Bobcat Golfer Scarlet Weidig Takes First Step Toward Olympic Qualification This Week
7/3/2023 2:44:00 PM | Women's Golf
MSU junior rides wave of 2022-23 success into important event
BOZEMAN, Montana – Scarlet Weidig's journey to the Club El Encanto in El Salvador this week for the 2023 Central American Games and the Caribbean began a few months ago when she earned her third invitation to the event. But in reality, it began much earlier.
"The first one I went to I was 15 and it was in Nicaragua," the Montana State University junior said. "There were not a lot of players, I think there were six players, and I did not do very well. But I remember that tournament was the turning point for me where I decided, 'I think I want to do this, for real.' One of my best friends, she plays for Guatemala, she got a medal, she's very good, and I thought, 'Yeah, I want that.' The girl that won, she was from Panama, her national anthem was playing and all that fun stuff, and I thought, 'Yeah, I want that.' So after that I was ready to take (golf) seriously."
Since then, the native of Costa Rica played two years of golf at Kansas without seeing the course in competition before transferring to Montana State last summer. She earned Third Team All-Big Sky honors in her first season as a Bobcat, and her scoring average of 74.78 over 30 rounds in 2022-23 stands as the best in Bobcat history. She won two tournaments and finished in a ninth-place tie at the Big Sky Championships.
"This year was so different for me, especially coming from KU, where I did not play. I could barely break 80," Weidig said. "Then coming here and winning my first-ever college tournament, I was like, 'Oh, OK. I see how it's going to be. It's kind of fun.' Winning several tournaments, I had my best tournament score at eight under, and I feel like finally getting to such a low number I was like, 'I can actually do this.'"
Montana State finished second at the 2023 Big Sky Conference Championships, the program's best in nearly three decades. Weidig said she enjoyed being a part of the Bobcat program. "It was really cool to be there and see the entire team getting motivated that we all want to win. In golf there are so many players that it sometimes seems impossible that you can win, or you play great but there's 10 girls that play better than you. But seeing it happen, having that feeling of winning, it's like, 'You can do it. It's doable.'"
Weidig plays this week's tournament with the opportunity to qualify for this fall's Pan American Games in Chile, and medaling in that event sends a player to the 2024 Paris Olympics. She is familiar with the course, and with the terrain of Central American venues. "I've played this course," she said. "(Courses in that region are) usually a lot more hilly, there are a lot more tree lines so not quite as open. Usually when I came to the States to play I was like, 'This is awesome!' I could hit my driver everywhere. So (El Encanto) is narrower."
Like the golf course she'll be playing, the field of competitors is both familiar and challenging. "They're all good girls. Everybody has won something, so everybody there knows how to win. They're all very competitive, they all want to do the best they can to move to the next stage."
Weidig played a similar event in Colombia four years ago, and although "I was getting better but I was not quite there yet," she is feels good about her current frame of mind. "This one actually feels like, I could win this if I keep my head together and take it one swing at a time. It feels a lot better, a lot more exciting, to go to a tournament and start feeling I'm competing to win, I'm not just going to take fifth or fourth or just be there to say I was there."
This week's familiarity doesn't end with the course and the competition. Her Bobcat assistant coach Joey Lovell will alongside on the bag, and Weidig is thankful to benefit from Lovell's guidance. "I really enjoy it," she said. "I don't really like (using) caddies but we played so much in the spring and the fall that I got really used to it and we (approach golf) very similarly. It feels nice to have Joey (caddying). I'm very excited, I feel like sometimes that's the extra help I need right now. He can talk me through decisions."
The two have already begun to hone Weidig's approach to this week's event. "I think we have a very good strategy of whatever shot we have, take in all the information that we can and then we make a decision," she said. "Joey says this a lot, 'Focus and commit to your target.' Like, go for it. Mostly (Lovell contributes to Weidig's) putting, Joey helps quite a bit with putting."
Lovell said that his primary role lies in helping Weidig process the information in front of her throughout the tournament. "She's making the decisions but we'll talk through the processes, where do we want to miss, where do we want to be to make the next shot the easiest," he said. "Golf is a game of misses, whoever misses it the best is who comes out on top."
Lovell's reaction when Weidig asked him to caddy was predictable. "When she first asked I was like, 'Is this the Olympic Trials?'" he said. "I was super excited about it. From what Scarlet has taught me, golf in Central America is small, it's a great place to be but it's so small there are not many competitors. For her to rise up as the best in her country is pretty cool. When she first asked she said, 'You don't have to carry the bag, I just want you to help me out.' And I said, 'If I'm going, I'm carrying the bag.'"
While Weidig won a pair of tournaments last fall – the Kelsey Chugg Invitational and the Eagle Invitational – she traces her recent success to the Grand Canyon Invitational which opened the spring season. She fired a career-best eight-under par in the three-round event.
"The funny thing is the day before I had my worst practice round, a pretty bad practice round," she said. "I was super uncomfortable with how I was hitting my driver, it did not feel good at all. Being able to pull through in that way really said something to me, like, 'You don't have to be playing perfect to win.'"
In her evolution as a golfer, Weidig said she's in the process of "fully believing this is the player I am, and now I'm going to make it more consistent. That was a little bit my problem, I was either winning or 50th. And that's a pretty big jump."
