Life is a balancing act, as Alyssa Shimel realized in greater detail during her freshman year at the University of Michigan.

The 2010 Eastwood grad and 2009 Division II state tournament champion had a solid first year playing for the Wolverines' women's golf team. She was awarded UM's Women's Golf Newcomer Award after posting a 77.76 average in the Wolverines' 12 season events in 2010-11.

“I had pretty decent freshman year,” said Shimel, who tied for 14th place at the Big Ten Championships. “There were definitely tournaments where I could have played better, but it was a huge learning experience. I was learning to adjust to a whole different life, being on my own, and I think I did pretty well.

"I would love to play golf proffessionally, but I will have a college degree to fall back on."             Alyssa Shimel golfing in last year's Jamie Farr's LPGA tourna- ment at Highland Meadows in Sylvania. (Press file photo by Scott Grau)

“My (golf) expectations were a little too high, not knowing what it was going to be like and what kind of adjustments I was going to have to make. The first couple weeks, I got school under control and figured out how to balance golf and school.”

The Wolverines played matches and tournaments from September through November and then picked up again from February through May.

“In January we have an alumni match, so we went to Naples, Fla., for a weekend,” Shimel said. “In February our first tournament was in Puerto Rico. It was awesome. It was a college tournament hosted by Purdue. We finished in the middle of the field and beat some higher-ranked teams. It was a good tournament for us. I shot mid to upper 70s the whole tournament.”

Shimel, 19, who is majoring in sports management with a minor in accounting, has had a busy season on the golf course since the end of her freshman year.

She recorded her first career hole-in-one in late June while playing in the Ohio Women's Amateur at Quail Hollow near Cleveland. The shot came on the 175-yard No. 6 hole.

“I knew I hit it pretty good,” she said. “It took one hop and disappeared. I was kind of shocked. I've had a lot of shots do everything but go in. It was finally nice that one of those finally went in. I was quite surprised.”

Shimel finished second at the Ohio Women's Amateur, a match-play event, losing 3-2 in the championship match. It was her highest finish ever in four OWA appearances.

“I played well,” Shimel said. “I hit the ball well but my putter kind of let me down. It was hard to take (losing) that night, and the next day was kind of a bummer. But, you have to move on. It just makes you want to do better. My putting, my speed control, was definitely off and I just missed a couple five- and six-footers. If I would have made those, it would have been a whole different match.”

On May 31 Shimel tied for medalist honors at a U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links Championship qualifier outside Lansing, Mich. She did not, however, compete in the Public Links Championship in Brandon, Oregon. The tournament was won by Tiger Woods' niece, Cheyenne Woods, 20.

“I didn't end up going to the finals because it was expensive and there was no way for me to get to the course in Oregon,” Shimel said. “The course was five hours from an airport and I'm not old enough to rent a car. It was very disappointing. I played in that tournament last year and it was one of my favorite tournaments. Once we looked it up, it wasn't reasonable to get out there this year.”

Shimel also played in a Women's U.S. Open qualifier in suburban Chicago on May 23, but she was unable to qualify. On July 11 Shimel played in a U.S. Amateur tournament qualifier in West Bloomfield, Mich., but she came up short again.

“I shot 80,” she said. “It was a nice course, a little tricky. There were a couple holes you definitely needed to play a couple times to get a feel for. The scores were a little higher than they normally were for that tournament. I still have stuff I want to fix before school season starts. I think I definitely got some confidence playing in the Ohio Amateur and the Public Links tournaments.”

Shimel added that her goal, since age 10, is still to compete on the LPGA Tour.

“That's definitely my first choice for what I want to do the rest of my life,” she said. “I would love to play golf professionally, but I will have a college degree to fall back on.”

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