It was almost three years ago that Claire Shin seemingly had the Jan Stephenson Trophy on her putter.

A near hole-in-one on the first hole of a playoff for the Women’s New South Wales Open gave the then amateur a golden shot at her home Open as a precociously talented 18-year-old.

But three putts later, instead of the historic cup, she walked from Foster Tuncurry Golf Club with a far less desirable piece of silverware – the double-edged sword of the tag “potential”.

Shin, now 21, has experienced a few “ups” as a young professional, including winning at Wagga Wagga in 2024 to reach last year’s state Open. Impressively, but way “off Broadway”, she has also earned her full card for this year’s Korean tour.

And, as is the way for so many young pros, she’s also had more than her share of “downs” – injuries, poor form and sponsors (the lifeblood of so many tour aspirants) coming and going.

In Shin’s case, you could be excused for thinking that her softly spoken, cheeky, delightfully polite nature – her Instagram handle, for example, is claire_bear_shin – means she’s not doing the hard yards to turn that potential into reality.

You’d be grossly mistaken.

After last week’s disappointing crack at her state title in Wollongong, Shin did some emergency work on her driver with long-time coach John Serhan.

And today at Magenta Shores, Shin literally relaunched her assault on her first elite-level title.

Having started on the 10^th, Shin turned in four under, having missed a couple of golden chances to go even lower.

A three-putt par on the 1^st was followed by a desperately unlucky bogey on the second after her approach flew over the pin, but spun back (narrowly missing the hole for eagle) all the way back to 20m shy of the green.

Two more birdie putts hooked out before another short one finally fell on the ninth for a quality 68 that was, realistically, the worst score she could possibly have had.

“Today was actually really good – I’m pretty proud to have a 68 (against) these girls,” said Shin, whose next-level driving set her top-10 result in train.

“I haven’t shot many under (par) these (past) couple of months because I’ve been working on things with Johnny, so it’s nice to see that.”

Australian Women’s Classic – Leaderboard

Shin has also been paying careful attention when she’s had the chance to play with some of the game’s legends.

“I’ve got to play with Karrie (Webb) and Laura (Davies) – I was so nervous watching them hit the ball so straight all the time,” she said of two of the game’s all-time greats.

“But after a while, where I was studying them, I realised something and then things have been getting easier.

“It’s not that you don’t learn watching them, but it’s more that you have find your own professional player in you. 

“Trying to be Claire, not trying to be Laura. Being myself because I think a lot of people get nervous on the course, and I do, too. But I’ve gotten used to that now. And I find myself stronger than the me (of) a few years ago.”

Today on the Central Coast, Shin showed signs of lessons paying dividends.

Drawn in a group with long-time Aussie star Su Oh, Shin’s comparative power was evident to all, regularly 20-30m past the Victorian off the tee.

It shows not only her physical work paying off, but her mental game rounding into shape, too.

“It’s really cool to play with Su, she’s been playing a lot longer than me (and) on the tour for many years now and… I’ve been watching, and it feels like my game is starting to (compare) with good professionals like her,” Shin said.

“I would say, it’s never easy, but once you work really, really hard, be good to yourself and don’t stress yourself out, you can actually make it.”

So while it’s a fairly substantial stretch to call “Claire Bear” zen, you can see and hear the change from that fateful moment at Tuncurry.

“I think I learned a lot from that, too. I’d like to put that to the test… soon.”