Canada's Maddie Szeryk excited for return to LPGA Tour in 2023

After the busiest two weeks of their season, Maddie Szeryk and family return to Canada for a relaxing Christmas break with extended family in London, Ontario.

Szeryk qualified for her second season on the top women’s course on Sunday, finishing the Q-Series in tied 17th place with 17 under par to earn her 2023 LPGA Tour card. Szeryk, 26, said she was ready for a well-deserved break after the grueling eight-round event at Alabama’s Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail spanning two weeks.

“I don’t bring my golf clubs and I don’t play golf,” said Szeryk, who lives in Dallas. “I’m just going to reflect on the past year and get some rest for my mind, my body and everything.

“Then in the new year I’ll start training again and start being more intense and just ramp up the training to make sure I’m really ready for the new season.”

South Korea’s Hae Ran Ryu of South Korea finished first in the Q-Series with 29 Under and Bailey Tardy of the United States was two strokes behind her to finish second.

Szeryk is the only Canadian with LPGA Tour status for the next season, along with Brooke Henderson of Smiths Falls, Ontario, Maude-Aimee Leblanc of Sherbrooke, Que., and Alena Sharp of Hamilton.

She said the Q-Series is “grueling” physically and mentally.

“These two weeks determine my status for the whole of next year, so it’s not just a normal tournament,” said Szeryk. “It’s also just a different mindset to have eight rounds and not four.

“You just have to stay in the moment. You can have a bad hole or something because it’s eight rounds, but you just have to move on to the next hole and it’s fine.”

Szeryk admitted she was having a hard time adjusting to the LPGA Tour in 2022, but said she found her footing at the CP Women’s Open where she finished 26th on Aug. 25 at the Ottawa Hunt and Golf Club occupied. She made it three more times, including a tie for 24th place at The Ascendant LPGA in favor of Volunteers of America on September 29 in Irving, Texas.

“I think feeling comfortable out there and seeing that I’m capable of putting in good laps and being at the top of the leaderboard,” Szeryk said of what she learned in her rookie season. “Just really being able to be more comfortable outside and knowing the whole routine because it’s very overwhelming at first.

“I think after that breakthrough at the Canadian Open I was like, ‘OK, this is possible.'”

Szeryk said she hasn’t picked her first tournament of the new season yet.