Women's Golf: The Declining Rate of U.S.-Born DI Golfers

A Data Deep Dive

In women’s DI golf, there are more roster spots than ever, but about 200 fewer U.S.-born players than there were 20 years ago…

In an effort to understand recruiting shifts in women’s college golf, I pulled every DI women’s golf roster I could find from the last 20 years and built a database:

• 29,930 unique player-years since 2005

• 6,663 verified freshmen

• Representation from all 50 U.S. states and more than 100 countries

From there, I estimated how many DI roster spots each year are occupied by U.S.-born vs. international players and how that has changed over time in women’s DI golf.

Overall Changes in Women’s Golf

Let’s first look to the NCAA Participation report. While the total number of NCAA DI roster spots over this 20-year period have slightly decreased for the men (largely driven by smaller roster sizes), the number of DI roster spots have increased for women by about 11% (~2,000 in the mid-2000s to ~2,250 in recent years). This is driven by an increase in number of DI teams, while average roster sizes have remained fairly stable:

Where it gets really interesting is when we multiply our From-data with the overall NCAA Participation report numbers year by year. Like we did on the men’s side, we can estimate the number of roster spots occupied by U.S. Born vs. International players using the roster data we have.

The chart below reflects this logic.

• The black line: U.S.-born players

• The red line: international players

• The blue shading: how complete our “from” coverage is by year

Even though overall DI spots have increased by about 11%, the number of U.S-Born players have decreased by about 12% (~1,650 to ~1,450). There are about 200 less U.S.-Born players in women’s DI Golf now compared to 20 years ago.
International-born spots have more than doubled in the same time span, from less than 400 to more than 800 players.

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Freshmen

To see where recruiting has shifted, it helps to zoom in on freshmen.

Our from-data reveals that in the mid-2000s, about 80% of DI women’s golf freshmen were U.S.-born. That share has declined steadily and sits today in the mid-60s.

The graph mirrors the one from the men’s side, where U.S.-Born freshmen rates have moved from low-90s to mid 70s during the same time frame.

The change is even sharper in the Power-4 conferences. (chart below)

When we filter down to the 40 Power-4 women’s golf programs in the dataset, U.S. freshmen have fallen below 50% in each of the last four incoming classes. In other words:

On average, a Power-4 women’s golf signing class is now majority international.

That would’ve been almost unthinkable 20 years ago.

Why might this be happening?

As I wrote in the men’s post, I don’t see this trend slowing down right away. College golf is rising in stature on campuses across the country and more programs are turning to international recruiting to stay competitive. It’s not just a strategy for a select few programs anymore.

At the same time, I believe collegiate golf is only rising in stature for international recruits who often are products of national federation-programs As PGA- and LPGA Tour pipelines become more established, it will only increase the incentives for internationals to chose the college route. College golf is now even more of a global destination. That’s an opportunity (for players to get an education while developing their games) and a challenge (if you’re trying to keep your top juniors at home).

…

I’ll use this roster data further in coming posts - stay tuned for that!

Here’s the link to the report. More slides will be added to the report over the next few weeks in conjunction with posts on this Substack.
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Links:
- Men’s DI Golf Rosters 2025-2025 dashboard
- Women’s DI Golf Rosters 2025-2025 dashboard
- The Declining Rate of U.S.-Born Men’s DI Golfers
- Shifts in Height | Division I rosters over the past 20 years 📊
- How can a recruit best get a college coach’s attention? (Recruiting)