BYU golfer Whitney Banz didn’t usually ride in golf carts at her tournaments.
But this fall, at the Blessings Collegiate Invitational in Fayetteville, Arkansas, was different.
It was great to relieve the need to walk the long distances between holes, but this also set up an opportunity to meet a new friend — the group’s scorekeeper.
“Our scorekeeper rode in the cart with me sometimes, because the walks were really far between the holes. And my dad was there too, and he was just walking and watching," Banz said. "And this man, I could tell something was special about him. Just like, you know, when people radiate like the light of Christ. He was not a member of the church, but he kept talking about his daughter and how much he loved his little daughter. And he loved his family."
Banz and her dad shared information about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with him. The scorekeeper would rotate between riding and talking to Banz in the cart and walking with Banz’s dad on the course.
After he mentioned that he wanted somewhere to take his daughter to go to church and make friends, they were able to talk about the church’s youth program.
“My dad would talk to him all about Primary and how much his daughter would love that and then he'd get back in the cart and we'd talk about something else. That was such a cool experience. He was willing to meet with the missionaries, and he gave my dad his phone number to send the missionaries over to his house in Arkansas,” Banz said.
Banz has used sports to share God’s love all throughout her life. But her focus wasn’t always on that.
Growing up, she played basketball on a boys’ team along with playing competitive soccer. But after being taken to enough of her two older brothers’ golf tournaments, she finally opened up to the idea of adding golf.
Sports were the main focus of her life. Later in high school, Banz even added track, so she stood as a tri-sport athlete, competing in track, basketball and golf.
But in the midst of the whirlwind of games her sophomore year, Banz got the opportunity to volunteer at a special education classroom for youth with intellectual disabilities.
She got to use her athletic abilities while also branching out. They’d do things like shoot baskets, play soccer, make cookies and sing.
It was life-changing.
It opened her eyes to having the right perspective, loving others, and not making her life just about the sports themselves.
“That's actually when my sports got a lot better. Most people are like, ‘oh, sports, sports, sports,’ if you play them. But it was cool to see that when we have other things in our life, especially when we put Christ first, how he helps all the other things in our lives get better,” Banz said.
Her junior year, she tied for first place in golf at the Utah state championship on a day where she had a track meet later that day.
This led her to talk to the coach from Westminster University, where she ended up getting the opportunity to play for both the golf and basketball teams.
Later, after a couple of semesters at Westminster, she decided to serve as a missionary and got called to serve in Thailand.
“I didn't know much about Thailand. People kept telling me there were all these snakes, and I'm scared, like, really scared of snakes,” Banz said.
She was nervous going into it, but the next week she had a tournament in Arizona with around 200 players, and out of everyone, she got paired with a girl from Thailand, which had never happened to her before. The girl taught Banz some words and told her about her family living in Thailand.
“It was an answer to prayer that showed me that that was where I was supposed to go,” Banz said.
In her first area on the mission in Bangkok, Banz — Sister Banz — and her companion felt impressed one day to go to a specific park to do their gospel study.
When they were there, a man came up to them who had a golf hat on. He, out of the blue, asked Banz if she played golf, even though she was just wearing a dress and church name tag. He mentioned that his daughter was playing golf.
“And he's like, ‘Are you Christian? Can you teach my daughter how to read the Bible?’” Banz said.
They had the opportunity to teach him and his daughter, and then the man also invited his friends to come learn too, coming to church off and on for a couple months.
They connected over golf, and it allowed the missionaries to become a part of their lives.
This golf connection also struck gold when Banz and her companion ended up getting in contact with the family of the very Thai girl she had met at the tournament before she left. They golfed together, became friends, and were even able to teach some of the missionary lessons as well.
Fast-forward to today and Banz has transferred to BYU’s golf team. She always dreamed of attending school here, and a lot of that is tied to what BYU represents.
“I think BYU is a cool platform because we get to be representing Jesus Christ as a university. I feel like I've had the opportunity to talk to a lot of people that I've golfed with who are from other states that don't know a lot about BYU or that have heard about it and have some interesting views about it," Banz said. "You just, you have all these cool experiences that you would never imagine that you would have just wearing the name BYU on your uniform. It's a unique opportunity. We represent Christ wherever we go, but just wearing a BYU uniform, I think it’s a cool opportunity to be able to share with people about Jesus Christ."
BYU also gives lots of opportunities for the athletes to serve.
“We got to go caroling the other day to an assisted living home, and we got to help at a big Christmas party, and do wheelchair basketball, and we got to help with different special Olympics things at just so many different places,” Banz said.
Banz loves Jesus Christ, and wants to share Him with everyone around her because of the impact that He has had on her life.
“I need him. I can't even imagine what my life would be like without Jesus Christ,” Banz said.
Christ helped Banz find success in sports and turn that success into serving those around her in high school, in Thailand, and now at BYU.