A natural talent, Sara Camarena’s ongoing journey has taken her far and wide before landing in L.A.

Golf instructor. California Women’s Amateur winner. Division I college golfer. World Long Drive Tour participant. Social media content creator. A “freak for technique.”

All of those titles apply to Sara Camarena, and she’s only 26 years old.

A native of Mexico City, Camarena fell in love with golf at seven years old and started taking lessons at Golf Club de los Encinos. She played for the Mexican junior national team and competed in the Junior World Golf Championship at Torrey Pines GC. Camarena’s family even moved to Austin, Texas, so she could play high school golf there. Then came college golf, first at Oklahoma State and then at Cal State Fullerton.

In 2020 she won the 54th California Women’s Amateur Championship (an event conducted by the SCGA and NCGA) at Pasatiempo GC in Santa Cruz, becoming the first foreign-born player to ever win the event (she edged Katherine Zhu, who played at Pepperdine and is married to PGA Tour player Collin Morikawa, 1-up).

But her journey took a very different turn in 2022: Camarena fell out of love with golf. Recurring physical injuries played a part. “I was just so burnt out,” she recalled. After taking an almost two-year-long break, she started getting invites from friends to play in scramble events with social media influencers. “I was like, ‘Sure, I’ll go. Why not?’ It was a chill vibe with no pressure. I could actually play golf and enjoy myself, and I didn’t have to go hit the range for three hours afterwards.”

Then one of her friends, Snappy Gilmore (a social media star known for his onehanded swing), suggested she start doing social media. “From there, I just kind of slowly started picking that up,” said Camarena, who now has over 50,000 followers on Instagram.

What she never stepped away from, though, was teaching. “Even when I was a junior, I would give lessons to other kids and even to adults,” she said. “I’ve always been like a freak for the technical aspects of golf and also the fitness side of it. I’m currently working towards my Titleist Performance Institute and PGA certifications.”

In 2024 some friends invited her to try another form of competition. “They noticed how far I hit the ball and asked if I ever considered a long-drive event,” she said. “I didn’t even know how those worked. But I went to one in South Carolina and did pretty well.” She eventually reached as high as the final eight in the Long Drive World Championship, producing a personal best drive of 318 yards.

After a brief stint living in Scottsdale, Arizona, she became a resident of Los Angeles. You can find her working with students up to six days a week at Fescue Golf Club Club’s indoor facility in Mar Vista. “When I met Sean (Gilmore, the club founder), he invited me to teach there. The members have been awesome.”

“Not only is Sara a great instructor, but she has been an incredible asset to the cultural fabric of Fescue,” noted Gilmore. “She fits in with every type of golfer that comes through here, and does it effortlessly. If you want to nerd out on the golf swing, she’ll dive right in with you, but she’s also gone down plenty of rabbit holes with me on travel, food, fashion … ”

Structure is a key tenet of Camarena’s teaching style. “How I would practice, how I would play, what I would eat, my sleep pattern, the team I had around me. Having a plan for all of that helped me a lot, so I translate that now into my coaching. To me, if you want to get better, even if you’re a beginner, you always need structure.”

While Camarena is now focused on getting completely healthy after suffering a minor ACL tear recently, her various other roles will keep her busy. “I feel like sometimes it’s so easy to just take things for granted,” she said. “If I do stop and look back at everything I’ve been able to accomplish, all the places I’ve been, and all the different people I’ve met through golf, it’s pretty overwhelming, in the best way possible.”