Most Influential Colleges in Golf Today

Badge for MOST INFLUENTIAL COLLEGES IN GOLF

By Dr. Winston Ewert and Dr. Jed Macosko

Published: Jun 22, 2022
Updated: Mar 19, 2024

The modern game of golf is thought to have originated in Scotland in the Middle Ages. Golf has come a long way since then, with names like Phil Mickelson, Tiger Woods, and Scottie Scheffler, and popular sporting events like the PGA Tour are in the sports main stream.

Here we take a look at the colleges and universities that have the most influential golf alumni.

Stanford University tops the list of best colleges and universities for golf, followed by Ohio State and Arizona State. A quick glance at the alumni from each program makes it easy to see why these athletics programs topped our list.

Ranking third, Arizona was home to six-time PGA champion Phil Mickeslon. Ohio State produced the Golden Bear—Jack Nicklaus, who still holds the record for most major PGA championships with 18.

And Stanford University tops the list on the strength of Tiger Woods, who ranks as the most influential golfer on our list, even dramatically overshadowing fellow alumnus and legendary predecessor Tom Watson (who tallies an influence score 1/10 that of Tiger Woods).

Stanford University
University of California, Los Angeles
Duke University
University of Texas at Austin
Northwestern University
Ohio State University
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
University of Arizona
University of Florida
University of Georgia

Arizona State University 90%
University of Arizona 87%
Augusta University 86%
University of Nevada, Las Vegas 85%
University of Alabama 80%
Oklahoma State University–Stillwater 71%
University of Tulsa 69%
Brigham Young University 67%
Furman University 67%
University of Houston 66%

San Diego State University 25 to 1
Brigham Young University 21 to 1
University of Houston 21 to 1
Auburn University 20 to 1
Georgia Tech 19 to 1
University of Alabama 19 to 1
Arizona State University 19 to 1
University of Texas at Austin 18 to 1
University of Nevada, Las Vegas 18 to 1
University of California, Los Angeles 18 to 1

Northwestern University $63,468
Duke University $62,688
Wake Forest University $62,128
Stanford University $58,416
Rollins College $56,110
Furman University $55,772
University of Tulsa $47,211
University of Texas at Austin $11,698
University of California, Los Angeles $11,564
Ohio State University $11,525

Duke University $60,220
Stanford University $56,487
Northwestern University $51,869
Wake Forest University $38,650
Rollins College $26,351
University of Tulsa $25,002
Georgia Tech $14,064
University of Arizona $12,348
Furman University $12,233
Ohio State University $12,092

Duke University
Rollins College
Furman University
Auburn University
San Diego State University
University of California, Los Angeles
Brigham Young University
University of Georgia
Augusta University
University of Alabama

Oklahoma State University–Stillwater
Augusta University
Rollins College
University of Tulsa
Furman University
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
San Diego State University
Wake Forest University
Auburn University
Georgia Tech

Stanford University 4%
Duke University 6%
Northwestern University 7%
University of California, Los Angeles 9%
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 17%
Georgia Tech 17%
Wake Forest University 21%
University of Florida 23%
Florida State University 25%
University of Texas at Austin 31%

Stanford University 5 to 1
Duke University 6 to 1
Northwestern University 6 to 1
Furman University 9 to 1
Wake Forest University 10 to 1
University of Tulsa 10 to 1
Rollins College 11 to 1
University of Florida 16 to 1
University of Arizona 17 to 1
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 17 to 1

University of Florida $4,477
Florida State University $4,640
Oklahoma State University–Stillwater $5,417
San Diego State University $5,742
Brigham Young University $6,304
Augusta University $6,892
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill $7,019
University of Nevada, Las Vegas $8,159
University of Houston $8,685
University of Georgia $9,790

Augusta University $5,504
Oklahoma State University–Stillwater $5,611
University of Nevada, Las Vegas $5,976
San Diego State University $7,176
Brigham Young University $7,932
University of Houston $8,713
University of Georgia $8,878
Florida State University $9,684
Auburn University $10,386
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill $10,552

How We Determine the Most Influential Athletes

For the time period from 2012 to 2022, we identified thousands of influential athletes in 10 of the most popular collegiate sporting fields, who attended or are attending college within the US or Canada. Being influential in the last 10 years does not necessarily mean that someone had to be playing during the last ten years. Influential people can cast very long shadows that can impact a sport for decades. While that is true, our algorithm is time sensitive, meaning that if one athlete’s influence is fading, while a younger athlete’s influence is capturing the world’s attention now, we catch and compare those, as well. The result: we have fun and insightful lists that highlight not only colleges with historical influence in a given sport, but also colleges that are shaping future legends now.

To build the list, we used our machine-learning-powered InfluenceRanking™ Engine (originally developed for DARPA) to find athletes associated with specific sports. Once we find all the mentions of “golfer,” “basketball player,” etc., we produce a numerical score of achievements, merits, and citations across Wikipedia and Wikidata. Our machine-learning algorithm does not just count citations. It goes several steps further by weighing the importance of web links to and from an athlete’s mentions, meaning larger publications have more weight. Furthermore, we consider web searches and page views associated with a given athlete.

Once we’ve identified and ranked athletes individually, our AI finds the colleges and universities the athletes attended and calculates the accumulative score of all of the athletes associated with the school, for a given sport. In the end, we list the colleges with the largest accumulative scores, and we show, in order of influence, all the athletes that helped produce the schools’ scores.

Find out more about our Methodology. Note: for the purposes of our overall list, the influence of entertainers, TV personalities, and models were adjusted downward.

Here are the most influential colleges and universities that golf enthusiasts should consider enrolling in!