Tag: Paris Hilinski

‘We both know what we want’: Super teens Alexa Pano, Paris Hilinski are on golf fast track

At this week’s 120th U.S. Women’s Amateur, Paris Hilinski and Alexa Pano are two of the youngest players in the field at Woodmont CC.

Alexa Pano and Paris Hilinksi are best friends with big dreams. As the youngest competitors in last year’s U.S. Women’s Open, it’s hard to pick who has the more remarkable story. Hilinski qualified to compete at the Country Club of Charleston after playing golf for only 2 ½ years.

By the time Hilinski took her first golf lesson at age 13, Pano had already starred in “The Short Game” documentary on Netflix, hoisted a trophy at Augusta National and made history as the youngest player to tee it up on the Japan LPGA.

She was so good so fast, it was somewhat surprising that it took her until age 14 to get to her first Women’s Open.

U.S. Women’s Amateur: Leaderboard | Tee times | Preview

Now the two fast-tracking friends are traveling the country together, trying to stay safe and keeping their circle tight during a global pandemic. At this week’s 120th U.S. Women’s Amateur, where their families are sharing a house, they’re once again two of the youngest players in the field at Woodmont Country Club.

Alexa Pano, 14, qualifies for her first U.S. Women’s Open.

Pano, 15, makes a stunning fifth Women’s Amateur appearance this week in what is her 10th USGA championship. She was runner-up to Yealimi Noh at the 2018 U.S. Girls’ Junior and lost to Andrea Lee in 23 holes in the Round of 16 at last year’s Women’s Amateur. Both Noh and Lee are now rookies on the LPGA.

“I felt like last year I put myself in a great position and I got beat,” said Pano. “This year I kind of want to avenge that, if anything.”

And should Pano and Hilinski meet in match play at this year’s contest?

“I think if we played against each other I would win, of course,” said Hilinski.

It’s that way with everything with these two. Even a card game, said Hilinski, can feel like the Super Bowl.

“Paris always wants to be taller,” said Pano. “I always want to be shorter. Everyone has to convince me that I’m 5’11.”

Hilinski, 16, hits it about 270 yards off the tee and says she checks in at 5 feet 10 inches (and a half). The gym is one area that Pano readily concedes to Hilinski. Both work in Jupiter, Florida, with Joey Diovisalvi, or “Joey D,” golf’s trainer to the stars (think Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson and Lexi Thompson), though Hilinski has been at it much longer. Hilinski’s background in basketball and soccer training also adds to her natural strength.

“I’m pushing myself to get to her level,” said Pano, “which I will.”

They’re both vegan and have taken online classes for years. During the first six weeks of the pandemic, Pano completed an entire semester’s worth of schoolwork. Both train and study year-round and are set to graduate in 2022.

When golf courses shut down in Palm Beach County, Pano and her father drove 90 minutes each way to Port St. Lucie just to find an open driving range.

Ask them for a summer highlight from 2020 and both will point to an 18-hour car ride home from Arkansas, where the two teens traveled with their dads to compete in a Women’s All-Pro Tour event. Pano finished second there to LPGA pro Maria Fassi, who jokingly told the new vegan where she could grab a good plate of ribs.

By all accounts, it was 18 hours of belly laughs all the way back to South Florida.

“I must have accidentally drunk a gallon of sugar,” said Hilinski.

Paris Hilinski (left) and Alexa Pano (courtesy of Paris Hilinski)

In the beginning of her playing career, Hilinski worked with Bryan Lebedevitch, Cristie Kerr’s longtime coach, at the PGA West Golf Academy in La Quinta, California. Now she’s with Claude Harmon III at the Floridian in Palm City. During the break from competition this spring, she spent time practicing with Koepka.

“Most of the stuff that I found really beneficial was how he mentally thinks about things,” said Hilinski, “how he thinks about bad shots when he doesn’t hit it great. Most of the time you’re not going to hit it perfect.”

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LPGA player Mel Reid is another pro who spends time with Hilinski in Florida.

“Her work ethic is pretty special,” said Reid. “There’s really no limit with her.”

The same has been said about Pano, whose middle name could’ve been prodigy. Both teens like to see how far they can push.

“We both know what we want,” said Hilinski. “Both of us, I think, will do anything to get there.”

