Reed On The Greens Oct. 9, 2025
Szeryk’s Golf Game Ready For Next Step
by Jeffrey Reed, Editor, LondonOntarioGolf.com
Maddie Szeryk photo: Golf Canada

As Londoner Maddie Szeryk prepared for her trip to Plantation Golf & Country Club in Venice, Florida October 15-18 and the second stage of LPGA Tour Q-School, she reflected on her 2025 season – and seven complete seasons – on the Epson Tour.

“Golf is hard. It’s really, really hard,” said Szeryk, a dual citizen who has lived most of her life with her parents, Neil and Karen, and her younger sister, Ellie, in Allen, Texas near Dallas.

A former All-American at Texas A&M, Szeryk, 29, finished T12 on Sunday at the Epson Tour Championship at Indian Wells Golf & Country Club, California, and can compete again with full status on the Epson Tour for an eighth season. She fired rounds of 68-68-68-69–273 (-15) and was the top Canadian finisher. Szeryk earned $4,699, giving her $142,000 career Epson tour winnings since her debut in 2019.

Maddie Szeryk. Photo: LPGA Tour.

Indeed, golf is not easy – even for golfers boasting Szeryk’s talent from tee to green. She has not won on the Epson Tour but has nine career top-10 finishes. This season, she had two top-10s, made the cut at 15 of 20 tournaments and amassed $40,000 in earnings. Szeryk’s best result was a T6 in March at the Atlantic Beach Classic.

The former All-American with the Aggies jumped five spots and finished 40th in the Race for the Card and will need to earn an LPGA Tour card through Q-School. Final qualifying is slated for December 4-8 at Magnolia Grove Golf Course in Mobile, Alabama.

Update Oct. 18: Szeryk will not advance to the final stage of LPGA Tour Q-School, after finishing just one stroke out of the Top 45 and ties in Florida. She finished T51 with rounds of 69-73-72-72–286 (-2).

On the big tour, Szeryk played in 15 LPGA Tour events in 2022 before full status in 2023, and then just six events in 2024. Add world travelling to the mix, along with the gruelling grind of competing on the Epson Tour plus Monday qualifiers on various tours and – well, you get the idea: golf is hard enough with a club in your hand, not to mention with everything else that accompanies the life of a touring pro.

If that’s not enough for a full plate, Szeryk and her fiancé, Epson Tour and LPGA Tour caddy Nick DiBello, are tying the not in January. Nick was on the bag during Maddie’s win at the 2024 Destination Grapevine Texas Women’s Open. The couple will live in Jupiter, Florida where Nick has secured a new post as a club caddy which Maddie said will be “a little more secure and a lot less travel.” Jupiter, of course, is a golf home to numerous PGA and LPGA Tour players.

“This has been a crazy, busy year and it has gone very fast,” said Szeryk, a member of Golf Canada’s Team Canada program for 11 years. “Things are always hectic and go-go-go. But that is the life of being a professional golfer.”

Something has clicked, though, with Szeryk’s golf game. She said although she wasn’t in the winner’s circle on the Epson Tour and did not have her LPGA Tour card, it was still “one of my more consistent years. I saw a lot of progress in areas where I have struggled in past years.”

 

“Golf is hard. It’s really, really hard.” – Maddie Szeryk

 

On the Epson Tour, Szeryk finished 28th in greens in regulation, and 31st in scoring. And although she finished 84th on the greens – up from 90th in putting in 2024 – Szeryk said she is trending in the right direction.

“The biggest difference between the Epson Tour and the LPGA Tour is putting. Everyone hits it well. But it’s consistency on the greens that makes a huge difference,” she explained.

“At the end of 2023, and last year, I really, really struggled with putting – even the beginning of this year. But I’ve become a lot more comfortable with it. I went through a really tough time with putting. If you’re not making putts, it doesn’t matter how well you’re hitting the ball, if you can’t make 3- or 4-footers. This season, I started making those 10-, 15- and even 20- and 30-footers occasionally. If your driving is in play and you’re putting well, you’ll be OK.”

Since fall 2024, Szeryk has worked with Orlando-based sports psychologist Paul Dewlan, a former engineering major from Oshawa, Ontario. Szeryk said before she enlisted Dewlan’s expertise, she was “really struggling and didn’t know which way to turn. So he really helped me get back into the correct swing.”

Szeryk wouldn’t go as far as to say she owned her swing, but she said she’s close. “Some years, being hyper-focused on improving one thing helps. But other years, you just trust the process of practicing and then bringing it to the course. You do the work, and you just trust your game. Other years, though, it takes more focus to pump yourself up a little more. There are ebbs and flows knowing how to navigate those things.”

PING throughout the bag, Szeryk has had a new sponsor on board since mid-2022: Fengate, a leading North American investment firm specializing in real assets, with a focus on infrastructure, private equity and real estate. It’s a partnership Szeryk values, since acquiring financial support on the Epson Tour is “almost impossible without a full card on the LPGA Tour.” She said it’s about “building relationships.”

Maddie Szeryk. Photo: LPGA Tour.

As for her game, Szeryk said she is in the best place she has ever been as a golfer and in life. On the links, she is “always learning something new about my game. You’re always growing as a golfer and as a person. I understand my strengths, and where I need to improve.”

Szeryk’s last visit to London was in June to attend her grandfather’s funeral. Metro Zeryk was a legendary fastball pitcher, a member of the ASA National Softball Hall of Fame, Windsor Fastpitch Softball Hall of Fame and the Connecticut ASA Fast Pitch Hall of Fame.

Ellie, 24, still has aspirations to continue with her pro golf journey. She didn’t graduate from the first stage of LPGA Tour Q-School this year, but the former Ontario Women’s Amateur champion did win her first pro tourney at the 2024 GolfBC Group BC Women’s Open. She beat her sister to the alter in January of this year.

Injury free and feeling just the normal aches and pains from the pro tour grind, Maddie is now ready to take another stab at acquiring full-time status on the LPGA Tour. That part of her pro golf journey begins next week.

Golf is hard. So is life. But Szeryk believes she now has the complete toolbox to compete and win at both.

–30–

Award-winning golf journalist and three-time author Jeffrey Reed has covered the game of golf for print, broadcast and new media since 1980. He’s author of the 2018-published book, The Canadian Seniors’ Golf Association, Celebrating 100 Years of Seniors Golf 1918-2018. Reach him at jeff@londonontariogolf.com.