Italy’s Alessandra Fanali, known as Ale, secured full status into the Ladies European Tour after birdying her final hole at LET Q-School to finish inside the top 20.
Following a successful amateur career, one which saw her win the 2016 European Girls’ Team Championship and represent Italy at four European Ladies’ Team Championships, Fanali gained a scholarship to play golf for the Sun Devils at Arizona State University (ASU).
During her final year, Fanali competed at the Ladies Italian Open on the LET where she finished runner-up after losing in a playoff to Morgane Metraux.
In the hunt for Rookie of the Year in 2023, we caught up with Ale to find out about her background as a swimmer, her dramatic Q-School finish, and her goals for the season…
Hometown: Alatri, Italy
Home Course: Marco Simone Golf & Country Club
Age: 23
Started golf at: 9
Turned pro: 2022
I started playing just before I was 10 because of my dad. His whole family played golf, although my mum doesn’t know how to play which is kind of funny. I used to do swimming before that for eight years, so I started pretty late compared to the other girls I was playing with. Although I first went on a golf course when I was one or two because my dad used to walk with me on there.
Growing up I watched a lot of swimming and my idol was Federica Pellegrini, the great Italian swimmer. But when it comes to golf my hero has always been Tiger Woods. I grew up watching him and Phil Mickelson battle against each other. Tiger has always been my number one though and I’m excited to watch him this season, it should be fun.
At 12 my handicap started to improve very quickly. So then I was like maybe I do want to play golf. One year later I got into the Italian National Team and won my first championship. I wasn’t sure at first if I wanted to play professionally, but I definitely wanted to work in the golf environment.
College at ASU was very exciting. I remember our first year was the best ever. We were so excited to be there. I met Alexandra Försterling on the first day. We never really talked at first, but we quickly found out we have a lot in common, so that was cool. I would love to go back. I really enjoyed travelling with the team. We got to go to Hawaii four times which was very cool. But the week I won in college was the best because I won in Napa where they play the Fortinet Championship on the PGA Tour and my uncle was there because he lives close to San Francisco. It was very special….
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