Photo by: Andrew Pedersen
From Spain to Bozeman: Bobcat Golfer Adjusting to Life at MSU
10/26/2018 2:30:00 PM | Women's Golf
Sofia Rodriguez Todd always dreamed of playing Division I golf. Now a freshman at MSU, Rodriguez Todd continues to grow more comfortable in Bozeman while pursuing collegiate career many in home country strive towards.
Sofia Rodriguez Todd always knew she wanted to play Division I golf in the United States.
It was a dream for the Montana State freshman when she first started golfing with her dad at a country club in Madrid. It's an aspiration for many women golfers in Spain.
"If you want to pursue your sport, you come to the United States," Rodriguez Todd said. "There's no other sport where you'd stay in your home country to do your college career. The main thing with coming to America, it allows you to play golf and study a degree. At least in Spain, for the people that don't come to the States, it's really hard to keep up so they just don't play anymore."
Rodriguez Todd is just at the start of her collegiate career at Montana State.
The Bobcat golfer played in three of MSU's four fall tournaments. She holds a scoring average of 80 strokes per 18 holes after 8 rounds. She will have plenty of positive momentum heading into the team's spring schedule thanks to her final outing of the fall. In the Bobcats' last tournament appearance – the Pat Lessor Harbottle Invitational in Seattle from Oct. 15-16 – Rodriguez Todd played her best to date in Blue and Gold.
The Madrid, Spain, native was MSU's best finisher in the lineup and placed in the top half of the tournament field that featured 100 individuals. She shot her lowest 54-tournament score of 18-over 234 as a Bobcat.
Rodriguez Todd said she believed her improvement on the golf course through the fall had to do with the transition to an unfamiliar culture in the United States.
"It's been really different, I guess very fast-paced," Rodriguez Todd said to her adjustment in Bozeman. "You jump into school, you have to move in, say bye to your family, you have to adapt to time because that's different. Adapting to the language has been very different. I'm very fortunate in that my mom speaks English, but just writing papers and math has been very different compared to Spain. So that's pretty hard."
The adjustment to life in college, let alone for a student-athlete from a foreign country, can be difficult. But Rodriguez Todd noted plenty from her home country have thrived in the sport of women's golf.
One golfer in particular is Celia Barquin Arozamena.
Barquin Arozamena was one of the top junior golfers in Spain before arriving in Ames, Iowa, to compete collegiately for Iowa State University from 2014-18. Barquin Arozamena became one of the Cyclones' most notable student-athletes on campus. She earned numerous all-conference accolades and awards throughout her Iowa State career, completing her senior campaign in the spring of 2018 as the Big 12 Tournament individual champion and was Iowa State's Female Athlete of the Year. Barquin Arozamena, who was still in school this fall completing a degree in civil engineering, won the European Ladies' Amateur Championship and had secured invitations to the 2018 U.S. Women's Open and next year's Women's British Open.
But her life ended on Monday, Sept. 17, when she was found dead on a local Ames golf course due a suspected murder.
While the story of Barquin Arozamena's death sent shockwaves across college athletics, it also hit home for Rodriguez Todd. She said that Barquin Arozamena was a reference for all young Spanish golfers that they can be successful in America.
"Spain is a country that's like the size of Texas," Rodriguez-Todd said. "Once you reduce the population to Texas, and then you get even more specific to the people in Texas that play golf and then people that play really good golf, it's a really limited number. So, you always know like the top 150 girls that are in your country.
"Celia was always at the top. It wasn't hard to hear her name or read about her or see her at a golf course. Everybody knew her. I didn't know her really well personally, because she was from the north (part) of Spain, but I have played tournaments that she participated in. When she wins an event or she does really well, everybody in Spain is like a big family. So you walk into the Clubhouse and she might be there and you may congratulate and tell her good job. You don't even need to have a real personal relationship. I knew her like everybody else did. She was going to be a star in Spain."
Barquin Arozamena will always be an example of a student-athlete that can shine in a community that supports them, even if they aren't originally from that place. Montana State University's sense of closeness and support is what gravitated Rodriguez Todd to Bozeman.
Rodriguez Todd's mother and her side of her family is originally from the United States, so the Bobcat golfer has roots in America. Rodriguez Todd's grandfather has worked in university athletic departments while she grew up, which inspired her dream to play collegiate golf. She relied on her grandfather helping find her future home in the United States. Their search led her to the Montana State golf team.
"We visited schools and MSU is such a great school academically," Rodriguez Todd said. "It's a beautiful school and the feel here is great. Coach Brittany Basye is really supportive, so my grandfather and I were really happy about me being able to come here."
Rodriguez Todd recognized the difficulty of having the opportunity to leave Spain to earn her degree and play the sport that she loves. She said that girls in her country are generating more interest in coming to the United States, at even younger ages, to play collegiate sports due to the limited options in Spain.
Without an athletic department's support, Rodriguez Todd said her dream may have been dashed before it even began.
"Without scholarship opportunities here in the U.S., girls like me wouldn't be able to play sports in the States," Rodriguez Todd said. "Just because the countries are so different, the development and the way the countries work is different. If I didn't have the support of an organization like the Bobcat Club, I wouldn't have ever been able to play in the United States. I would have stayed in Spain."
Over the rest of the fall and start of spring, Rodriguez Todd will get to continue to experience life as a college freshman on the MSU campus. She said she's still getting use to the team aspect of collegiate golf, which differs from the individual nature of competitive golf in Spain. She'll get to a chance to go home between the fall and spring semesters to see family and golf during Bozeman's winter months.
Something she'll enjoy the opportunity to do before practicing indoors until the Bobcats get back into competitive action in February.
