Former prodigy Alexa Pano turns around tough stretch with strong start (69) at Women’s British Open

Alexa Pano put in extra hours of practice earlier this week at Royal Porthcawl for the AIG Women’s British Open. She likes links golf, and when she got to Wales, she had a good feeling. It’s a feeling she’s been looking for this season, as she’s posted results unlike anything her first two seasons on the LPGA have produced. She missed three out of the last four cuts leading up to the Women’s British Open. At last week's Scottish Open she shot 75-85 and was last in the field by four shots.

But her opening round three-under 69 on Thursday may be a sign that she’s found something.

“It's always nice to see red numbers on the first day. Also liked how I felt on the golf course. That was the biggest takeaway for me,” Pano said.

Pano didn’t go into detail about what she’s been struggling with, nor did she discuss the specific aspects of her game that she’s working on. Looking at her stats, she's been losing ground to the field with her approach play as much as anything else.

“Obviously it's tough when you're struggling a little bit,” Pano said. “Kind of just got to keep grinding at it. You never know how close you are. When things are tough, my dad always says you're not as far away as you think you are, and when things are good, you're not always as good as you think you are. Just kind of grinding away at it.”

Pano, who hails from Massachusetts, has taken this very New England approach—if you work hard enough, it’ll get better—to her game throughout her young life. The 20-year-old has been in the golf spotlight since she was extremely young, when she was featured in the Netflix documentary "The Short Game" about the U.S. Kids Golf World Championship. She went on to win five of those championships, played in a Japan LPGA tournament as an 11-year-old, and played in her first LPGA event at age 13. As a 16-year-old, getting ready to turn pro the following year, she encountered—and conquered—the driver yips. On tour as a rookie in 2023, she won an LPGA event.

She’s only 20, but she’s already been through all of that on the course, tough rounds and missed cuts aren’t going to ruin her outlook. She’s looking forward.

“The thing is that I'm trying to be better than I was before, not getting back to anything," she said Thursday in Wales. "For me, I was just trying to take it every shot at a time. I know my game's there, and I just had to stay focused on what was in front of me. That was a big thing for me is just trying to hit every shot to the best of my capabilities out there. What links golf gives you is what you take.”

With the first round completed, Pano is in a tie for fourth place, only two shots behind the leaders. She’s right where she wants to be, a similar feeling she had when she first got here.