Shah works to regain focus, continue advancing game

DALLAS – Every tee box is a reminder for Serena Shah. Staring down the fairway, looking out over the grass and rolling landscape of a golf course used to be a given, an almost every day occurrence. 

Last March, that changed. 

COVID-19 ended the SMU women’s golf season prematurely, sending the Mustangs home with two and a half months left in the semester. Courses remained closed for months, forcing Shah to practice by hitting balls off a small patch of fake grass into a sheet hung up in their garage. 

Golf can humble even the most polished player. Not having the ability to play certainly humbled Shah. 

“I would just take turns with my family hitting balls and shooting videos of each other swinging. That’s kind of what we did for about a month,” Shah reflected. “Golf gets boring when you have to hit into a sheet into the wall over and over and over again. But that’s what we did. And finally, when the courses opened I was like, ‘Man, I am never taking this for granted ever again.’”

Shah’s frustrations weren’t with anyone, as she knew COVID safety protocols needed to be followed to slow viral spread. It was simply difficult to see all the momentum she had built over the last year come to a screeching halt. 

When she arrived on the Hilltop, Shah was a decorated junior, having won the City of Dallas Junior Championship twice and helped Hebron High School to a pair of 6A State Championships. 

But college golf changed things as she only appeared in four tournaments, never finishing higher than 42nd and never shooting better than 14-over par. 

Shah’s “trial year,” as she called it, forced her to refocus and rethink. As she came into her sophomore year, Shah decided to seize moments that had become commonplace. Her improvement started slow as she shot better overall scores during the fall before recording a trio of top 30 finishes, including a 2-under 214 at the Allstate Sugar Bowl Intercollegiate, placing her third in the field.

“Honestly, looking back it’s just kind of insane how like night and day my freshmen and sophomore years were,” Shah said. “I was just taking each tournament my sophomore year with what it was and just appreciating it as much as I could, because I knew what it was like not getting to travel as much and not getting to play college golf.”

And then, suddenly, it was gone. 

SMU played its last event of the 2019-20 season on Feb. 25, 2020 at the Icon Invitational and didn’t return to the course for competitive golf until Feb. 1, 2021 for the Trinity Forest Invitational. 

During the months of fall practice, SMU coach Jeanne Sutherland made workouts as competitive as possible. But Shah needed the real thing. 

“I was talking to my coach about this – I’m a big player. I like to practice, but I really feel myself out by playing, learning what I do with my playing and then coming back and practicing that. So, when everything came to a halt, I was like I don’t really know what I’m supposed to be doing,” Shah said. “It was definitely an adjustment but luckily Jeanne really helped us with keeping us as competitive as possible with doing different types of competitions and match play events within the team.”

Heading into the Lone Star Invitational on Monday, Shah is hoping to continue rebuilding that competitive edge. She’s picked up two top 30 finishes in the last three events, including a 17th at the Sugar Bowl Intercollegiate. Shah is the second lowest scorer on the SMU roster, averaging 76.6 strokes per round. 

She’s not where she was as a freshman. She hopes to get back to where she was as a sophomore. But no matter what, Shah is simply happy to be playing the game and eager to continue improving. 

“There’s always room to be better and get your game even more competitive. I would say (my game) is where I’d like it to be, but there’s always that room,” Shah said.