About Coach Spar · Play Golf In College

I'm Brad Sparling. Most people call me Spar. I've spent 25 years in competitive golf, and I've sat in every seat at the table: the player, the teaching pro, the college coach, the recruiter, the high school coach, the author, and the dad in the parking lot. That's the whole reason Play Golf In College exists. Junior golf is a long process, and I've lived every step of it from every angle.

I don't coach adults. For 25 years I've worked only with junior golfers and their families, and I've written four books about how to do it well.

The story

Every seat at the table.

The player

Guilford College

I played college golf at Guilford, which is where I learned what it takes to make a roster, hold a spot, and what nobody tells you before you get there.

The teacher

Duke University Golf Club

My first job in golf was teaching, as a professional at Duke University Golf Club under PGA Master Professional Ed Ibarguen, a Golf Magazine Top 100 Instructor. Four years on the lesson tee, learning to teach people, not just golf. I still teach today, in Central Ohio, and it's still the part of the week I like best.

The college coach

Duke University, then Ohio State

At Duke I went from assistant to associate head coach to interim head coach, working under Hall of Fame coaches Rod Myers and Dan Brooks. I was part of two NCAA Championships and programs that produced 14 All-Americans, two National Players of the Year and an NCAA individual champion. I recruited Top 5 classes. Then Ohio State, as associate head coach under Jim Brown. Five years of reading the emails, evaluating the recruits, and making roster decisions from the other side of the table.

The recruiter

Play Golf In College, 2009

I founded PGIC to give families the insider's view of recruiting that I'd had as a coach. Seventeen years later, more than 165 players placed in college golf, with 95% of our players receiving offers, at schools from Duke, Ohio State, Texas, Tennessee, TCU and Miami of Ohio to Harvard, Columbia, Penn and Georgetown. Along the way PGIC grew from a recruiting service into development, performance coaching and parent guidance, because recruiting is the last step of a long process and families needed help with the whole thing.

The high school coach

Dublin Jerome, since 2024

I coach Dublin Jerome in addition to running Play Golf In College. In 2025 we won the Ohio Division I state championship and finished the season ranked #1 in the country. In 2026 we won it again, with what was statistically the best team in Ohio high school history. Across my career I've worked with 20 OHSAA individual state champions. Coaching a team every fall keeps me current with today's players and today's recruiting, and it makes me a better coach for every family I work with.

The author

Four books

Becoming Elite, the complete guide to junior golf, college golf and life. The Lighthouse Golf Parent, the junior golf parenting playbook. Start Here, the top 50 mistakes in junior golf. Building Elite Programs, for coaches. They are the curriculum behind everything I do with families.

The parent

Three kids. Three Division I golfers.

My wife Suzie and I raised three golfers, and all three played Division I. I've driven the car home after the bad rounds, sat through the recruiting calls, and made the mistakes I now help families avoid. That's where The Lighthouse Golf Parent came from.

Nick with his state championship medal — Nick, state champion

Jack with the MAC championship trophy — Jack, MAC champion

Nick

Two-time OHSAA Division I individual state champion. Played at Ohio State and Western Washington.

Jack

All-Ohio. Academic All-American at Miami of Ohio, then played professionally.

Emma

Academic All-American at the University of Dayton.

How I coach

Holistic. Positive. Fun. Functional. Simple.

Technique is not king. The best junior golfers I've coached, and the three I raised, were built on character, habits, practice that counts, a mental game that holds up, and a family that knew its role. The swing is one piece of a much bigger picture, which is why I coach the whole picture: the player, the plan, the team around them, and the parents.

I keep it simple and I keep it positive, because kids who enjoy the work keep doing it. And I use the best tools available, from strokes-gained stats to the PGIC Practice Lab, so we work from what the numbers say rather than what a swing looks like on video.

"Be the lighthouse, not a tugboat." Parents don't need to push their player through junior golf. They need to be the steady light the player steers by. Everything I do with families starts there.

Coach Spar and a player looking down the fairway

Want to talk about your player?I work with a small number of families each year, from all over the country. Tell me about your player in a short, confidential application and I'll reply within two working days.

Apply for coaching See the programs