Alexa Pano Sunday Flash Interview 2024 Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions

all right I'm here now with Alexa Pano after her final round here at the Hilton Grand Vacations tournament at Champions second top 10 of your LPGA Tour career just what's this week kind of been like for you and you know how much did last year kind of prepare you to kind of stay in contention and compete towards the top yeah this week was super fun I got to have a lot of family out here this week my sponsors got to meet some of my dream celebrities to meet um and on top of it played some good golf so I had a pretty special week and it was a great start to the season yeah how much of you played with Lydia in the past um so we got paired together in Malaysia this year um and we'd met a few times before then but it's always a blast to play with her she's one of the nicest people I've ever met and today was a great day do I have a front row seat to that kind of a performance and just what she you know obviously struggled last year and then to come out win this this week is there anything you take from that as you look ahead to your second season um I mean I think we were joking around on 18 that with my dad that she might have won more times and I've been like alive but she's so impressive I'm always going to be a fan of hers um and getting to compete alongside her is an honor and something I've always dreamed of doing so um yeah it was a great experience the last uh few holes there I mean you really showed some grit I made a bogey on 13 and then rattled off three birdes in last five holes what switched for you or what was the mentality coming down those last few holes just to give it your all I guess um not much really it was just a grind all day and kind of like things clicked a little bit but um I don't know I felt like I'd hit a lot of good shots all day come up short of a few greens it was just tough with the conditions and I guess things just started to go my way towards the end which was a little late but better late than never what was the thing that maybe most impressed you about Lydia's game today um yeah she was very consistent today made a lot of those short puts when she needed to she didn't really give up any shots never really had any big errors but um she's experienced she knows what she's doing out here so I expected nothing less than that and she also I think made a couple of great green greenside type shots one the bunker shot at 13 and then the one at 15 anything about those that particularly struck you you know I don't really remember but she had some really impressive shots out there today I know I was watching and um felt like I was saying great shot or great save or great Birdie on every single hole but um like I said she's a great competitor and it was awesome to be out on the course with her and I'm super happy for her two quick questions your dad was saying that you found something in your putting last year that really helped turn things around can you talk a little bit about that yeah I switched to a mallet about Midway through the year which was something I wasn't expecting to do um that was kind of like my backup putter that I was never going to use but um kind of things started to click with that got some good momentum going started to feel more comfortable over putts and it's carried on ever since um even when I'm not having great putting days it's not as bad as the start of the season season was and so that's been a big help having some confidence in my putting because my ball striking is usually pretty good had you used a mallet before um not since I was about seven or eight years old so it' been a long time ah and 20 you know 27 points um does that feel how far away does that feel that's the number of points you need to get into the Hall of Fame um yeah I don't know I didn't never even thought about that one but um I guess we'll see I got a lot of years ahead of me I guess just I guess I should have asked that in a way how can you wrap your brain around what Lydia has done to be only one point away yeah I mean it's crazy that she's even a point away she's so incredible she's someone I've looked up to for a very long time and um I'm obviously always going to be rooting for hoping for many more of these final round pairings with her thank you thanks just one more for me really quick where does this set you up mentally as you look ahead of the rest of the year just getting off to a good start yeah um gives me a lot of good confidence going into the rest of the year I think last year it took me a while to kind of get some good finishes in so this is really nice and having everyone here with me it was just a really good refresher start to the year and um yeah I'm just excited to see what comes of this year yeah awesome thank you Alexa thank you guys