Jane Fanning '25 Recruiting Profile

     I don’t know who I would be without golf. From my first PGA Junior League team at ten years old, I was hooked on the game. It has given me a community I am beyond grateful for and friends I will cherish forever. Not only that, golf has provided the mental and physical challenges I crave. I hope to continue my golf journey at the collegiate level for the community and the challenge. 

     As a player in upstate New York, summer is prime time for the outdoor golf season. Without school, golf becomes my life. I am constantly competing, practicing, and traveling. In those warmer months, I participate in my local Northeastern NY PGA tour, the Metropolitan PGA tour, and in events on the Hurricane Junior Golf Tour across the Northeast. In the winter months, I work at local indoor golf simulators, improving my swing and refining the details of my game.

     In seventh grade, just as I became eligible for school sports teams, the high school, rather serendipitously, added a girls varsity golf team alongside many other schools in New York’s Section 2. And so, my school golf career began as a 4’ 7” 12-year-old with four teammates all older than her. Five seasons later, I stand as a 16-year-old junior in high school, barely cresting 5’ 1”, with fourteen teammates. 

     Despite only literally growing a few inches, I’ve grown a lot as a player and teammate. This past fall season, I excelled on the course setting personal match records. This culminated at the NY Section 2 Tournament, where I placed ninth (83-85) and secured my spot at the NYS Girls Golf Championship in June 2024. On a more personal level, I was able to stretch strong performances throughout the entire high school season. In past years, I often saw success for the first few weeks and then fell off, but not this year. I was able to excel straight through Sectionals. 

     Not only have I grown as a player but as a leader and co-captain. This past fall season, my team grew exponentially, taking on a total of fifteen young athletes. Team practices became less about my own game, and more about teaching thirteen younger girls everything from swing mechanics to on-course etiquette and sportsmanship. 

     Lucky for me, I was not brand new to teaching young players. These thirteen and fourteen-year-olds were about the oldest kids I’ve ever taught and much more agreeable to my instruction. The past two summers, I worked at a local golf course’s KidsPlay Golf program wrangling three and four-year-olds armed with big plastic clubs at the “Birdie Basics” station. It quickly became the highlight of my week and taught me this game truly is one you can play for a lifetime. 

     Off the course, I am a dedicated student. It is no surprise to catch me, laptop in hand, on bus rides to school matches. I challenge myself with high-level courses, taking numerous AP classes, alongside electives that nourish my interests, such as Criminal Justice and Law. I study hard to maintain a 4.0 GPA, balanced with music and my clarinet, Nordic skiing in the winter, and extracurricular activities as an officer in Student Government, Model UN member, and secretary and active member of my local March For Our Lives Chapter, a gun violence prevention organization. I also never miss an opportunity to volunteer my time at school and music events, for groups like my district’s teachers’ union, to summer volunteering, such as at my golf club’s annual Twin Bridges Championship on the Epson Tour. 

     Golf is an integral part of my life that I wish to carry into my college career. I want to find the right academic and athletic match:  a college where I can challenge myself in the classroom and on the course.