SHS sophomore Serena Wu attended the OHSAA Division I Girls State Championship at The Ohio State University Golf Club Gray Course in Columbus on Oct. 21, 2023.
Wu started her high school career as a freshman on the varsity team and has been golfing for five years.
SHS Girls Varsity Golf coach and mathematics teacher Damien Kopkas said Wu worked hard over the off-season to prepare for this season.
“[Serena] entered 17 summer tournaments this summer, and I think won 11 of them,” Kopkas said. “She prepared probably better than most, if not every, golfer I’ve ever had in my time here, so she was well prepared for the season and when she came in, she hit the ground running.”
During practice, Wu said she tried to focus on mastering her short game “in case something went wrong” during one of her matches. This term, short game, involves putting, chipping and pitching which is the skill that requires the most amount of practice according to Golf.
Wu has shown success throughout her golf career at SHS, especially from her freshman to sophomore year.
Serena’s pair, senior Haiden Goebelbecker, thinks that little changes in golf skills matter.
“I think that she has improved a lot,” said Goebelbecker. “There have been small improvements but ones that can take her far like States this year.”
Being Wu’s pair, Goebelbecker feels that Serena has made her “a better player.”
“She encourages me to be better than what I’ve thought I could become,” said Goebelbecker.
Emerson (Emi) Mulcahy, another senior player, also noticed that Wu seems more “confident” with her matches.
Wu believes that from her freshman to sophomore year she got “more consistent” with primarily every part of her game, and Kopkas agrees.
“I think because of all the hard work that she put in in the off season, she added some length to her game so she was able to hit the ball a little bit farther off the tee,” said Kokas. “With the work that she put in she was able to refine her game a little bit more that would help her in the long run to adjust back to the high school distances.”
As a result of her constant practice and dedication, Wu was able to qualify as an individual for districts and states.
“I was really excited and pretty nervous the first day,” said Serena. “The second day I was definitely less nervous which probably helped my score.”
Over the two day championship, Wu tied for 19th place.
“On the first day it started a little rough,” said Wu. “My shots weren’t very consistent the first day while approaching and on the green, but, on the second day my shots were a little more consistent and I did better around the greens.”
Overall, Kopkas views her as “his number one golfer all year long even as a sophomore” and as being a “leader” for the rest of the team.
“She’s a power machine so she is very consistent throughout the game,” said Kopkas.
Wu plans to return to states through her high school career, and later, play golf in college.
“I think it will be exciting to try and accomplish my goals,” said Wu.
