After a seven-year absence from competitive golf, Shannon Fish-Martin’s finish among the final four at the recent U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur was a result of not just hard work, but perseverance through tragedy.
“Considering the things that I’ve been through in the past five years of my life, I have a completely different perspective on golf these days,” Fish-Martin said. “I was just so honored and pleased to be there to begin with.”
Fish-Martin, 37, is a former pro and two-time contestant on Golf Channel reality show “The Big Break.” She played on the Symetra (now Epson) Tour from 2012-18 before regaining her amateur status in 2021. But after retiring from pro golf, Fish-Martin faced personal adversity, forcing golf to the back burner. Her first husband died unexpectedly in 2020, leaving her to raise their son as a widow. And her father passed away in 2022 after battling cancer.
Now, recently remarried and with a healthy son, Fish-Martin is finding her joy again. Her golf results come second.
“Through life experiences, I feel like I’ve experienced real pressure,” Fish-Martin said. “So to me [the Mid-Amateur] was all about having fun and enjoying every single second I was there.”
For Fish-Martin, golf started out as a fun family activity. Her mother, Yvonne, was a former LPGA golfer in the 1980s. Her father, Jim, was a professional bull rider who loved to play golf.
“I was getting ready to turn 30 and I was like it’s time for me to start a family. I really wanted children. And that was kind of the decision that led me to walking away from the game in 2018.”
Shannon-Fish Martin
Fish-Martin says her dad was her biggest supporter throughout her entire career. He drove her to golf tournaments. He was her first call in the morning and her first call after a tournament.
“The way he found the most joy in life was seeing me succeed and be happy,” Fish-Martin said. “As a daughter, having support like that is something money cannot buy.”
Shannon Fish played golf at the University of Texas from 2007-10. Despite her love for golf, turning pro was not necessarily her goal. A government and business major, she says she was planning on going to law school. But Fish-Martin decided she had unfinished business.
“As my time came to an end on the women’s golf team there, I felt I still had some left in the tank,” Fish-Martin said. “I really wanted to see where this goes.”
She turned pro in 2011 and played for seven years on the Symetra Tour, never losing her card. Her best season came in 2016, when she made the cut in all 22 starts and posted two top-10 finishes.
By 2018, she was ready for a change. She had given professional golf all she could.
“I was getting ready to turn 30 and I was like it’s time for me to start a family. I really wanted children,” she said. “And that was kind of the decision that led me to walking away from the game in 2018.”
By the time Fish-Martin left professional golf, her father had been diagnosed with cancer. In an effort to lighten her parents’ load, she went to work at her family’s electrical contracting business in Houston.
“I really went to work for them to help support my parents through my dad’s cancer treatments and diagnosis so they could worry about him more than our company,” Fish-Martin said.
In December 2018, she met Shane Sims. A former Texas Christian University football player, Sims provided emotional support during her father’s cancer treatment. They married four months after they met.
In May 2020, the couple found out they were pregnant. But 11 days later, Sims died unexpectedly in his sleep.
“So there I was running my parents’ company, I was pregnant with our son, I’d become widowed at 31 years old, and my dad was sick with cancer,” Fish-Martin said. “Golf was the furthest thing from my mind. I was just trying to survive … ”
She gave birth to her son, Sonny, in January 2021. A year later, she began dating Dillon Martin, who was there for her when her father passed away in September 2022.
“When Dillon and I started dating was when I started feeling like myself again,” she said.
The couple married in February of this year. Following their engagement last Christmas Eve, she decided she wanted to return to golf.
“I felt it was especially important for me to be able to show Sonny that you can still pursue your dreams, and you can still enjoy life, even after tragedy strikes,” Fish-Martin said. “Because life is not easy, and there are going to be very difficult things that happen, but at the end of the day, it’s very important to choose life and to continue to have goals and continue to chase dreams.”
“It’s been an absolute dream.”
Shannon Fish-Martin
After retiring from professional golf, Fish-Martin had barely touched her clubs.
“From September 2018 to March this year, I maybe played two scrambles and went to the range maybe four or five times,” she said.
Her No. 1 goal was to qualify for the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur. But as a full-time mom, she practiced and played around her son’s schedule.
“It’s usually really early in the morning after I drop my little one off at school so I’m done just in time to pick him up,” she said.
Fish-Martin’s first tournament was the Women’s Texas Amateur in June, where she advanced to the semifinals.
“I was certainly the oldest person in the field by probably two decades,” Fish-Martin said. “I thought that was pretty funny and I know that my dad would have got a kick out of that.”
Fish-Martin’s game was in a good spot, and in August she medaled in a U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur qualifier to achieve her goal.
By virtue of her finish at Monterey Peninsula Country Club, Fish-Martin is exempt into the next two championships. She’ll continue to hone her own game, but the golf she enjoys most is with her husband and son, both of whom are learning the game.
“It’s been an absolute dream,” Fish-Martin said. “Just to see the look on both of their faces when they make a putt or hit a great shot, it fills my heart with the greatest joy.”
E-MAIL EVERETT
Top: Shannon Fish-Martin reached the semifinals of the 2025 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur.
Eakin Howard, USGA