Centennial's Shah paced himself -- and the field -- in most tourneys
| Thursday, Jun 25 2009 11:19 PM
Last Updated Thursday, Jun 25 2009 11:26 PM
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Jenn Ireland / The Californian Manav Shah of Centennial High is this year's All-Area golfer of the year.
Jenn Ireland / The Californian Manav Shah of Centennial High is this year's All-Area golfer of the year.
At some point this year Centennial junior Manav Shah learned that the tortoise really does usually beat the hare.
And so he slowed down and fought his way through each round of golf. When the dust settled, Shah was the Central Section champion, oh-soclose to qualifying for the state tournament and The Californian's Boys Golfer of the Year.
"All I did," Shah said of his furious finish to the season, "was try to concentrate on hitting fairways, two-putting and getting out of there. Nothing fancy. Just keep it simple and lessen the mistakes I was having earlier."
The result was a 3-under-par 69 at Seven Oaks Country Club at the section's individual championships that cleared the field by three strokes, and then another 69 at the Southern Cal regional in Murrieta that put him into a multi-player playoff for advancement to the elite state tournament.
He didn't make it through, but it was clear by then that Shah had turned a corner.
"He started coming into it maturity-wise," Centennial coach Andy Muro said. "That's why he started doing better."
That means Shah was managing the course better -- instead of trying to birdie every hole and race to an improbably low round, he became the tortoise.
It's not that Shah was a bad player before. His regular-season average of 73.1 strokes a round was the second-best in the area to Stockdale junior Pete Fernandez. But Shah felt like it should have been better.
"Coming into the year, there was some high expectations, not only from me and the team and other teams, but that Manav put on himself," Muro said. "And he didn't quite live up to his own expectations early on. He struggled, but then he was always right around par. He just felt like he was struggling."
By the end of the year, that was history. Shah played his best round of the year -- and one of his best rounds ever -- at the regional, where he hit all 18 greens, all 12 fairways and only three-putted one hole. The fact that it wasn't quite good enough on that given day doesn't keep Shah from seeing the improvement.
"It was disappointing," he said, "but I can take a lot of positives from it. I'm getting a little motivation from it by trying to get better and make it to state next year."
That's not his only big goal. Shah qualified for the Junior World Championships, and he's got college and possibly beyond in mind for his golfing career.
"I've received comments from college coaches that he has incredible skills and the game for the next level," Muro said. "He will move on, and that is his deep desire. He wants to be a college golfer and a professional golfer."
And while Muro thinks Shah's work ethic matches his talent, talk about the pros is a little too hare-like for now.
"When things get intense, I just want to go back to keeping things simple," Shah said. "This year was good. I came in a little under the radar and kept trying to break through. Finally it all came together."
