Zionsville’s Annabelle Pancake is following an ambitious career path as a professional golfer. Her livelihood depends on her ability to get a golf ball into a 4.25-inch hole in the ground. Pancake played college golf at Clemson University, but is now focused on playing fulltime on the LPGA Tour as a professional. To get to the bright lights and big checks of the LPGA Tour, she must earn her way by surviving three stress-filled stages of LPGA Qualifying School. In August, Annabelle advanced from Stage One held in Palm Springs, California to Stage Two, scheduled for October 15-18 in Venice, Florida, but Hurricane Milton may have severely impacted that plan. The LPGA has not, as of yet, announced for two days, especially with my wedge play.” Reviewing her missed cut Annabelle recalled the 8th hole of the second round. Her approach to the uphill par-5 green missed the green and she failed to get up and down. “I hit a cut seven wood to the green for my second. It finished short and right of the green. It was a tough up-and-down for birdie. I should have missed the green short and to the left. It would have been an easier upand-down.” As father/caddie Tony remembers, the golf course changed a great deal from Monday to Friday. “On Monday, they had the tees back and the course was soft making it play much longer, but easier to control the ball coming into the greens,” added Tony, who is the Director of Golf at the Crooked Stick Golf Club in Carmel. “By Friday afternoon, the course was playing much shorter with the tees moved up on some holes and the fairways were drying out. The greens were much firmer as well and we didn’t adjust to that as well as we needed to.” Time will tell if Annabelle will find her way to the LPGA Tour, but her chances of making a living by following this unique and ambitious career path certainly seem bright. if Stage Two will go on as scheduled, but Stage Three is scheduled for early December in Mobile, Alabama. Players must finish inside the Top-45 and ties to earn LPGA Tour status for 2025. Pancake has posted two stellar playing performances on the Epson Tour, which is the official qualifying tour of the LPGA Tour. In June, she finished T-13 at the Epson Tour’s Otter Creek Classic. In August, she competed in the Four Winds Invitational in South Bend and finished T-4. She fired a superb three-under-par 69 in the final round to move up the leaderboard and was the only top-ten finisher to break 70 on Sunday. In September, Annabelle Monday qualified for the LPGA’s Kroger Queen City Championship held just outside Cincinnati. She missed the cut by a single shot, but gained valuable knowledge for future events. She truly enjoyed her first competitive experience playing on the LPGA Tour. “I really wasn’t that nervous, I had no expectations and I felt no pressure,” recalled Pancake, whose father Tony served as her caddie. “I was very consistent
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTQ2Nzk4