Serena Shah (Texas Golf Association)

Staying near the top of the leaderboard all week, Shah slept on the lead Friday as the event went into its final round. Carding a 77 on Saturday, Shah had a simple game plan heading into the championship round.

“This is a really tough course and it’s tight off the fairway, so just going in with the same mentality I did from the practice round to the first round to the second round was just to keep things simple,” Shah told the TGA. “Hit the fairway, hit the green and two-putt from there.”

After completing the remaining four holes of the second round due to weather on Friday, Shah got to work on the final 18 holes.

Not able to get much going, Shah kept the damage to a minimum with a front side 2-over 38. Making the turn, that’s when Shah made things interesting. Beginning on No. 9, Shah made four-straight bogeys to put herself at 5-over on the day. Tacking another bogey on No. 15, Shah scrambled to close her final three holes at 1-under-par.

“Everything was going pretty well on the front nine and then on the back nine I had a little trouble,” Shah said. “I had a couple bogeys on 10, 11 and 12 and then I think the real turning point was on 16 where I had a birdie putt that I made from 8 feet, and that just kind of helped with my momentum going into the last 2 holes. I think that really helped just finish off the last three holes in a good style.”

The birdie on No. 16 proved to be the difference-maker as Zoe Paige Slaughter posted a 73 to finish at 9-over for the event, one shot off of Shah’s pace.

Jennie Park (+11) took solo third. Nicole Viver (+14) finished in solo fourth and Brooke Nolte took home a solo fifth-place finish at 15-over.