Nineteen years ago, in the countryside near Guatemala City, Guatemala, you would find a 5-year-

oldXXJose Pablo Rolz hitting a bucket of golf balls every Saturday morning before playing with his

friends.

At the time, Rolz says, he did not want to play or practice golf, but his parents Florencia and Jose Rafael

made him. It wasn’t until he competed in and won his first tournament at age eight that he began to

love the game.

That’s when the Saturday morning practices became more a pleasure than a chore.

Growing up with two accomplished golfers for parents – Florencia was a six-time Mexican amateur

champion – Rolz already had an advantage over other youngsters playing the sport. He grew up to be

the No. 1 ranked amateur golfer in Mexico between 2008 and 2010, but he was finding it hard to find a

place to play at the collegiate level.

“I was rejected by the NCAA and thought I was not going to be able to do my dream and play here

(America), and then he (Wesleyan head golf coach Bobby Cornett) called me,” Rolz said. “And it was like

a light from heaven.”

Fans of Wesleyan’s golf team might think that Rolz is heaven-sent as well: the 23-year-old senior finance

major has won two tournaments this season, the most recent being the University of Houston-Victoria’s

Claud Jacobs Intercollegiate in February, where he shot rounds of 67, 71 and 75 on the way to a fourth

consecutive top-5 tournament finish.

A first-team NAIA All-Conference selection last season, he’s a major reason why the men’s team in

ranked No. 9 in the country. Last fall he tied for 44th at the first Latin American Amateur Championship in

Argentina.

“The Latin American Amateur was probably the biggest tournament I have ever played,” Rolz said. “I had

the chance to meet people from the governing bodies of the game such as the USGA and Masters.

Overall it was an incredible week, having the chance to meet some of the many different names that

you dreamed to always have a chat with.”

Besides being talented, Rolz is also the Rams’ “spiritual leader,” Cornett said.

“He has a very positive demeanor, easy to be around, almost always upbeat, always trying to improve

and is a great impact on the team,” Cornett said.

Rolz said that he focuses more on his game than anything else.

“I do not really look at the rankings,” he said. I just like to play tournaments and play them well.”

With all this success, there is no doubt in Rolz’s mind what he is going to do after graduating in May.

“I am definitely going to play professional,” he said. “I like to read, I like to learn, but I love this game a

lot more. I have to first line up my paperwork for my visa and also get some financial help from people

in the local area as well as back in my country.”

At the same time, though, Rolz said he wants to be more than just a pro golfer.

“I have a dream of changing the world, and if that happens, golf would not be a bad place to start,” Rolz

said.

In the meantime, you can find Rolz still hitting a bucket of balls every Friday, Saturday and Sunday – only

now it’s in Fort Worth.