Bobcat Golfer Scarlet Weidig Represents Costa Rica, Enjoys Architecture in France
8/25/2022 5:06:00 PM | Women's Golf
Weidig transferred to MSU from Kansas this summer
BOZEMAN, Montana - Scarlet Weidig knows how it will go.
She'll walk into a building in France this week while the sophomore Bobcat golfer represents her native Costa Rica in the World Amateur Team Championships golf tournament. She'll do what she has been doing for years.
"(I) immediately look up." That reaction stems from Weidig's interest in architecture, which the sophomore majors in at MSU after transferring from Kansas over the summer. That pursuit combines passion for art learned from her mother and the interest in how things work of her "math nerd" father.
While evaluating buildings is ever present with Weidig, the reason for her trip to Europe is golf. Weidig is taking the world amateur championship tournament in stride. "For me it just feels like another event," she said. "I just kept practicing the same as if I was playing a smaller event. I make sure I'm getting out to the golf course, that's when I know I play the best, when I play a lot of rounds before the tournament."
Bobcat coach Brittany Basye has been impressed with Weidig in the limited amount of time they've spent together. "Scarlet is a talented player and a very focused student," MSU's veteran golf coach said. "She's a great addition to our program."
In the weeks since leaving Kansas, where Weidig didn't see varsity competition in her two years, her training focus has changed slightly. "Something I've been doing a lot more than before is I chip and I putt for hours," she said. "That has helped me a lot, not necessarily focusing on the range work. Every day is different, but you can save a round chipping or putting."
Another twist in Weidig's training during her time in Costa Rica this summer was locating the toughest competition she could find. That meant calling on some old friends.
"Back home there's not a lot of girls that play, so if I want competition I have to play against the boys," said Costa Rica's top high school athlete in 2020, calling the play she encounters with her male counterparts "gritty. A lot of them, who also play college golf, have this drive to shoot really low scores. I don't know how they do it, but they get the ball in the hole and end up with pars when they're almost (out of bounds). So it makes you tough, and when you play with them they help you and you help each other."
This week's WATC in France, which began on Wednesday, caps a tumultuous spring and summer for Weidig. During her final weeks at Kansas she began to determine that program wasn't the right fit for her.
"I just wasn't sure if I wanted to keep playing" golf," Weidig said after a difficult transition to a new KU coaching staff in 2021-22. "I'd played this sport for 15 years and I was ready to quit after one year at KU, but I was also struggling with this ego thing where I was in this Power 5 (conference but) kind of knowing that I might not be going to a school I actually wanted to be going to."
The decision, Weidig says, pitted "an ego thing" of playing at the highest level of college golf against finding a program that "gave me a good feeling. I was super honest with where I was at with golf, and she was super understanding. (After that process,) it was super easy transferring here and made me want to golf again."
Calling it something related to burnout, Basye said the addition of Weidig is a positive for both parties. "We're glad to give her a fresh start," Basye said, and "she has kind of a swagger that we need."
Weidig is one of three golfers playing for Costa Rica in the event that runs through the weekend, joining Victoria Callahan (who plays at Lander University) and Veronica Odio. "I've played Victoria since I was nine years old. Veronica, I met her six years ago, and they're both really great people," she said.
Team manager Alejandro Duque is someone Weidig calls "that dude you go to when everything's going wrong, he can figure it out," Weidig said. "He's really great. He played on several smaller tours, so he definitely knows what he's talking about. He has a lot of knowledge and I like it when we get to play with him."
Regardless of how the team competition plays out in France, Weidig hopes to regain the positivity that marked the earlier years of her golf career. "I think it's more of gaining that confidence in myself again, knowing the player that I am and everything that I've done before. I want to regain that confidence and bring it to MSU. That is the most important."
Beyond that, she'll focus on her architecture studies that bring together the interests and abilities of both her parents. While her father "always helps me out" with her academic pursuits, her mother has long connected that with the beauty of art through her own painting and stained glass work as well as time shared with her daughter. "Since I was little there was this program called Art Attack and we would sit in front of the TV and draw whatever the guy was drawing and she would teach me to draw and paint and all that fun stuff."
The focal point of Weidig's fall comes into focus when she returns to Bozeman next week. "We can win the conference," she says matter-of-factly. "I've talked to Coach (Basye) about it and we looked at the numbers and it is truly within our reach."
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