120th U.S. Women’s Amateur

When Aug. 3-9
Where Woodmont Country Club, Rockville, Maryland
Format Stroke play Monday and Tuesday, with the top 64 players advancing to match play Wednesday-Sunday
Defending champ Gabriela Ruffels
How to watch Golf Channel:
Wednesday-Thursday, 4-7 p.m. ET
Friday, 1-4 p.m. ET
Saturday, 11 a.m.-2 p.m. ET
Sunday, 1-4 p.m. ET

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North & South Women’s Amateur preview: Players to watch at Pinehurst

There will be no title defense this year without Gabriela Ruffels in the field, but here are a few players to watch instead.

Finding time to groove a swing change can be difficult as a top amateur. Emilia Migliaccio, at No. 5 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, has used this pandemic-forced break in competition to finally do that. Migliaccio, a rising Wake Forest senior, has worked hard with coach Kim Lewellen (also her college coach) to tighten things up in this unexpected off-season.

“Not big changes,” she said, “but they’ve been really good changes that I’ve never been able to implement because there’s never really been so much time to implement and have time to practice a swing change.”

Migliaccio lives just 65 miles up the road from Pinehurst Resort, site of this week’s North & South Women’s Amateur. The Cary, North Carolina, native advanced all the way to the semifinals at this event last year. She fell to eventual champion Gabriela Ruffels on the 18th hole of their match.

Migliaccio will debut her slightly revised swing this week as she makes her first real tournament start since winning the Darius Rucker Intercollegiate in March.

There will be no title defense this year without Ruffels in the field. The Australian went on to win the U.S. Women’s Amateur after last year’s North & South title. Besides Migliaccio, only Christine Wang, Kelly Sim and Allisen Corpuz return from last year’s quarterfinals.

Below are a few other names to keep an eye on as the tournament gets started on July 14. After two rounds of stroke-play qualifying, the field will be whittled to a 32-woman match-play bracket. The final match will be played July 18.

The veterans

Meghan Stasi, Ina Kim-Schaad, Ellen Port

These women own a collective 12 USGA titles, and all have won the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur. Kim-Schaad is the reigning champion, while Stasi and Port have each won four. All three have a killer instinct in match play. Port most recently made headlines when, at the age of 58, she advanced to the match-play bracket at the 2018 U.S. Women’s Amateur, losing to Dylan Kim in the first round.

The locals

Gina Kim, Nicole Adam

Nicole Adam, an 18-year-old coached by local Pinehurst legend Donna Andrews, took Ruffels all the way to the 17th hole in her first-round match against the eventual winner last year. It was a big confidence boost for Adam, whose game has been shaped greatly by growing up at Pinehurst.

As for Gina Kim, the Duke junior grew up in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, just 65 miles north of Pinehurst. Kim, runner-up at this summer’s Carolinas Amateur, played a vital role in Duke’s 2019 NCAA title run as a freshman and weeks later, finished 12th at the 2019 U.S. Women’s Open.

The juniors

Alexa Pano, Paris Hilinski

The two teenagers never slowed down their competition even as the opportunities dwindled in the spring. Both teed it up at the Women’s All-Pro Tour event in Arkansas, and Pano, 15, finished runner-up to winner Maria Fassi. Pano also won the Kathy Whitworth Junior Invitational in March while Hilinski, 16, scored a third-place finish at the Annika Invitational in January. Both had earned invitations to play the Augusta National Women’s Amateur in April.

The victors

Katherine Schuster, Amanda Sambach, Isabella Fierro

It takes a deft touch around the greens – and an ability to keep the ball in play – to succeed in Pinehurst. These three women have demonstrated that as past champions of the North & South Girls Junior. Amanda Sambach, a top-30 player in the world, is just five days removed from her title. Schuster, also the reining Women’s Dixie Amateur and Joanne Winter Silver Belle Amateur champion, won in 2019. Fierro burst onto the scene with her 2017 win and just completed her freshman year at Oklahoma State.

The state titleholders

Bentley Cotton, Megan Schofill, Erica Shepherd

Many amateurs have turned to their state amateurs for competitive reps, like these three women. Schofill, an Auburn sophomore, erased a 10-shot deficit to win the Florida Women’s Amateur on July 12 and Cotton, an incoming Texas freshman, is three days removed from a Texas Women’s Amateur win. Shepherd, a Duke sophomore, won the Indiana Women’s Amateur by four shots in June.

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Devastated over ANWA postponement, Paris Hilinski prepares for golf’s return

Paris Hilinski would have made her ANWA debut this week, then the coronavirus hit. She continues to stay sharp, ready for golf’s return.

