BELLEAIR, Fla. — There is a lot on the line this week for Epson Tour alum and LPGA Tour winner Alexa Pano.

The 20-year-old entered The ANNIKA driven by Gainbridge at Pelican at 66th in the Race to the CME Globe, six spots away from qualifying for the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship, what would be her second consecutive appearance at the final event of the year.

She got off to a bit of a quiet start on Thursday at Pelican Golf Club, carding a 1-under 71 in the first round after making three bogeys and four birdies, two of which came back-to-back on holes 14 and 15. But Friday’s second round saw Pano pull out all the stops in an effort to not only make the cut at The ANNIKA but also vault up the leaderboard in hot pursuit of one of those top-60 spots in the field at Tiburón Golf Club.

Pano raced out of the gate to kick off her round, picking up a pair of back-to-back birdies on holes one and two to move to 3-under quickly. She grabbed two more birdies on the par-4 5th and par-5 7th holes before dropping a shot with a bogey on eight, now sitting at 4-under overall with 10 holes to play.

She landed a one-two punch of birdies on 10 and 11 to climb to 6-under on the round and made two more on 13 and 14 to bring her birdie tally to eight and sit at 7-under total with four holes to go. Pano then picked up her ninth birdie of the day on 17 to move to 9-under; however, she double bogeyed the 18th hole to close out her round at Pelican Golf Club after knocking her third shot into the water on the difficult par 4, a disappointing finish for the young talent but one that she didn’t let sour her 6-under 64 effort in the second round.

“I hit two really solid drives on this hole both days,” Pano said about the 18th. “I just kind of had a challenging number into the green. It's windy out here. I've also had mudballs on that hole, so it's a tricky hole. But a lot factors into it. There is no good miss out there. Left, long, right, nothing is good. Definitely water is short. That I found out. You got to play smart on that hole, and hopefully, I'll figure it out a little bit better over the weekend.”

This is Pano’s second year competing in The ANNIKA driven by Gainbridge at Pelican, and she has already improved on her performance last year by making the cut this week in Belleair, Fla. It’s her 28th start of the 2024 LPGA Tour season, and in her 27 previous events, she has earned four top-20 finishes, including a solo second that came at the season-opening Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions and a tie for 10th that she recorded at the AIG Women’s Open at St Andrews, arguably her strongest showing of the entire year.

As she wraps up her second season competing on the LPGA Tour, Pano admits that it’s been a bit of a long year and feels like she might have played a few too many events in 2024. But even if she is feeling fatigued, the 20-year-old isn’t letting it bother her as she continues battling for one of those coveted spots in the field next week in Naples, Fla., working as hard as she can to have a shot at taking home a record-breaking $4 million winner’s check.

“I could have picked my schedule a little bit better this year,” said Pano. “I signed up for literally everything and committed and played everything, which is good in some ways and, other ways, was a good learning experience for me to give myself some rest. I was happy to be able to go home, work on some things, get to unpack a little to be fully charged up for this week.”

With 36 holes to play at Pelican Golf Club, Pano still has work to do to climb the Race to the CME Globe point standings. She is currently projected to move inside the top 60 after the first two rounds, but nothing will be fully finalized until the last putt drops on Sunday afternoon in Belleair, Fla.

Instead of worrying about her position in the rankings, however, Pano has her eye squarely on The ANNIKA driven by Gainbridge at Pelican trophy, a win she now has a great chance to capture over the weekend at Pelican Golf Club and one that would take care of all of her problems and easily qualify her for next week’s CME Group Tour Championship.

“I think I'm just focusing on the golf tournament that's in front of me,” said Pano when asked if she’s thinking about CME. “My coach always says that winning takes care of everything. I'm just focused on winning this golf tournament. If anything else happens after that, it happens.

“I’m focusing on the two days I have in front of me and putting the best 36 holes together that I can.”

Pano Pulls Out All Stops on Day Two at Pelican GC with CME Group Tour Championship Spot on the Line

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