Shasta Averyhardt
Professional Golfer

Biography

I was seven when I realized how interesting golf was. In the late afternoons, my father (Greg Averyhardt) would take me to the golf course to play around on the range and putting green. He gave me a cut down iron and putter and let me run around slapping the ball everywhere. Soon I began mimicking my father's swing. Luckily he had good fundamentals or I would have had major issues later on! With my first set of cut down clubs, I entered the Flint Junior Golf League and played the 5 Hole Division. It was an overwhelming experience, given that I stood out. I noticed how different I was compared to the rest of my playing partners. The questions: How tall are you? (6'1 now but imagine back in the day) What race are you? (African-American and Hispanic) I learned to deal with it and incredibly I still get asked the same questions today!

Anyways, I don't remember winning much of anything, so I started to pick up another sport, volleyball. It came to a point where I quit golf temporarily, being so involved with volleyball, that my mother (Maria Espinoza) persuaded me to pick it back up. So freshman year in high school is where I began to take golf seriously with lessons from Jack Seltzer. I improved quickly; breaking 90 and 80 within months. I guess being athletic can make things a little easier to do at a faster rate! I started winning tournaments and matches locally and finally winning a few qualifiers to advance to national junior tournaments. I gave up volleyball my senior year and focused on golf, which was the best decision.

In 2004 after graduating from high school, I signed with Jackson State University under Coach Eddie Payton. In that same year, I switched swing coaches (Rick Kent) and worked even harder with "perfecting" my swing. While at Jackson State, I won 5 collegiate tournaments and 4 individual conference championships. During the summer breaks, I played in a few Michigan tournaments as well as a few outside of Michigan including the State Amateur and the State Championships. I was successful as well, winning a few tournaments to add to my accomplishments.

After graduating in December 2008 with an Accounting Degree, I knew golf WAS NOT going to be over for me. My parents and I pushed hard to find sponsorship during the 2008 summer, because we were in no position to pay for all my golf expenses. Curtis Duren, who we met at a tournament along with his daughter, pitched to my father about a new not-for-profit organization formed in Orlando, FL called Sister's Across America, Inc. Their mission statement is to basically help a minority (African-American) female financially make her way to the LPGA tour. I said "This is PERFECT; it would be such a blessing." We were pretty excited after spending months and months with no feedback, so I sent in my resume. Thankfully, they approved me and my life changed rapidly. I moved to Orlando and started to play Sun Coast Series Events (mini tour).

The goal was to get ready for LPGA Q-School in the fall of 2009. I won an event in the summer which was a confidence booster, and I played solidly in the next few events I had. Even with an injury, that prevented me from hitting balls for a few weeks, I still was able to manage to play very well in my last mini tour event leading up to LPGA Q-School Sectionals. I entered into one sectional and finished tied for 11th and that sealed my spot for final stage. After LPGA final stage, I earned Duramed Futures Tour Status for the 2010 traveling season. I qualified for the 2010 United States Women Open to be held at Oakmont Country Club, Oakmont Pennsylvania.