Reed On The Greens, by Jeffrey Reed
November 22, 2020

Professional golfers are creatures of habits, with routines and rituals rivalling any other elite athletes. And although no one is immune to the daily changes forced upon us by the COVID-19 pandemic, there is no denying that trying to make a living at golf – the sport which has marched on more than any other in 2020 – has became even more difficult.

Throw in a classic case of chipping and pitching woes, coupled with a bad back from driving for hours from one tournament to another, and you have all of the elements of 24-year-old Londoner Maddie Szeryk’s sophomore Symetra Tour season.

The Symetra Tour launched March 6-8 at Florida’s Natural Charity Classic in Winter Haven, then like the rest of the world shut down, and relaunched what would be a 10-stop tour on July 24-26 at the FireKeepers Casino Hotel Championship in Battle Creek Michigan.

The remainder of the 2020 season saw stops in Arizona August 14-16, California August 21-23, Indiana September 25-27, three tournaments in Florida between September 25-October 14, and then two late-October, early-November tournaments in North Carolina, including the November 3-6 Symetra Tour Championship.

Such is life when you’re one stop from The Show – the LPGA Tour. Of course, some fare better than others despite the odds. That’s professional sports – especially pro golf when a hot putter can make the difference between hoisting a trophy on Sunday evening and packing your bags on Friday night.

Maddie Szeryk

Take Ana Belac of Slovenia, for example. The former Duke Blue Devils All-American joined the Symetra Tour at the FireKeepers event in July, posted four top-10 finishes – including a win at the Carolina Golf Classic on October 31 – and finished first in the tour’s Volvik Race for the Card standings with $49,081 in earnings and a ticket to the LPGA Tour.

This season was to be Maddie Szeryk’s breakout year. The Texas A&M Aggies grad (2018), member of Golf Canada’s Young Pro squad and dual citizen living in Allen, Texas, north of Dallas, had a standout rookie season on the 2019 Symetra Tour.

Szeryk finished last season in 19th spot on the money list with $57,983 over a full schedule of 20 events. In fact, the 5’4” former No. 1-ranked female amateur golfer in Canada finished the 2019 campaign 21st in putts per greens in regulation (1.8), and 16th with rounds in the 60s (19). She also finished in the Top 30 in birdies, rounds under par and scoring average (29th at 71.84).

Even before the 2019 season launched, Szeryk won the first tournament she ever entered as a pro – the Cactus Tour’s Wildfire Golf Club tournament in Scottsdale, Arizona.

The golf gods didn’t smile nearly as much for Szeryk this season, yet here she was on the telephone, answering this scribe’s questions in a stand-up manner and remaining as optimistic as ever about the future.

“It feels very weird, being in the off-season now when it feels like we’ve had multiple off-seasons this year,” said Szeryk from her Texas home where dad, Neil, mom, Karen, and younger sister, Ellie, now on the Aggies golf squad, were enjoying another sunny 80-degree day.

Szeryk finished 48th in money earnings this year with just $9,499 – a “weird financial year,” she said. After her best finish – a T11 in late July at the FireKeepers tourney – she missed the cut at three of the next four events in Arizona and California, and then Florida, with a T42 sandwiched in between.

“I ended up flying quite a bit (during the second half of the schedule),” said Szeryk, who last year drove her Honda Civic 16,000 miles across 15 states in her pursuit of an LPGA Tour card.

This year, “Driving became too much, and it really didn’t make any sense,” Szeryk said. “My back started to act up because of all the driving. I drove to the Arizona and California tournaments. Then I flew with Southwest (Airlines). They left the middle seats open, so I felt pretty safe during COVID.”

London’s Maddie Szeryk. Photo: Symetra Tour.

However, if the Symetra Tour returns to a normal schedule in 2021, then Szeryk will return to the open highway. Time will tell what ‘normal’ is next year. But Szeryk said after a brief break she’ll work hard on her game in order to prepare for her third season on tour.

“I struggled with chipping and pitching this year, so that will be a big focus of mine during the off-season. My ball striking was pretty solid, but it’s difficult when you miss greens and aren’t super comfortable around the greens. I’d have a couple bad chips and then just get uncomfortable,” she said.

This year, Szeryk finished 91st in putting average, 85th in driving distance (250 yards), 68th in scoring average (74) and 49th in greens in regulation.

But consider this: with a truncated season, she only played 29 competitive rounds of golf – all across the U.S.
“Yes, it was difficult, 100 per cent,” Szeryk said. “Last year, we had a number of tournaments in a row. We were always just playing golf. But this year we played one tournament, then took about five months off. And when we came back we (had frequent breaks between tournaments). So it was very hard to get into a groove – a routine.”

Szeryk said she’ll tee it up next month in a few mini tour events in Houston, and will continue to work hard on her fitness – an area where she showed even more improvement this season during her pro golf journey.

This spring and early-summer during the Symetra Tour timeout, she practiced and played with Ellie, a former Golf Canada junior team member and 2018 Ontario Women’s Amateur champ entering her freshman season at Maddie’s alma mater. Maddie graduated from Texas A&M in 2018 as one of the Aggies’ most decorated golfers in history. She set numerous school records during her four-year collegiate career, which included four NCAA titles and All-America selection.

“During the break this season, everything was pretty much open (in Texas) the entire time, golf course-wise, so it was still nice to be able to play and to practice. And it was nice to have my sister at home with me. We practiced together a lot, so that was fun,” Maddie said.

“We definitely try to make some bets if we go out and play, or even just some putting and chipping games for small things like who’s buying dinner or who’s going to pick up Sonic drinks.”

When the 2021 Symetra Tour kicks off, look for Maddie to make some noise with a fresh game honed on the Texas links, and a fresh start after a year we would all like to forget.

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Award-winning writer Jeffrey Reed is one of Canada’s senior golf journalists, a three-time author and editor of The Jigger, official newsletter of the Golf Historical Society of Canada. Reach him at jeff@londonontariosports.com.