Only a few weeks ago, Paris Hilinski was preparing for her Augusta National Women’s Amateur debut.

The 16-year-old beamed when she received her invitation in January for the second annual tournament. She knew being included among a select group of women to compete at Augusta National was “the opportunity of a lifetime.”

On March 13, that opportunity to stand alongside the iconic foliage in Augusta, Georgia, with some of the best amateurs in the game was postponed along with the event itself, the Masters and the Drive, Chip and Putt National Finals due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Hilinski was devastated.

“I’ve never been more excited than when my (ANWA) invitation arrived and I’ve worked tirelessly to have my best game ready for the incredible opportunity,” she wrote in a post on Instagram. “But as tough as it may be I completely understand and support today’s decision to postpone and prioritize the health and safety of all. While I’ll miss playing competitive golf for awhile, I’m looking forward to time with my family and promise you I’ll be training harder than ever to be ready for what’s next. My passion and love for the game is stronger than it (has) ever been.”

Hilinski, No. 16 on the Golfweek/Sagarin girls junior ranking, is coming off an impressive freshman year. She was the second youngest player at the 2019 U.S. Women’s Amateur and earned a spot at the 2019 U.S. Women’s Open.

Her accomplishments so far this season include the ANWA invitation and placing third at the ANNIKA Invitational USA in January. She was hoping to build off last year’s experience this spring during the U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball and the Women’s British Amateur but her schedule kept taking hits. Shortly after the ANWA was postponed, the USGA canceled all Four-Ball events and the Women’s British Amateur was rescheduled.

While disappointed she won’t play these notable events this spring, Hilinski is grateful for the experiences gained and invitations received. She’s confident they’ll bear fruit in the future despite the delays of COVID-19.

“I learned so much,” she said of the 2019 USGA events. “I think both of those events were such a big playoff so I definitely learned how to play under that kind of pressure. The U.S. Open is a little different than the U.S. Am, but I feel like if I qualified again I would go in so much more prepared than last year.”

Additional cancellations and postponements are expected to pile up as COVID-19 has not yet peaked in the United States. As of Saturday morning, there were more than 276,000 confirmed cases and 7,122 deaths in the United States, according to the New York Times.

The pandemic has understandably impacted Hilinski’s training. The sophomore who splits her time between her birthplace of Los Angeles and Palm Beach, Florida, said she usually practices several hours every day, but her trips to courses have become less frequent as the impact of coronavirus becomes more visible.

Currently residing in Palm Beach, Hilinski said she visited her regular courses, the Grove XXIII in Hobe Sound and the Floridian where she’s coached by Claude Harmon III, last week but both she and her parents are nervous about continuing the once routine activity.

“We’re a little concerned because you just keep hearing things on the news about how it’s becoming more and more contagious,” Hilinski said. “So I think they get a little worried and stuff and it’s a little scary because there’s so much unknown.”

In Florida, there were over 10,260 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 169 deaths as of Saturday morning, according to state and local health agencies, hospitals and C.D.C. data. In Palm Beach County alone, there were 856 cases and 33 deaths.

On Wednesday, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis issued a shelter-in-place order which went into effect Friday at 12:01 a.m. ET. The order lists golf clubs as essential businesses, but the government exemption does not ease Hilinski or her parents.

Hilinski was unsure if she will continue to practice at the golf clubs as the confirmed cases and death toll across Florida continue to rise.

“I’m taking it day-by-day just because stuff is changing day-by-day,” she said.

Despite her youth, Hilinski understands the severity of the pandemic and why cancellations and postponements of events around world like graduations and tournaments continue to pile up. Everyone is making sacrifices for their own health and for the health of their communities — herself included.

Hilinski has committed to flattening the curve by adjusting her practice schedule while self-isolating at home.

Junior golfer Paris Hilinski. (Mpu Dinani)

With health and safety her top priorities, Hilinski has found indoor drills and workouts and has a putting mat in her garage. The routine, however altered it may be, comforts Hininski and is a testament to the hope she has in the midst of the rising chaos and uncertainty.

“Playing golf gives me a sense of comfort,” she said. “It’s something I look forward to doing everyday. I feel at peace on the golf course. There is something special about golf, even if you are just hitting into a net in your backyard.”

There will be a time when the virus passes and play resumes.

Whenever that may be, Hilinski will be ready.

“Right now I’m focused on the heath and safety of my loved ones and trying to be the best player and person I can be when golf gets going again,” she said.