Twelve months ago Alexa Pano found a bit of magic with her first victory on the LPGA Tour, winning as a rookie on her 19th birthday at the ISPS Handa World Invitational. One year later, Pano is hopeful she'll be able to do something special on Sunday as she looks to add a second win to her resume with a victory at the Portland Classic.

“When I won, I definitely was having to make a lot of birdies and it's going to be the same kind of thing tomorrow,” Pano said about her game plan for the final round. “So, just try and get some of that magic from last year.”

Pano’s start to the third round was less than magical as she carded two bogeys in her first three holes and appeared to have her moving day traveling in the wrong direction at Columbia Edgewater Country Club. But, after the disappointing start Pano bounced back with birdies on her next five holes to go out in three under par, 33. She added four more birdies on the back nine, offset by a single bogey at the par three 16th hole when her group was put on the clock. Saturday, Pano followed her second round 64 with a 66 to sit one stroke off the lead held by Andrea Lee heading into the final round.

“We were put on the clock and I rushed a little bit, and that's something I'm still learning to handle,” Pano said about her bogey on the 16th. “Keeping my focus out there is a big thing for me. When I felt locked in I felt like I could birdie every single hole.”

This week, Pano’s putter has been responsible for many of those birdies as she needed just 23 putts during the second and third rounds, which helped to offset her missing nearly half the fairways off the tee.

“I definitely had a few errant swings today at different times in the round, but never really lost my focus and just got back on track right afterwards,” Pano told Golf Channel after her round. “I am pretty happy how I recovered every time I made a bad swing or a bad hole.”

Pano’s performance in Portland is the bright spot in what has otherwise been a challenging stretch of golf for the second-year member who missed the cut in three of her last four starts. Pano looked poised early in the season to replicate the winning ways of her rookie season when she began her season with a runner-up finish at the first event of the year, the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions, but since that strong start to the year she has yet to crack the top 10 again in 2024.

But it was around this same time last August that Pano hit her stride. She won for the first time on the LPGA Tour with her playoff victory in Northern Ireland. The rookie followed up that win with a tie for 12th just a few weeks later at the Portland Classic, and Pano says that familiarity, knowing the course at Columbia Edgewater, is something that is working to her advantage and a knowledge that she’ll lean on as she looks to pick up win No. 2 on Sunday.

“I know where the tee shots are. I know where the misses are,” Pano said about Columbia Edgewater. “That's a really nice feeling, not having to wonder on every shot.”

That sense of comfort and familiarity playing in Portland might just be the magic combination that lifts Pano to victory for the second time in the month of August.

Pano seeks August magic again, this time in Portland

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