The success of the past year and the ups and downs she enjoyed and endured in golf over the last decade have led Weidig to this point, which she hopes lands her in the place she's dreamed of over the years. "Standing on the podium," she said. "Getting a medal."
#GoCatsGo
"The first one I went to I was 15 and it was in Nicaragua," the Montana State University junior said. "There were not a lot of players, I think there were six players, and I did not do very well. But I remember that tournament was the turning point for me where I decided, 'I think I want to do this, for real.' One of my best friends, she plays for Guatemala, she got a medal, she's very good, and I thought, 'Yeah, I want that.' The girl that won, she was from Panama, her national anthem was playing and all that fun stuff, and I thought, 'Yeah, I want that.' So after that I was ready to take (golf) seriously."
Since then, the native of Costa Rica played two years of golf at Kansas without seeing the course in competition before transferring to Montana State last summer. She earned Third Team All-Big Sky honors in her first season as a Bobcat, and her scoring average of 74.78 over 30 rounds in 2022-23 stands as the best in Bobcat history. She won two tournaments and finished in a ninth-place tie at the Big Sky Championships.
"This year was so different for me, especially coming from KU, where I did not play. I could barely break 80," Weidig said. "Then coming here and winning my first-ever college tournament, I was like, 'Oh, OK. I see how it's going to be. It's kind of fun.' Winning several tournaments, I had my best tournament score at eight under, and I feel like finally getting to such a low number I was like, 'I can actually do this.'"
Montana State finished second at the 2023 Big Sky Conference Championships, the program's best in nearly three decades. Weidig said she enjoyed being a part of the Bobcat program. "It was really cool to be there and see the entire team getting motivated that we all want to win. In golf there are so many players that it sometimes seems impossible that you can win, or you play great but there's 10 girls that play better than you. But seeing it happen, having that feeling of winning, it's like, 'You can do it. It's doable.'"
Weidig plays this week's tournament with the opportunity to qualify for this fall's Pan American Games in Chile, and medaling in that event sends a player to the 2024 Paris Olympics. She is familiar with the course, and with the terrain of Central American venues. "I've played this course," she said. "(Courses in that region are) usually a lot more hilly, there are a lot more tree lines so not quite as open. Usually when I came to the States to play I was like, 'This is awesome!' I could hit my driver everywhere. So (El Encanto) is narrower."
Like the golf course she'll be playing, the field of competitors is both familiar and challenging. "They're all good girls. Everybody has won something, so everybody there knows how to win. They're all very competitive, they all want to do the best they can to move to the next stage."
Weidig played a similar event in Colombia four years ago, and although "I was getting better but I was not quite there yet," she is feels good about her current frame of mind. "This one actually feels like, I could win this if I keep my head together and take it one swing at a time. It feels a lot better, a lot more exciting, to go to a tournament and start feeling I'm competing to win, I'm not just going to take fifth or fourth or just be there to say I was there."
This week's familiarity doesn't end with the course and the competition. Her Bobcat assistant coach Joey Lovell will alongside on the bag, and Weidig is thankful to benefit from Lovell's guidance. "I really enjoy it," she said. "I don't really like (using) caddies but we played so much in the spring and the fall that I got really used to it and we (approach golf) very similarly. It feels nice to have Joey (caddying). I'm very excited, I feel like sometimes that's the extra help I need right now. He can talk me through decisions."
The two have already begun to hone Weidig's approach to this week's event. "I think we have a very good strategy of whatever shot we have, take in all the information that we can and then we make a decision," she said. "Joey says this a lot, 'Focus and commit to your target.' Like, go for it. Mostly (Lovell contributes to Weidig's) putting, Joey helps quite a bit with putting."
Lovell said that his primary role lies in helping Weidig process the information in front of her throughout the tournament. "She's making the decisions but we'll talk through the processes, where do we want to miss, where do we want to be to make the next shot the easiest," he said. "Golf is a game of misses, whoever misses it the best is who comes out on top."
Lovell's reaction when Weidig asked him to caddy was predictable. "When she first asked I was like, 'Is this the Olympic Trials?'" he said. "I was super excited about it. From what Scarlet has taught me, golf in Central America is small, it's a great place to be but it's so small there are not many competitors. For her to rise up as the best in her country is pretty cool. When she first asked she said, 'You don't have to carry the bag, I just want you to help me out.' And I said, 'If I'm going, I'm carrying the bag.'"
While Weidig won a pair of tournaments last fall – the Kelsey Chugg Invitational and the Eagle Invitational – she traces her recent success to the Grand Canyon Invitational which opened the spring season. She fired a career-best eight-under par in the three-round event.
"The funny thing is the day before I had my worst practice round, a pretty bad practice round," she said. "I was super uncomfortable with how I was hitting my driver, it did not feel good at all. Being able to pull through in that way really said something to me, like, 'You don't have to be playing perfect to win.'"
In her evolution as a golfer, Weidig said she's in the process of "fully believing this is the player I am, and now I'm going to make it more consistent. That was a little bit my problem, I was either winning or 50th. And that's a pretty big jump."
The success of the past year and the ups and downs she enjoyed and endured in golf over the last decade have led Weidig to this point, which she hopes lands her in the place she's dreamed of over the years. "Standing on the podium," she said. "Getting a medal."
#GoCatsGo
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