CHASKA, Minn. — A funny thing happened Thursday. Not like the ha-ha funny or the slap-your-leg roaring laughter kind of 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 up a couple of names. But golf is rarely predictable. (See Keith Mitchell’s 41-29 at last week’s U.S. Open.)
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One thing I did have planned, however, was to watch Alexa Pano. She’s 21 and already in her fourth full season on the LPGA Tour. She hits it far (273.4 yards on average) and has already won once, at the ISPS Handa World Invitational back in August 2023 (she won the same day she turned 19).
But I mostly wanted to watch and catch up with Alexa because seven years ago I spent a significant amount of time talking to her, her dad, her swing coach and others for a 2,000-word profile ahead of the inaugural Augusta National Women’s Amateur, where she, just 14 at the time, was about to be 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 completed his senior year on the Texas men’s golf team, has since sprouted to 6-feet, 9-inches tall. Man, time flies.) I asked a million questions, including one wondering if 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 in the time since, I had not seen Pano play golf, at least not in person. So that was the plan on Thursday: watch a few holes, maybe say hello and then go on with my day.
But turns out the first time I got a chance to talk to Alexa, she was behind the dais, taking questions from the media (myself included) as Golf Channel cameras rolled and photographers snapped pictures.
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She had just shot a smooth five-under 67 and took the clubhouse lead of the LPGA’s third major of the season. That lead didn’t hold — Ina Yoon swooped in and shot 63 about an hour later — but Pano heads into Friday in prime position.
“Hitting it straight 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 patchy and has some really thick spots. The more you keep the ball on the fairway the better.”
All grown up!
A decorated junior player, Pano landed on golf fans’ radar when she starred in the 2013 Netflix documentary The Short Game, which chronicled the 2012 U.S. Kids Golf World Championships in Pinehurst, N.C. Pano was 7 at the time. Since then Alexa and her dad, Rick, have traveled tens of thousands of miles a year teeing it up in high-level junior tournaments.
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She competed in the Drive, Chip and Putt at Augusta National three times and was the youngest participant in the 2019 U.S. Women’s Open. She played in Junior Solheim Cups and Junior Ryder Cups before turning pro at 17 in 2022.
She played a year on the Epson Tour before earning her LPGA card via LPGA Q-Series and earned LPGA membership for the 2023 season. She’s been on the big tour since, although she’s had to learn lessons along the way. Like patience.
“You lose a lot more than you win out here and that’s kind of a change from like 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 putting in the work. But it’s worth it for days like today where it pays off or weeks where it pays off.”
Pano had an early tee time Thursday and turned in even par, but she moved to two under when she holed out from 69 yards away for eagle on the 11th. As the ball landed and rolled, Pano yelled go while her caddie, Kyle Alexander, told it to sit. Pano usually has her dad on the bag but he’s been out sick the last couple of weeks. He watched from outside the ropes on Thursday.
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“Do you know who Wally Pipp is?” he asked me, smiling. (Yes, I do.)
She torched the back nine from there: birdies on 14, 16 and 17, and even an easy two-putt par on 18 after her drive found the fairway bunker.
“Felt like I put myself in some really good positions out there, whether it was off the tee or just playing it a little safe on the greens and kind of hit all my marks,” she said. “Overall a really solid day.”
This is her 13th major start as a professional, and her lone top 10 was at the 2024 Women’s British Open. But now comes the hard part — staying in contention. Golf tournaments, and specifically major championships, are all about staying in the mix for 72 holes. Thursdays are often about not shooting yourself out of it. So far so good.
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“I think the more experience you get the better,” she said. “I think the more that I play in these events the more comfortable I get. But I can definitely remember being a junior golfer and qualifying for like U.S. Opens and such. The tournament felt much bigger than me. Now it’s kind of like have a bit better grasp on it and feel a lot more comfortable.”
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