA of America

OUR TEAM

The National High School Golf Association was developed by the leadership at Nextgengolf, the leading entity supporting golfers in their 20s and 30s across the United States. Nextgengolf runs team-based golf tournaments for college students and young adults throughout the year. Most notably the collegiate tour within Nextgengolf is called the NCCGA (National Collegiate Club Golf Association) which is the governing body for club golf in the US. The NCCGA supports students at over 350 colleges. Prior to the NCCGA, college students who did not play varsity college golf did not have college tournaments available to them and formerly could not identify as college golfers. Almost 100% of NCCGA club golfers played high school golf. Our team is excited to bring our decades of combined golf experience to improve high school golf.

As of April 1, 2019, Nextgengolf was acquired by the PGA of America. Read the press release

Live Life. Play Golf.

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Mike McDonald, PGA – Manager, NHSGA

Mike is an experienced PGA Professional with a passion for high school golf.  A former high school golf coach from nearby Frisco ISD, Mike saw first-hand the difference he made in his players lives and wanted to build upon that on a bigger scale running the NHSGA with the PGA of America.

A competitive player in his youth, Mike played one-year of NAIA college golf at the University of Minnesota-Duluth after competing in the USGA Junior Amateur and the MN State High School championship in 1990.  After his short stint as a college golfer, he transferred to Mississippi State where he completed the PGA University program and got his degree in Marketing.

In addition to being a high school golf coach, Mike has a storied professional career working as a PGA Head Professional at Furman University, the National Director of Recruiting for GolfTEC and as the Campus President at the Golf Academy of America – Dallas Campus.  He has dedicated his life to helping others and leading the NHSGA at the PGA of America will give him additional opportunities to enrich young adults’ lives through the game of golf.

Skilled in Leadership, Coaching, Sales, Hospitality, and Education – Mike also has a strong education focus with a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Clemson University and a BBA from Mississippi State University.

EMAIL: Mike@highschoolgolf.org

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Matt Weinberger – Director, Amateur Championships

Matt has been involved with high school golf for the past 15 years. He played 4 years on the team at St. Xavier High School in Cincinnati, OH and was a part of the 2008 State Championship Division 1 team as an alternate. Since graduation he has supported the program and became an assistant coach starting in 2013. Over that time St. Xavier has won two more state championships.

Matt has been involved in growing the game of golf since 2009 helping grow collegiate club golf through the NCCGA. He is now the Director of Amatuer Championships at the PGA of America helping grow the game and keeping golfers from high school through young adults in the game we all love. Matt has a passion for the rules of golf and running championship golf tournaments. Matt runs The High School Golf National Invitational Tournament and handles all rules and eligibility questions related to high school golf.

EMAIL: Mweinberger@pgahq.com