Sara Hurwitch

Sport: Golf
Level: Professional
Hometown: Sterling
High School: Dominion
College: Kentucky
Website: SaraHurwitchGolf.com
Next step: Qualifying tourney, Nov. 30 - Dec. 4, Daytona Beach
Results at LPGA.com under Tournaments

After eight consecutive weeks of intensive golf last summer, practicing every day and competing every weekend, rookie professional Sara Hurwitch felt more drained than one of her putts.

“Playing week after week with so much travel, at times it can be pretty stressful,” said Hurwitch about the grind of playing in the Ladies Professional Golf Association’s developmental Futures Tour.

“I got a little burned out. A little too much golf.”

The 23-year-old alumna of Sterling’s Dominion High School—for whom she won the 2004 girls’ state open championship as a junior—had thrown herself into the fires of professional golf immediately upon graduation from the University of Kentucky.

Quickly, she learned that playing golf as a career was far different from playing it as a high school or college student-athlete.

During her eighth straight weekend on the job, in constant pursuit of swing perfection and the paltry purses granted in the LPGA’s minor league, Hurwitch decided she needed a break.

Aiding in her decision was her father Jonathan’s sudden need for major surgery and her desire to help him in the aftermath.

“He was the one who got me involved in golf. I’d go out and play with him as I was growing up. I just grew to start liking the game, and it went from there,” she said. “But he always told me to enjoy golf and if it gets boring, put the clubs away.”

Hurwitch assumed employment as the teaching pro at a club in Cincinnati, Ohio—a gig which allowed her the mental space to analyze her swing’s mechanics. Working with fellow teaching pro and University of Cincinnati head coach Doug Martin, Hurwitch made some technical adjustments with encouraging results.

Among these was a more aggressive shoulder turn which has added roughly 20 more yards off the tee.

“Between working with [Martin] and looking at myself, I’ve been begun to understand a different approach to my swing,” she said. “It all kind of clicked.”

With confidence renewed and perspective on golf’s professional ranks refreshed, Hurwitch elected to go for the pros again. As a previous Futures Tour pro, she was waived past the first stage.

The second stage saw her perform well enough to be invited among the 144-woman field of the qualifying third stage, a five-day, two-course event at the LPGA’s home facility in Daytona Beach. A finish in the top 40 will warrant Hurwitch a LPGA player’s card as a full-fledged professional.

“I think the best way to approach it is every experience is going to teach something,” she said. “After last year and taking a little time off, it’s really helped me appreciate more the time I get to be on the course.”

It was Jonathan Hurwitch who introduced Sara to golf at their local course Trump National Golf Club, then known as Lowes Island Golf Club. She reports he has since been making strides back to good health and is glad his daughter is giving the pros another shot.

Now a permanent resident in northern Kentucky with her boyfriend and four-year PGA pro Andrew Stephens, Hurwitch makes frequent trips to Loudoun to visit family. Her parents still reside near the same links where she first learned golf.

“They couldn’t be happier. They were right there by me for that second stage. I couldn’t ask for better family and friends,” said Hurwitch before cracking a joke. “My dad still gets out there every once in a while, but I can still beat him!”

This second time around, Hurwitch is more philosophical about the game of golf and her potential for earning a living as a pro player.

“I’m going out there without expectations. It’s a great feeling to be here, and there’s really nothing to lose this week. I’ll just go out there and grind out every golf shot,” Hurwitch said.

“It’s kind of like a second chance. If the numbers are good enough, then it’ll be a awesome feeling to get to that next step.”