Alexa Pano received her first golf lesson when she was 5 years old.
It wasn’t in the traditional sense … hit a bucket of balls, chip a few onto the green, work on your putting. It was more a conversation any first-grader might have with an 80-something renowned professional golf instructor.
So when Pano was done talking with Hall of Famer Bob Toski, she had one question.
“Do you live in a cage?”
Toski is known as “Mouse” — as in Mighty Mouse — a name given to him by Sam Snead because of his small stature and driving prowess. His biography, written by former Palm Beach Post golf writer Brian Biggane, is titled “The Elegant Mouse.” So when a 5-year-old hears someone repeatedly referred to as “Mouse,” what would you expect her to ask?
“He sat there and talked to her for maybe 45 minutes,” Rick Pano, Alexa’s dad, said of that conversation that took place at the old Sherbrooke Country Club.
“That was her introduction.”
The day Mighty Mouse met Wonder Woman.
Long list of accomplishments
Alexa Pano is a golf prodigy who now is the ripe old age of 17. Pano, who lives in Lake Worth Beach with her dad, is building a resume she hopes one day is even more extraordinary as she continues to break down barriers.
Already, Pano is tied for most U.S. Kids Golf World Championships with five and she was the first three-time national finalist in the Drive, Chip and Putt event at Augusta National.
She played in an LPGA Tour event when she was 13, and was the youngest golfer (11) to play an LPGA of Japan Tour event. In 2016, she was on the winning United States Junior Ryder Cup team. In 2019, she was the youngest golfer to qualify for the U.S. Women’s Open (she missed the cut) and played on the winning Junior Solheim Cup team.
And 2019 also was the year Pano was the youngest player in the inaugural Augusta National Women’s Amateur, which then became one of her biggest disappointments after she missed a playoff by one shot to qualify for the final round played at Augusta National.
She failed again on her second try last year to advance — making this week one of the biggest in her young career.
“I’m definitely motivated to try and make the cut,” she said. “It’s been a big goal of mine for a long time to compete at Augusta.”
The tournament starts Wednesday with two rounds at Champions Retreat Golf Club before they move to Augusta National for a practice day Friday and the final round Saturday. All competitors, even those who did not advance to the final round, play the practice round. Alexa has played that practice round twice but did not keep score.
That will happen when she plays it with a championship at stake.
Driven from a young age
Ultimate success never is guaranteed for whiz kids. The sports landscape is littered with those who burned out, a number far greater than those who reach the top of the mountain. Pano became “addicted” to the game from the first time she picked up a club at 5, saying, “I knew it at an early age.”
Since, she has been around the world and played at the highest level as a junior. With a maturity beyond her years, her game will continue to evolve and her ego will remain in check.
“I’ve definitely been playing a lot of golf for a long time,” she said. “I think it’s just taking it day by day, and week by week. I’m one of those people who believes everything happens for a reason and I’m never thinking too far ahead. Just focusing on what I have ahead this week.”
Rick, who has put his career on hold to work with Alexa, believes her roots — she was born in Westborough, Massachusetts, about 35 miles west of Boston — and love for golf keep her grounded.
“We’re from New England, and she’s spent enough time up there to know if you walk around and brag up there you don’t last long,” he said. “But she just loves to play. She’s probably a throwback. Put her on the golf course and let her play. But she is very humble.
“I believe she’s driven by the thought of ‘How good can I be?'”
And she has been humbled. Pano understands the accomplishment of just competing in the ANWA. But twice failing to advance to the final round played on the holy grail of golf courses has her more focused this week.
“It’s most disappointing when I have to go play the practice round (at Augusta National) the next day after missing the cut,” she said. “I know how badly I wished I would be playing it again the following day.”
Making that cut will be one of the hardest things Alexa will have to do in her young career with the field of 72 being reduced to just 30. She struggled a year ago, shooting an opening-round 77, followed by an 80. At the time, she was not playing her best and had a heart-to-heart with her instructor, Chris O’Connell.
“Her technique had gotten off a little bit and she needed to kind of make that change to get back to playing the golf she’s accustomed too,” said O’Connell, a PGA Tour instructor from the Dallas area who works with Matt Kuchar among others.
“Technique-wise she had gotten into a bad habit.”
The biggest area that need attention was her full swing … driver and iron game. Alexa also worked on her putting tempo and stroke.
“Golf’s always been pretty easy for her and there’re times in her life she doesn’t have to think about her swing,” O’Connell said. So he told her she needed to spend time thinking about that swing and trying to change her motion “rather than just getting up and swing.”
Which is not always easy for someone who has done that her whole life and with such extraordinary results.
“She’s not used to golf being difficult, and for a few months there golf was hard,” O’Connell said.
Rick said it took about eight months before Alexa started feeling completely comfortable.
“We didn’t want to go through the down times when she was older so we chose to do it at 16 years old,” Rick said. “She didn’t like it … the struggle for awhile. But she knew long term it was going to help her.”
Didn’t like it … but accepted it was something she needed to continue to reach the high standards she sets for herself.
Rick started seeing the results at the Junior Ryder Cup exhibition at Whistling Straits in September, and then at Stage II of LPGA Q-School in October where Alexa shot a 9-under 67. One month later, Alexa was runner-up at the AJGA Rolex Tournament of Champions.
“I feel like I’m pretty close to where I want to be going into the Augusta Women’s Amateur with my game,” she said.
Close enough perhaps to playing at Augusta National when it counts … on Saturday.
