Luckily for MSU women's golf head coach Stacy Slobodnik-Stoll, junior Sara Brown paid a visit to MSU in the summer.
Brown, a native of Tucson, Ariz., developed such a good relationship with Slobodnik-Stoll that she looked past Michigan's various weather patterns and gave up the sun-drenched desert for the Green and White.
"Our personalities got along great from the first time that I talked to her on the phone," Brown said. "Then I came on my official visit and met the team, and I instantaneously felt that I fit here."
While Brown went on to visit other schools, Slobodnik-Stoll said she knew in the back of her mind that Brown belonged at MSU.
"She's a great player and an awesome person," Slobodnik-Stoll said.
"We don't care where she's from, we're just happy to have her here."
While the change in weather has required an adjustment, Brown said she feels the move has helped improve her game.
"We don't get a lot of wind, rain or anything like that (in Arizona)," Brown said. "The grass is a lot different. In Arizona, it's flat desert, and the ball will roll a mile."
And it has been a whirlwind experience ever since.
Last year, Brown had the lowest single-season stroke average in school history with a 74.18, she finished second at the Big Ten Championships and over the summer, she became the fifth Spartan to be named to the World University Games.
This season, Brown is one of three Spartans to play in all nine events and has finished in the top five three times and the top 20 seven times. She has won once, at the Landfall Tradition in late October.
She hopes to keep that momentum going in this weekend's Lady Buckeye Invitational, hosted by Ohio State.
"She's 22nd in the country right now and third in the Big Ten," Slobodnik-Stoll said. "She's the leader of the team. She's the most vocal, and she's looking right now to break every record that Emily Bastel ever set."
What's most impressive from Brown is the fact that she's the team leader on the course and in the locker room as a junior.
"You can't make leaders — they are or they aren't," Slobodnik-Stoll said. "We've been grooming Sara since her freshman year. She's very vocal, and she doesn't mind speaking her thoughts and ideas."
The nice thing is that it all comes naturally to Brown.
"It's easy for me to talk to coach about things, and it's easy for me to talk to the team about things," she said. "I think they feel comfortable about coming to me to talk."
And when Brown's time as a Spartan comes to an end next year, she hopes, like Bastel, to turn pro and make it on the LPGA Tour.
"I'm going to finish school, go to qualifying school, and hopefully you'll see me on the LPGA Tour," she said.
Said Slobodnik-Stoll: "There's no question that her goal is to play on tour, and we feel that she's definitely going to make it."
