Symetra Tour winner Ana Belac brings can’t-miss game, colorful hair to U.S. Women’s Open
When Ana Belac won the Symetra Tour’s Carolina Classic on Oct. 31, she did it with purple hair. Her long, colorful locks will make Belac easy to distinguish from the crop of U.S. Women’s Open first-timers at Champions Golf Club in Houston this week.
Belac’s long hair had been purple earlier in the Symetra season before she traded out for blue – bright blue – and then went purple again. Belac, the 23-year-old from Slovenia, is naturally a brunette but her hair has seen a rainbow of colors. It doesn’t stand for anything in particular, Belac said. She just likes to experiment.
“Maybe I’ll surprise everyone with something that hasn’t been seen seen before,” she mused a month before her first U.S. Women’s Open start. “Although purple has brought me two victories so far, so I kind of like purple.”
Belac doesn’t quite remember when she learned that limited spots in the U.S. Women’s Open were on offer to Symetra Tour players this season along with LPGA status. It certainly didn’t change anything about the way she went about her first few months as a professional.
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“I heard it somewhere,” she said. “I tried not to think much about it, because the more things you think about, the more pressure you add in.”
Belac is among the 41 first-time competitors in the U.S. Women’s Open field. She earned her spot by finishing among the top 5 players on the season-end Symetra Tour money list. Belac made nine Symetra Tour starts since turning professional in April, not long after the 2020 college season ended prematurely because of COVID.
That decision didn’t require a lot of thinking. Belac always knew she wanted to play professionally. She had earned Symetra Tour status at LPGA Q-School in the fall of 2019 and even though Duke head coach Dan Brooks told her he’d find a spot on the roster for her if she wanted to return for a post-COVID fifth year, Belac was ready to close that chapter.
“I accomplished a lot in my college career. I wish I got another chance at nationals but at the same time I won nationals last year with my team,” she said. “Maybe it would have been different if that hadn’t happened, but my ultimate goal was always to play professionally and knowing that I had my degree – I finished my degree in May – that kind of made my decision easier and I was just so excited to turn pro.”
Ana Belac during the second round of the 2019 NCAA Women’s National Golf Championship at the Blessings Golf Club Fayetteville, Arkansas. (Photo: Tim Cowie)
Brooks remains Belac’s swing coach, and she’s still based in Durham, North Carolina. Her roots are so firm there that she calls her Carolina Classic victory on the Symetra Tour a home win.
“A lot of things can affect if you’re going to finish in the top and luckily I did really well in the highest purse of the season so that kind of boosted me up a little bit,” she said of that victory, which netted her $30,000.
Beginning with the Symetra Tour’s Florida swing in September, Belac had her mom Erika on her bag. Belac said mom knew enough about golf to know what to do on the course but not enough to give advice.
“Which is great,” added Belac, an independent player who likes to make her own decisions.
Still, it was nice to have the companionship – and someone to help her do the driving. During a round, Belac and her mom would often try to spot which yards had dogs.
“We’d remember and then the next day we’re like, where is that dog from yesterday?” Belac said.
At home in Slovenia, Belac has a cat named Hilton. She hasn’t been home since last Christmas, and isn’t sure if she’ll head home for the holidays after the U.S. Women’s Open. The last thing she wants is to get stuck there should COVID travel restrictions arise again.
Checking in with #Road2LPGA 2020 Player of the Year @belac_ana as she gets ready for the @uswomensopen! pic.twitter.com/Co1uHoWuhx
— Symetra Tour (@ROAD2LPGA) November 30, 2020
Belac won $49,081 in her nine Symetra starts, enough to put her on top of the season-long money list. She hopes some of that can go toward getting a dog to bring home to her Durham apartment. She’s always wanted a Husky.
This week, Belac will be one of four Duke players in the field. When Brooks was recruiting Belac at the 2015 ANNIKA Invitational Europe, he walked up on a par 3 to watch her swing for the first time, began recording and she made a hole-in-one. It remains her only hole-in-one to date, but she wouldn’t mind repeating a similar feat this week with another.
“Clutch moments,” she joked. “U.S. Opens and things like that.”
