From the basketball court to the golf course, redshirt sophomore Elly Walters decided this offseason to make a change.
Walters joined the Colorado Mesa University (CMU) Women’s basketball team during her sophomore year after spending a year at Regis University. Last season she played 32 games for the Mavericks and had a shooting percentage of .228.
“We were really excited to have her as a teammate so we didn’t have to play against her because she is just a tough athlete and basketball player,” senior guard Kylyn Rigsby said.
The work ethic that Walters puts into basketball pushed not only her to play better, but also pushed her teammates to compete harder. Her teammates always loved competing with her on the court or in the weight room.
The transition from basketball to golf came after the team won another Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) title.
” It worked out pretty well that the transition from basketball to golf was pretty easy,” CMU Women’s Golf Head Coach Scott Hansen, said.
After a lot of thought and hard realizations, she realized that part of the reason she was not as happy as she usually was because of basketball; something that had brought so many different opportunities and much joy into her life.
“I don’t regret the last two years. I have learned a lot from basketball, but I think that it is a little bit of a blessing in disguise because I would have never walked away from basketball if it hadn’t gotten to that point and I think golf has been really good for me this year,” Walters said.
Even though the sports are different in many ways, the biggest difference Walters has seen is the pace of the game and having to channel the intensity of basketball on the golf course in a different light.
“I’m pretty competitive like golfers are competitive so don’t get me wrong but I think I get a little bit more competitive coming from basketball,” Walters said.
Walters has found that in golf she can control her score and the end result a little bit more than in basketball. She found that in basketball there were a lot of gray areas because there are factors that she couldn’t control. As in golf, it is very black and white where the score really speaks for itself.
“I think that is the part I like the most; that I can still work really hard, put that work in and it is on me at the end of the day,” Walters said.
Walters has put the same work ethic that she put in on the court into her work ethic on the course. Walters finished her first tournament, the Swan Memorial, with 154 points. She finished the tournament sixth overall.
“Elly has been an awesome addition to the team. She’s a super solid player with a really strong work ethic and is always trying to get better. When she has a great round she feels like there are things she could have done better and that’s a great person to have on the team because she always is trying to improve her game,” Graduate student Hannah More said.
Walters’s goals for her first year on the Maverick golf team is to compete for an RMAC championship and say that she won a title in two different sports.
