Delaney Shah
I am so excited to finally be back competing for a full season in 2024. After the Maryland Open in October, I took a long offseason and focused hard on getting my body ready to travel and compete for weeks in a row. I did a lot of strengthening, rehab, and made some changes to my golf swing to help me use the ground more and get more power. After the New Year, I started “75 Hard” which is a fitness challenge where for 75 consecutive days I had to read 10 pages of a non-fiction book, drink a gallon of water (no alcohol), stick to a diet, and complete two 45 minute workouts where at least one had to be outside. This was a good way to get my body prepped and ready for the season as well as also being a good challenge, and I loved completing it. To get golf ready, I went down to Florida for 6 weeks to knock off the rust and work on my game to get ready for the season.
The first event started the first week of April in Mandeville, Louisiana. This golf course was very tight and narrow off the tee, with out of bounds hugging almost every fairway. This was going to be a good test since I have struggled off the tee in the past. The first round started off strong, making birdie on my very first hole. I ended the round shooting 76, with only one ball going through the fairway out of bounds. I had 28 putts and ended the round T17. The second day I was feeling confident and hit the ball really well, however I could not make any putts. I ended up having 10 more putts the second round, and shot 82. This was frustrating because the ball striking was really well, and putting which is usually the best part of my game let me down. I ended up missing the cut by 4 shots, and spent the weekend practicing for the next week and celebrating my 26th birthday with some friends.
The second event was in Lake Charles, Louisiana. This golf course was the complete opposite of the first, being pretty open off the tee. However, the morning of the first round, we were woken up at 6 am to a tornado warning. We had to take cover in the laundry room for an hour. Luckily, we were all safe. However, there was so much damage done to the course from the 80 mph winds, they had to cancel the first round. After so much work done from the grounds crew, we were able to tee it up Thursday. It was still very breezy with winds up to 40 mph that day. This made the course very difficult since there weren't many trees to block the wind. I had to get very creative with the shots to counter the winds. I ended up shooting 1 over the first day and was tied for 7th which I was really happy about considering the conditions. The next morning the golf course played completely different because there was no wind at all. I shot 2-under on my first nine but made a couple bogeys coming in to shoot 72. Although I was bummed at the way I finished that round, I was in T13, meaning I had made my first cut of the season! For the last round, I had a friend caddy for me, which helped out tremendously, and we were able to put a good round together and shoot 69 to finish the tournament at T8. This was a really good boost of confidence to get a top 10 finish and see that my game was tracking in the right direction.
The last week of the first swing of events was in Natchez, Mississippi. This course was the hilliest and longest walk of the three events. I started the tournament strong opening with a 1-under round and was tied for 19. Going into day 2, I knew I needed to put another good round together because the scores were very low. The second day was not my best, but I was able to walk away with a 1-over round of 73, making the cut on the number and getting to play the next two days. The third round was very up and down. I made 6 birdies but also two bogies and a double. This round of 2-under moved me into a tie for 17. The last round I had a friend on the bag which was a huge help to my body and also my mental game. I walked away with another round of 1-under, bringing my 72 hole score to -3 and finishing T18.
Over the past three weeks, I felt really good about where my game was at. I was very consistent off the tee, and although my putting was hot and cold I was still able to put consistent rounds together and compete. Now I have a much needed week off back in Louisville to reset before leaving again for 3 more events! I will update at the end of the 3 events. As always, I appreciate all of your support!