Taking Flight

Ana Belac came to America with nothing but the clothes on her back and her golf clubs. Actually, she packed a duffel bag for the flight from Slovenia to America, but the airline lost it. The other students coming for freshman year at Duke came with truckloads of belongings – entire wardrobes to help them stand out and make friends. Belac was confident in her golf swing and that was enough. 

The prior year, Belac was playing in the ANNIKA Invitational in Sweden when she came to the 13th hole, a par-3 with water guarding the green. The shot called for a smooth 8-iron, and while Belac hadn’t ever made a hole-in-one, she had never missed the oven mitt her Dad wore to catch golf shots outside of their house. Duke golf coach Dan Brooks walked up near the 13th tee at that precise moment and started filming Belac. When the 8-iron was struck perfectly and found the hole, Belac was destined to be a Blue Devil. 

“I grew up in a small town on the coast and the winters there are miserable: 35 degrees, rain, cold, and wind,” says Belac. “Golf was a thing between March and October unless you were really brave. Sometimes I would go hit shots in ski pants.”

Belac had won every tournament in Slovenia and made the national team by the time she was in her early teens. That alone is not to say she was a golf prodigy. Golf wasn’t popular in Slovenia and she didn’t have much competition. Belac grew up a few hours from the Slovenian Alps, and practically learned to ski before she could walk. Skiing is a national sport in Slovenia, affordable to most citizens. Belac picked up golf when she was four, ran track and field, and played tennis growing up, but she idolized Lindsey Vonn and loved the snow.

To learn golf, Belac’s dad would drive her two and a half hours away to see a golf instructor, where he would listen intently so he could help his daughter when they returned home. The nearest golf course was 45 minutes away, so Belac’s dad would help his daughter practice on the carpet at home, and keep an oven mitt handy outside. 

“The course I grew up on was a nine-hole course, and what I would consider now a goat track,” says Belac. “But I learned the game there. The range had really tall grass, the balls that looked like ping-pong balls because they were so worn out, and greens were never faster than a seven.”

Belac chose to focus on golf in her teens, leaving her skiing aspirations behind. The only reason Belac knew anything about Duke was because Tim Gornik, an older golfer on the Slovenian National Team, had gone there. Her fateful ace in Sweden paved the way for a spot on the Duke golf team, where she’d join Leona and Lisa Maguire. 

“Here and there I'd be able to keep up with Leona,” Belac says. “She was the world number one amateur at the time. I had a front row seat and thought this is how good I have to be to turn pro.” 

Belac majored in statistics and won her first college tournament as a Sophomore. She had a remarkable short game and could get it up-and-down from anywhere. Belac went a perfect 3-0 in the NCAA Championship matches her Junior year, helping the Blue Devils capture a national title. When Covid ended her Senior season, Belac was ranked third in the country. Her intro to the lonely life of professional golf was further isolated due to the pandemic, but her game didn’t falter.

“I had a lot of confidence going into my rookie season and my first season on Symetra (Epson Tour),” says Belac. “I won a tournament and finished first on the money list. That confidence from college carried over pretty well.” 

Belac earned an LPGA Tour card and finished in the top-15 in her first event. She kept her status in her rookie season, an impressive feat. “The fact that I had confidence from college and the fact that I was clueless kind of helped,” she says. “I didn't realize how good you had to be to stay out there.” 

Belac’s second year on Tour was a hard one. She only made seven cuts in 19 starts and lost her status. The year became increasingly stressful leading to a Q series (Q school), where she barely earned partial LPGA status. 

“The last few holes of that Q series was the most stress I’ve ever had on a golf course,” Belac says. “I only got into one event before the reshuffle that year, which was in Hawaii. Going all the way to Hawaii with all the expenses, and knowing it was the only chance before the reshuffle at getting better status…missed the cut there. There was some scar tissue accumulated over 2023.”

Belac made only three cuts in 11 LPGA starts in 2023, and added a single top-10 on the Epson Tour. She was spending more money than she was making and her confidence was dwindling. “Money goes really quickly,” Belac says. “All the expenses. You have to live somewhere. I’m from Europe. I have to have an apartment here. I have to pay my rent. I can’t just go live back home.”

