Coming into her senior season on ASU women's golf team, Alessandra Fanali is looking to make it count.
Since joining ASU for the 2018-19 season, Fanali, from Fiuggi, Italy, has been nothing short of a great competitor. On the final day of the 2019 Pac-12 Championships, Fanali's performance helped ASU secure a third-place finish.
However, her success did not begin with her time at ASU, but with the Italian national golf team.
During her time with the national team, she competed in the 2017 PING Junior Solheim Cup and competed at the European Ladies' Team Championship in 2018, helping the team to the semifinals.
Fanali began her golf career at just nine years old, and ever since has become a well-decorated athlete with a goal of turning pro after her graduation from ASU.
Fanali was recruited right after a big win at the European Girls' Team Championship in 2017, which ASU head coach Missy Farr-Kaye attended.
She had decided to commit after she had received a text from Farr-Kaye. "I didn't even have to think about it," Fanali said.
She said she wanted to come to the U.S. for collegiate play because it was "the next step toward turning pro," something others, like Giulia Molinaro, a former member of the ASU women's golf team and Italian national team, had done before her.
"About 10 other universities were recruiting me at the same time as ASU," Fanali said. "I loved ASU since the first time I came."
In her junior season for the Sun Devils, Fanali had three top-10 finishes and two top-5 performances. She also played in all eight events the Sun Devils competed in last season, only one of two players on the team to do so.
Fanali's accomplishments on the course throughout the 2020-21 season earned her the honor of being selected to the 2021 Pac-12 All-Conference First Team.
Fanali suffered a back injury at the end of the 2020-21 season but is "ready to go" for the 2021-22 season, Farr-Kaye said at a recent press conference.
Assistant coach Michelle Estill said at the press conference she has watched Fanali "grow up" and she is "optimistic about what the future holds" for her.
Sun Devil golf is no stranger to undergraduate success and alumni going pro, including Anna Nordqvist, the winner of the 2021 AIG Women's Open.
ASU women's golf is ranked No. 11 in the NBC Golf Channel preseason rankings and Fanali will be a big help in getting them through the tough matchups this season. Estill mentioned at the press conference she is happy with the current ranking, but noted that there are teams who outperform the rankings they are given every year.
Fanali and the rest of the Sun Devil women's golf team are competing in the ANNIKA Intercollegiate in Lake Elmo, Minnesota, from Sept. 13-15 and will travel next to the Nicklaus Cup on Oct. 4-5 in Columbus, Ohio.
Reach the reporter at regannicolebrown@gmail.com
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