Shuman graduates to pros
Needham native set to start a new career
With a memorable spring in which he crisscrossed North America, recent Duke graduate and Needham native Jake Shuman denied himself a chance to have a relaxing summer in the Hub before turning professional.
By winning this month’s Mackenzie Tour-PGA Tour Canada qualifying tournament in Courtenay, British Columbia, the 22-year-old is fully exempt this summer on the Mackenzie Tour, the equivalent of AA minor league golf. The Mackenzie Tour begins next week and runs through mid-September across Canada.
Shuman still has a bit of work left to finish at the amateur level, however, as Duke qualified for the NCAAs, which begin Friday. It’s the third time Shuman helped the Blue Devils advance this far, but they are still trying to get beyond the 54-hole cut when the field gets trimmed from 30 to 15 teams, then eight before the format switches to match play.
Thoughts Shuman might have had about one last go around on the local amateur circuit and a bid at the U.S. Amateur at Pebble Beach later this summer went out the door when he shot an 18-under-par 270 highlighted by an openinground 65 for a 1-shot victory at Crowne Isle Resort and Golf Community.
“I need to take advantage of being fully exempt and playing in as many events as I can because the whole goal is to be top five on the money list at the end of the summer,” said Shuman, who will miss the seasonopener in Vancouver because of the NCAAs before making his pro debut June 7 at the Bayview Place DCBank Open at Uplands Golf Club in Victoria, British Columbia.
A top-five finish gives him status on the Web.com Tour in 2019. The last of the five Mackenzie Tour qualifiers, it was the only one not to conflict with Shuman’s college schedule.
“It also gave me the most time during the winter to get ready, and I think that played a big part,” Shuman said. “Golf is all about peaking at the right time. You hear about the pros trying to peak at the majors, that’s when I thought I was going to be playing my best, and luckily I did.”
He had teammate, roommate and best friend Ben Silverman on the bag for what Shuman said was intended to be more of a celebration of their time together than trying to win a golf tournament.
The win was just the start of a busy month as he followed up by graduating with a sociology degree, finishing T10 at NCAA regionals, where the Blue Devils placed second, and then saw twin sister Molly graduate from Washington University in St. Louis.
“It’s been the busiest month of my life, most likely, but it’s also been the most exciting and happiest times of my life, my family’s life,” Shuman said. “It’s a lot to take in right now and there’s a lot of moving parts, but it’s been a heck of a month. You have to take things a day at a time and you have to have an amazing supporting cast, and that’s what I have between my sisters, my parents, everybody here at Duke and my swing coach Brendan Walsh. They’re making sure I’m on top of things, not forgetting to do a couple things, but also making sure I’m being true to myself, not trying to do too much and doing what works for me.”
Shuman also credits the Perfect Putter training device designed by Ramon Bescansa with helping him.
“He’s kind of helped me work on practice routines on how to read greens and how to practice putting,” Shuman said.
He also noted that work has helped him make more putts from the 10- to 20foot range and feel more confident over the shorter ones, which in turn helped his short game by reducing the amount of stress to hit a perfect chip shot.
Shuman was a two-time Div. 1 individual state champion at Needham High and a co-medalist at the 2016 Mass. Amateur that included a course-record 64 at Taconic Golf Club, but as he prepares to close out his Duke career, he is more focused on the team title than individual honors.
“We all know that if we have all five guys playing the way that we can play, we can beat anybody,” he said. “Our goal is to get to match play. Once you get to match play, anything can happen. Most players know that match play is a different animal, so our goal is to be in that top eight and then see what happens from there.”