Austrian Native Wolte Leaving Lasting Impact on Pirate Golf
February 23, 2012 | Women's Golf
Feb. 23, 2012
By Sam Hickman
ECUPirates.com
Golf is a difficult game. The best players in the world consistently shoot over par. One can play a hole beautifully and card a birdie before venturing through the woods on the next hole, painfully accepting a triple-bogey. For anyone familiar with the sport, it's an inevitable, harsh reality. Those who excel through 18 holes of physical exhaustion and mental fatigue are the ones that remain poised. They can shake off back-to-back lackluster holes with an immaculate wedge shot that shifts the momentum, the round, and the day completely.
This headstrong attitude is what defines sophomore golfer Fanny Wolte. A native of Graz, Austria, Wolte wasted little time making a splash on the Pirates' women's golf in 2011. Her initial year marked one of the best in the program's history. As if playing the game on the collegiate level does not pose enough challenges, Wolte thrived as a freshman almost 5,000 miles away from home. She quickly acclimated herself by hanging out where she had always been comfortable, near the top of the leaderboards.
Though the distance from Graz to Greenville is much greater, Wolte's list of accomplishments from last year's campaign stretches a great distance in its own respect. On her way to earning Conference USA Freshman-of-the-Year honors, Wolte recorded a pair of tournament victories becoming only the fifth women's golfer in school history to record multiple wins in a season. She also garnered First-Team All-Conference USA honors and notched a 75.13 scoring average, a ledger which places her eighth on the single-season record charts at East Carolina.
When asked what made Wolte so successful on the course, head coach Kevin Williams did not hesitate before responding.
"It's Fanny's mental toughness that sets her apart. I've seen her play many rounds when her short game was off and she wasn't striking the ball necessarily well," the 14th-year coach explained. "She's so steady and so strong mentally that it's hard to tell if she's playing well or not. That's one of the best qualities any golfer can have. She's even-keel and that's huge."
Humbly, Wolte agreed.
"I don't have to hit the ball very well all the time to score," she explained. "If I'm not hitting it perfectly, I can save scores with my short game. I try to stay in the moment, take it one shot at a time, and remain calm. It doesn't matter how you're playing if you can keep that focus."
Wolte's unwavering equilibrium was undeniable during her rookie season in more areas than tee boxes, fairways, and greens. After a commitment to play for Coach Williams and the Pirates, she packed her bags and headed west - way west. The polished righty quickly adapted to a new environment, due largely in part to the help of teammates and coaches. Wolte noted that other team members were the first friends she made upon her arrival to eastern North Carolina. She would spend all of her time with them on the putting green and driving range and in study hall and dormitories. She attributes the rhythmic transition from Austria to college life in the United States to the guidance offered by those already embedded in Pirate culture.
"Everybody on the team helped me. They helped me move in. They helped me buy the right things for the dorm," Wolte remembered. "It's nice to have great teammates and have that atmosphere because you spend so much time with them. They were the first friends I made in the states and it helped me get used to everything."
Yet another staple of Wolte's seamless realignment into a new setting, she thrived in the classroom. In 2011, she garnered a Conference-USA Commissioner's Academic Medal along with receiving two ECU Director of Athletics Honor Roll awards.
Of course, no drastic change in scenery comes without minor complications. Wolte stated that courses in Austria are similar in layout to those in the United States, but there is one not-so-minor difference. Most of the designs in her native country sport bent-grass greens whereas many of the landscapes in which she played during the 2011 campaign had bermuda-grass. While the distinction may seem minor to the average fan, the difficulties it poses are underrated.
Historically, bent grass has produced the game's fastest, truest putting surface. Bermuda grass can change a ball's roll one way or another, depending on the grain. The differences in surfaces caused Wolte to struggle at times last year.
"She played really well on the courses with bent-grass greens," Williams confirmed. "As the season progressed, she got better each time on bermuda. Now, I can barely tell the difference in her game regardless of what she putts on. There is no doubt that the change made a difference, but it's a testament to her response and mental capacity to work through it, and now she's fine on either surface."
If Wolte could adjust to a new country, school, and team environment, grass would certainly not prove to be a worthy adversary either. She placed in the top-15 on five different occasions in 2011 in addition to the pair of tournament crowns.
The soft-spoken sophomore - who has recently decided to major in marketing - looked back on her decision to attend East Carolina with a sense of pride and she looked forward to her potential on the golf course with a certain collected confidence.
"I'm really glad I ended up here," Wolte expressed in a thick accent. "Coach Williams and the team have been very helpful. As for golf, I can't wait to start playing matches again. We've been making minor changes that have slowed me down a bit, but I know it will improve my game in the next couple of years. It's tough not to see the outcomes right away, but it is all worth it. The future is exciting."
Wolte's eagerness to compete as a Pirate in 2012 was rivaled only by Williams as he beamed when talking about the potential for his No. 1 player.
"In her estimation and mine, she had some struggles in the fall," Williams finished. "Any golfer tries to improve his/her game each and every day, and that's what Fanny is doing. The changes will cause higher scores at times and that comes with the territory. She's a hard worker, always looking to get better. You may not see the results today or tomorrow, but down the road, those changes will make her a much better golfer. Her attitude and willingness to make the adjustments and implement them in her game will take her to another level. Her ceiling is as high as she wants it to be, that's for sure."
Players Mentioned
