Once a junior golf phenom, Alexa Pano’s patience is paying off

CHASKA, Minn. – A funny thing happened Thursday. Not how Ha-Ha funny or slap the foot loud laughter somewhat funny, but the ironic kind.

I arrived at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Hazeltine National on Thursday morning with a loose plan to write down some names. But golf is rarely predictable. (See Keith Mitchell’s 41-29 at the US Open last week.)

One thing me He did have planned, however, was to see Alexa Pano. She is 21 years old and is already in her fourth full season on the LPGA Tour. She hits it far (273.4 yard average) and has already won once, at the ISPS Handa World Invitational in August 2023 (she won on the same day she turned 19).

But mostly I wanted to see and catch up with Alexa because seven years ago I spent a significant amount of time talking with her, her dad, her swing coach and others for a while. 2000 word profile before the inaugural Augusta Women’s National Amateur, where she, just 14 years old at the time, would become the event’s youngest competitor. I spent time on the golf course with them, too, when Alexa was playing a casual round with friend Tommy Morrison. (Tommy, who just finished his senior year on the Texas men’s golf team, has since grown to 6 feet, 9 inches tall. Man, time flies.) I asked a million questions, including one about whether Alexa didn’t like the fact that Amazon Alexa, which was new at the time, had stolen her name. I think Alexa, the person, thought the question was weird.

Although since then, I hadn’t seen Pano play golf, at least not in person. So that was the plan on Thursday: look at a few holes, maybe say hello, and then get on with my day.

But apparently the first time I got a chance to talk to Alexa, she was behind the counter, taking questions from the media (myself included) while the Golf Channel cameras rolled and photographers snapped pictures.

She had just carded a quiet five-under 67 and took the club lead for the LPGA’s third major of the season. The lead didn’t hold — Ina Yoon chipped in and shot a 63 about an hour later — but Pano heads into Friday in the lead.

“Hitting fair is the most important thing on this golf course,” she said. “It makes it a lot more accessible from the fairway. The rough is very chipped and has some really thick spots. The more you keep the ball on the fairway, the better.”

All grown up!

A decorated minor leaguer, Pano landed on the radar of golf fans when she starred in the 2013 Netflix documentary Short gamewho described the 2012 USA Junior World Golf Championship in Pinehurst, NC Pano was 7 years old at the time. Since then, Alexa and her father, Rick, have traveled tens of thousands of miles a year climbing high-level youth tournaments.

She competed in the Drive, Chip and Putt at Augusta National three times and was the youngest entrant at the 2019 US Women’s Open. She played in Junior Solheim Cups and Junior Ryder Cups before turning pro at age 17 in 2022.

She played a year on the Epson Tour before earning her LPGA card through the LPGA Q-Series and earning LPGA membership for the 2023 season. She’s been on the big tour ever since, though she’s had to learn lessons along the way. Like patience.

“You lose a lot more than you win here and that’s kind of different from junior golf and even amateur golf,” Pano said Thursday. “You’re not at the top of the leaderboard as much as you think you should be. You really have to trust the process and just keep working. But it’s worth it for days like today where it pays off or weeks when it pays off.”

Pano birdied early Thursday and returned to even par, but she moved to two under when she holed out from 69 yards for eagle on the 11th. As the ball landed and rolled, Pano screamed Go while her caddy, Kyle Alexander, told her that sit. Pano usually has his father in his bag, but he has been sick for the past two weeks. He watched from outside the ropes on Thursday.

“Do you know who Wally Pipp is?” he asked me smiling. (Yes, yes.)

She scorched the back 9 from there: birdies on 14, 16 and 17, and even an easy two-stroke par on 18 after finding the fairway bunker with her drive.

“I felt like I put myself in some really good positions out there, whether it was off the tee or just playing a little safe on the green and hit all my marks,” she said. “Overall a really strong day.”

This is her 13th major start as a professional, and her only 10th was at the 2024 Women’s British Open. But now comes the hard part – staying in contention. Golf tournaments, and especially major championships, are all about staying in the mix for 72 holes. Thursdays are often about not removing yourself from it. So far so good.

“I think the more experience you get, the better,” she said. “I think the more I play in these events, the more comfortable I feel. But I can definitely remember being a young golfer and qualifying for like the US Opens and stuff. The tournament felt a lot bigger than me. Now it’s like I understand it a little bit better and feel a lot more comfortable.”

You can contact the author at joshua.berhow@golf.com.