How the pandemic pause helped one of South Carolina’s top golfers become even better

Ana Pelaez always loved trips with her dad to the golf course in her native Malaga, Spain. She will never forget, at age 6, receiving her first set of clubs.

Plastic clubs.

She balked.

To borrow a theme from a popular soft drink’s commercial, she wanted the “real thing.”

Before long, Pelaez had real clubs, and she put them to perfect use. She zoomed up the junior ranks before winning an NCAA Regional individual title and earning All-America recognition her freshman year the University of South Carolina.

Her life-long dream of competing on the LPGA Tour immediately after graduation in 2020 looked right on schedule.

Along came the coronavirus outbreak to upset the timing, and she’s in better position than ever.

She’s fashioning another All-American season for the Gamecocks, with individual tournament finishes of 6, 3, 2 and 2 in her spring starts — and is obviously a vital cog in the nation’s top-ranked team. To illustrate: She birdied the final two holes to wrap up USC’s team victory in last weekend’s Liz Murphy Collegiate Classic.

More, her college performance coupled with 2020’s strong summer and fall tournaments in Europe have vaulted her to No. 13 in the women’s world amateur rankings.

Perhaps most important, she received an invitation to participate in the prestigious Augusta National Women’s Amateur.

Thinking about the 54-hole test that begins Wednesday with a final round at Augusta National, Pelaez laughed and said, “I’m so excited. I can’t wait. I don’t really have words to describe my feelings. What an honor to play against the best amateurs in the world and on that golf course.”

And there’s this: Without the pause in the world of sports during the coronavirus pandemic, Pelaez perhaps would not be here.

After her stellar freshman season, her results slipped. Still solid, just not to her standards. She dropped in the world rankings. And during USC’s 2020 spring break, she returned to Malaga to work with her long-time coach.

While at home, talk of limiting international travel began, and USC coach Kalen Anderson called to urge Pelaez to hop the first plane in order to finish the school semester and, of course, the season.

Pelaez did. She arrived in Miami and discovered the season had been canceled. Fearing travel bans, she quickly headed back to Spain, which meant two weeks in quarantine.

The lost spring season worked perfectly for Pelaez. She graduated, she received another college season and her game flourished. Although worries about travel restrictions kept her from returning for the 2020 U.S. Amateur and opting out of fall college competition, her game sparkled in Europe. Her third-place finish in the Ladies European Tour’s Spanish Open is the best ever by an amateur.

“I’m very grateful of how things worked out,” she said. “A couple of years ago, I had fallen to 200-something in the world and I knew I could play better than that.

“My coach and I came up with a plan over last summer with a goal of getting my game to a different level. We worked on technique and the mental aspect of the game and spent a lot of time of the course.”

Anderson, her coach at Carolina, noted a different, more mature player returning for the spring season.

“COVID gave her an opportunity to complete some unfinished business,” Anderson said. “She’s excited and such a passionate player and her performances are the result of hard work. Ana’s so upbeat, so positive, and plays with great energy and confidence.”

Getting to “the next level” has been her continual quest since those early-years trip to the course with her father.

“That’s where it all started,” Pelaez said. “I remember my first ‘real’ clubs — a putter, wedge and 3-wood — and my coach told me dad he thought I could be successful. I won my first tournament, and my dad said, ‘Maybe she is good.’ ”

She was. She is.

“One of the best juniors in Europe,” Anderson said.

And an easy recruit.

“After visiting with Coach, I knew I wanted to be a Gamecock,” Pelaez said. “I didn’t take a recruiting visit.”

Pelaez and sophomore Pauline Roussin-Bouchard give Carolina a dynamic one-two punch. In four tournaments, Pelaez averages 70.3 strokes a round and Roussin-Bouchard, No. 3 in the world rankings, is right behind at 70.5. They will be joined in the Augusta tournament by teammates Pimnipa Panthong and Paula Kirner.

The SEC and NCAA championships will wrap up Pelaez’ college career. Reaching that long-time dream of playing against the best on the LPGA Tour will be her next goal.

“I not sure of the timing,” she said. “I want to go to Q-school and want to make sure I’m one of those who gets a card.”

She will be, Anderson predicted.

“She gained a lot of experience over the summer and fall,” the USC coach said. “She used her time wisely, and she developed her game for the next level.”

Indeed, her game today defines excellence.

Chip shots. The USC women’s team solidified its No. 1 national ranking with a school-record fourth win of the season, capturing the Liz Murphy Collegiate Classic in Athens, Georgia. Ana Pelaez and Pauline Roussin-Bouchard finished 2-3 in individual competition. ... Two current major champions, Bryson DeChambeau (U.S. Open, No. 5 in world rankings) and Collin Morikawa (PGA, No. 4), have committed to play in the RBC Heritage on Hilton Head Island in April. They will join Masters champion Dustin Johnson, No. 1 in the world, in the star-studded field. ... John Obrien (Columbia) and Jeff Day (Blythewood) joined forces to win the SCGA’s Forty Plus Series event at the River Club in North Augusta. ... The Sonic Columbia Women’s City Golf Championship and Junior Girls’ tourney will be played July 19-20 at the CC of Lexington. ... Coming off a strong performance in the Tiger Invitational in Alabama, South Carolina’s men’s team plays host to the Hootie at Bulls Bay Intercollegiate that runs Sunday-Tuesday at Bulls Bay GC near Charleston.