Alexa Pano has chance to make her dream come true at Augusta National Women's Amateur

Alexa Pano had a dream seven years ago.

This week, she’s trying to make it come true.

Pano is one of 72 amateurs in the field for the inaugural Augusta National Women’s Amateur. The first two rounds are being played Wednesday-Thursday at Champions Retreat Golf Club, and then the stage shifts to Augusta National Golf Club for Friday’s practice round and Saturday’s final round.

Pano, from Lake Worth, Fla., was featured in the documentary film The Short Game that was produced by Justin Timberlake and came out in 2013. Pano, who was 7 at the time, said she wanted to be the first woman to play in a tournament at Augusta National.

Now she has her opportunity.

“Just competing at Augusta National in general, because for women, it’s never been done before, and that’s something I’ve always really wanted to accomplish,” she said Tuesday. “I’ve always wanted to be super involved with girls golf and women’s golf, and growing it as much as possible.”

Pano, the youngest competitor in the field at 14, will need to play well to make the cut to the low 30 after the first two rounds. All players will get a chance to play a practice round Friday at the home of the Masters Tournament, but Pano has her goal set beyond that.

“I can’t believe that the tournament starts tomorrow and in just two days, I’ll be playing at Augusta National and hopefully in three, competing there, which it just sounds so unreal,” she said. “If you told me this at 7 years old, I probably wouldn’t have believed you.”

Pano has prior experience competing at Augusta National through the Drive, Chip and Putt National Finals, which is held on the Sunday before Masters Week. She was the first two-time winner in the event for boys and girls ages 7 to 15.

She’s also played well this year at all levels of competition. She owns victories in the Jones-Doherty Amateur and the Dustin Johnson World Junior Championship, and just last month she contended on the Symetra Tour against a field of professionals.

Pano shared the 54-hole lead before dropping to eighth place. A win there would have made her the Symetra Tour’s youngest winner by a mile.

“I definitely learned a lot that week, as I always do, competing against higher competition, against the pros, obviously,” she said. “I learned a lot about myself comparing myself to them, and I had a chance to go home and work on that.

“So I’m hoping I’ve made those changes and I’ll be even better than I was that week.”