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By Kate Allen
It’s an ordinary Monday afternoon practice at Hank Haney International Junior Golf Academy in Hilton Head, SC. Eighteen-year-old Marta Silva of Santiago, Spain, is playing a match with a peer. She pulls a nine iron from her golf bag for a 135-yard par three. Leaving the shot just short of the green, Silva turns to look at her coach, Jeff Fisher, and smiles. “At least it’s straight,” Silva says shrugging her shoulders as she quickly grabs her bag and heads toward the green.
“That’s Marta’s mentality,” Fisher says. “She knows that she will follow up a bad shot with a good shot so there is no use in dwelling on it.”
Silva heads into tournament competition with a similar carefree confidence. Her time at the Academy has helped to increase her confidence in tournament play. “Now when I go into a tournament, I feel like I can win,” Silva says. “If I play well, great; if I don’t play well, then I will play better next time.”
Good players are common in the game of golf. A player like Silva, who does not have an obvious weakness in her game, is rare. “When you get a world-class player like that, you don’t try to change what works,” Fisher says. “You work to maintain the swing and make it something that can be repeated consistently.”
Of course, Silva has to work hard in practice and has specific things she is working on with her coach. Her biggest weakness, if any, is consistency with short putts. Back in Spain, Silva did not have the same opportunity to practice and hitting balls on the range was the most she could do. When deciding to come to the States to work on her golf game, Silva looked for a place to practice full-time with instruction. She chose to come to Hank Haney IJGA for the most complete golf training program and the best instructors.
As Silva continues to turn heads in the golf world, she remains very unaffected by her talent (which is only a small part of who she is according to Fisher). “What drives Marta is that she enjoys playing golf. The better she plays, the more fun she has and that pushes her.”
Silva posted the lowest recorded score on the International Junior Golf Tour in the Girls 15-19 division, shooting a 63 in her second round of the GolfWorld Open at Saddlebrook in October of 2007. Silva finished at nine under par, winning the tournament by nine strokes and setting a precedent in her division.
But her biggest accomplishment this year was winning the Verizon Junior Heritage in February. Held at the Ocean Course in the Sea Pines Resort and the legendary Harbour Town Golf Links in Hilton Head, the Verizon Junior Heritage is one of the most competitive tournaments in the country with an elite field. Silva shot an impressive first round of 67 and finished the two-day event at one under par.
Although Silva has consistently posted impressive tournament scores, she has opted to attend college prior to turning pro. Silva will attend the University of Georgia in the fall on a full scholarship and hopes to continue to strengthen her game on the collegiate level. “College is an important time in your life,” Silva said, “it’s an experience I don’t want to miss.” Having made friends from all over the world at Hank Haney IJGA, Silva hopes to stay in touch and compete against her Academy peers in college next year.
The new team role and the high level of NCAA competition will bring exciting challenges for Silva as a UGA Bulldog. However, her goal will remain as it has always been; to practice every day and give her all in competition and see where it takes her. At her current pace, she is bound to make her mark on the LPGA Tour.
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