NAPLES, Fla. — Like any 19-year-old, Alexa Pano is still learning. And as she caps a successful rookie season on the LPGA Tour, she’ll take all the lessons about the physical and mental grind of playing professional golf at the highest level and apply them to a career that continues to trend in the right direction.
Pano is at Tiburon Golf Club this weekend after qualifying for the CME Group Tour Championship. Pano was No. 42 in the Rolex Rankings, comfortably inside the top 60 cutline to play in the event where the winner receives $2 million.
But this is just the beginning for a woman who at 5-years-old was on the range at Sherbrooke Country Club in her hometown, the start of a passion that led to her turning professional at 17.
“I think it puts things in a really good perspective,” Pano said about being just one of six rookies in the LPGA Tour’s season-ending event. “Every time I’m struggling, I can appreciate I’m here and I’m able to do this every week because this is everything I’ve wanted to do my whole life.”
Not much struggling in Thursday’s opening round. Pano carded a 2-under 70 on the Gold Course. She was 2-over after seven holes and after getting back to par with birdies on Nos. 9 and 10, she finished with consecutive birdies. She ended the day with an 8-iron from 159-yards on No. 18 that stopped four feet from the hole.
“I think it puts things in a really good perspective,” Pano said about being just one of six rookies in the LPGA Tour’s season-ending event. “Every time I’m struggling, I can appreciate I’m here and I’m able to do this every week because this is everything I’ve wanted to do my whole life.”
Not much struggling in Thursday’s opening round. Pano carded a 2-under 70 on the Gold Course. She was 2-over after seven holes, and after getting back to par with birdies on Nos. 9 and 10, she finished with consecutive birdies. She ended the day with an 8-iron from 159-yards on No. 18 that stopped four feet from the hole.
The peak was her first LPGA win at the ISPS Handa World Invitational in Northern Ireland. The low point came early in the season when she missed five straight cuts.
“Everyone kind of warns you that rookie year is a struggle, and learning everything for the first time is difficult,” she said. “And I kind of brushed that off and said, ‘not for me.’ Like it wouldn’t be (difficult).
“It definitely was.”
Rick Pano, Alexa’s dad and caddie, said the biggest thing…
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