After an unsuccessful bid at Q school, losing her LPGA status was a new low for Belac. Her main sponsor, Lord Abbett, stuck with her and she felt fortunate to have their support, but was headed back to Epson Tour where she was in for a long season of grinding. Belac got to work improving her swing. To keep her job on the LPGA Tour, she’d have to hit more greens and she started working intensely on ball striking.

“I was like, look, my game is in a good place,” Belac says. “I’ll get back on the LPGA. It was about believing in myself and believing what I was doing.”

The Olympics were also in Paris in 2024 and Belac desperately wanted to represent her country. She’d been selected for the Slovenian team in 2020, but with Covid raging, the Olympics experience was diminished. She considered how to get back on the team, having lost her LPGA status. 

The only realistic route to Paris was to play well on the Ladies European Tour, but she’d have to play often on the Epson Tour to have a chance at an LPGA card. In the first Epson event of the season, Belac birdied the final two holes of the tournament to get into a playoff. She lost in the playoff but finally had some confidence to build on, and finished in the top-10 in two of the next three events. 

She started traveling the world chasing world ranking points in between Epson events: Australia, Morocco, Kenya, Germany, France. Wherever she had to go in an exhaustive and jet-lagged campaign. Missing events was costing her valuable points on the Epson Tour, but she made every overseas cut. Representing her country was too important, and she had little time to waste. By the end of May, a 12th place finish in France locked up her Olympics bid. Fittingly, the first Slovanian to earn an LPGA Tour card would play for her country. 

“The Olympics was a really cool experience,” Belac says. “Getting to represent my country and getting to play in something that's so big just beyond golf, was so cool. The atmosphere was really cool. It felt bigger than any tournament, even the majors. Everyone there is happy to watch good golf, no matter what country you’re from.”

Belac finished 49th in Paris with her family and friends watching. The results weren’t what she hoped for, but just making it had been a monumental achievement. Belac returned to the Epson Tour to chase an LPGA Tour card with her Mom on the bag.

“She’s the only caddie I’ve won with so far, so I was like, Mom, you’re coming back,” Belac says. “She’s awesome. She helps drive from event to event and pushes the cart every week. It was really fun.”  

A top-10 on the season-long points race would lock up her return to the LPGA Tour, and after another 2nd place finish at the Tuscaloosa Toyota Classic, it looked like she might do it. But in her two closing events, Belac finished T25, and then missed the cut in the final event of the season, dropping her to 11th. She would have to go back to Q school.

At the final stage of LPGA Q school, the top-25 and ties earned LPGA status, and entering the final round at RTJ Magnolia Grove in Mobile, Alabama, Belac was close to the qualifying number. It had been a year of close calls: a lost playoff, two second-place finishes, first alternate at the U.S. Open after losing another playoff for a guaranteed spot, and missing the top-10 on the Order of Merit by only two points, which equates to less than a shot over the entire season. An entire year came down to this round.

“I’ve hit some of the best shots of my life under the most adrenaline,” says Belac. “There's adrenaline and then there's when it gets pushed overboard and becomes anxiety.”

On this day, all that confidence and belief Belac built throughout the year was reflected in her shots. Four birdies, no bogeys, and six pars to close the round, adding up to 68 – good enough for T-21 and a return to the LPGA Tour. The statistics major knew it was only a matter of time before she found her game.

“It's all about statistics. Running averages. If you're playing well, one day, it’s going to go well your way. That's what I firmly believe and what got me through last season. The coin has got to flip at some point.” 

Back home in Slovenia, Belac’s Dad is a golf pro and gives lessons as the proud father of an Olympian. There still aren’t many golf courses, tournaments, or pros, but his lesson planner is full. All his time driving his daughter around, listening to her instructor, watching her practice on the carpet, and catching shots in the oven mitt, paid off – for both of them. 

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‍Belac is a Carry athlete. For sponsorship and branding opportunities, or to hire her for a corporate outing, check out this link.