"It snowed so much here the day we left for our Seattle tournament," Rodriguez Todd said. "It's the most snow I've seen in my life, so I was like 'wow it's going to get cold here.' The weather has been really beautiful lately. Sorry to the ski team, but I hope it stays this way."
It was a dream for the Montana State freshman when she first started golfing with her dad at a country club in Madrid. It's an aspiration for many women golfers in Spain.
"If you want to pursue your sport, you come to the United States," Rodriguez Todd said. "There's no other sport where you'd stay in your home country to do your college career. The main thing with coming to America, it allows you to play golf and study a degree. At least in Spain, for the people that don't come to the States, it's really hard to keep up so they just don't play anymore."
Rodriguez Todd is just at the start of her collegiate career at Montana State.
The Bobcat golfer played in three of MSU's four fall tournaments. She holds a scoring average of 80 strokes per 18 holes after 8 rounds. She will have plenty of positive momentum heading into the team's spring schedule thanks to her final outing of the fall. In the Bobcats' last tournament appearance – the Pat Lessor Harbottle Invitational in Seattle from Oct. 15-16 – Rodriguez Todd played her best to date in Blue and Gold.
The Madrid, Spain, native was MSU's best finisher in the lineup and placed in the top half of the tournament field that featured 100 individuals. She shot her lowest 54-tournament score of 18-over 234 as a Bobcat.
Rodriguez Todd said she believed her improvement on the golf course through the fall had to do with the transition to an unfamiliar culture in the United States.
"It's been really different, I guess very fast-paced," Rodriguez Todd said to her adjustment in Bozeman. "You jump into school, you have to move in, say bye to your family, you have to adapt to time because that's different. Adapting to the language has been very different. I'm very fortunate in that my mom speaks English, but just writing papers and math has been very different compared to Spain. So that's pretty hard."
The adjustment to life in college, let alone for a student-athlete from a foreign country, can be difficult. But Rodriguez Todd noted plenty from her home country have thrived in the sport of women's golf.
One golfer in particular is Celia Barquin Arozamena.
Barquin Arozamena was one of the top junior golfers in Spain before arriving in Ames, Iowa, to compete collegiately for Iowa State University from 2014-18. Barquin Arozamena became one of the Cyclones' most notable student-athletes on campus. She earned numerous all-conference accolades and awards throughout her Iowa State career, completing her senior campaign in the spring of 2018 as the Big 12 Tournament individual champion and was Iowa State's Female Athlete of the Year. Barquin Arozamena, who was still in school this fall completing a degree in civil engineering, won the European Ladies' Amateur Championship and had secured invitations to the 2018 U.S. Women's Open and next year's Women's British Open.
But her life ended on Monday, Sept. 17, when she was found dead on a local Ames golf course due a suspected murder.
While the story of Barquin Arozamena's death sent shockwaves across college athletics, it also hit home for Rodriguez Todd. She said that Barquin Arozamena was a reference for all young Spanish golfers that they can be successful in America.
"Spain is a country that's like the size of Texas," Rodriguez-Todd said. "Once you reduce the population to Texas, and then you get even more specific to the people in Texas that play golf and then people that play really good golf, it's a really limited number. So, you always know like the top 150 girls that are in your country.
"Celia was always at the top. It wasn't hard to hear her name or read about her or see her at a golf course. Everybody knew her. I didn't know her really well personally, because she was from the north (part) of Spain, but I have played tournaments that she participated in. When she wins an event or she does really well, everybody in Spain is like a big family. So you walk into the Clubhouse and she might be there and you may congratulate and tell her good job. You don't even need to have a real personal relationship. I knew her like everybody else did. She was going to be a star in Spain."
Barquin Arozamena will always be an example of a student-athlete that can shine in a community that supports them, even if they aren't originally from that place. Montana State University's sense of closeness and support is what gravitated Rodriguez Todd to Bozeman.
Rodriguez Todd's mother and her side of her family is originally from the United States, so the Bobcat golfer has roots in America. Rodriguez Todd's grandfather has worked in university athletic departments while she grew up, which inspired her dream to play collegiate golf. She relied on her grandfather helping find her future home in the United States. Their search led her to the Montana State golf team.
"We visited schools and MSU is such a great school academically," Rodriguez Todd said. "It's a beautiful school and the feel here is great. Coach Brittany Basye is really supportive, so my grandfather and I were really happy about me being able to come here."
Rodriguez Todd recognized the difficulty of having the opportunity to leave Spain to earn her degree and play the sport that she loves. She said that girls in her country are generating more interest in coming to the United States, at even younger ages, to play collegiate sports due to the limited options in Spain.
Without an athletic department's support, Rodriguez Todd said her dream may have been dashed before it even began.
"Without scholarship opportunities here in the U.S., girls like me wouldn't be able to play sports in the States," Rodriguez Todd said. "Just because the countries are so different, the development and the way the countries work is different. If I didn't have the support of an organization like the Bobcat Club, I wouldn't have ever been able to play in the United States. I would have stayed in Spain."
Over the rest of the fall and start of spring, Rodriguez Todd will get to continue to experience life as a college freshman on the MSU campus. She said she's still getting use to the team aspect of collegiate golf, which differs from the individual nature of competitive golf in Spain. She'll get to a chance to go home between the fall and spring semesters to see family and golf during Bozeman's winter months.
Something she'll enjoy the opportunity to do before practicing indoors until the Bobcats get back into competitive action in February.
"It snowed so much here the day we left for our Seattle tournament," Rodriguez Todd said. "It's the most snow I've seen in my life, so I was like 'wow it's going to get cold here.' The weather has been really beautiful lately. Sorry to the ski team, but I hope it stays this way."
Players Mentioned
/ Women's Golf
Thursday, September 27
Tuesday, September 25
Tuesday, September 25
Tuesday, September 25
