By Roy J. Akers — www.skyviewsports.net
Gianna Clemente turning pro is really not news. She has been a golfing prodigy for a really long time. My first encounter with her (Video above left) at Boyne resorts in 2020 happened when she won the Coca-Cola tournament as a 12-year-old and she cleaned the clocks of players entering as collegiate college freshman. Clemente’s success comes from both her uncle and father who were elite college players and her uncle played on Tour.
Gianna’s Pro Statement
Clemente has the talent, but it is her desire and exposure to top level golf that brought her to this decision. She has powerplayed playing top amateur events, played in Monday qualifiers, received sponsors invites, and has played Gianna has competed in three Augusta National Women’s Amateurs and, was a member of the first U.S. National Development Team organized by the USGA and played on two U.S. Junior Solheim Cup Teams. Clemente still has to fight her way onto weekly events. What is crazy is she has skipped the entire NCAA college route to play in the weekly grind of trying to earn and play her way into LPGA events and earn a weekly paycheck. Good luck.
LPGA Statement on Gianna
“With 10 starts on the LPGA Tour over the past three years,” he said (via Golf Digest). “Gianna is a great example of a young player who continues to push herself to compete at the highest level, and we’re excited to see what she accomplishes as she works to earn her spot on the LPGA Tour.“
By Sarah Kellam LPGA.Com
Three years ago, Gianna Clemente was making headlines.
At just 14 years old, she had Monday qualified for the CPKC Women’s Open, an impressive accomplishment for any athlete at such a tender age, albeit not one that was entirely unheard of.
The golf world’s ears then perked up when Gianna did it again the next week at the Dana Open in Sylvania, Ohio, not too far from where she was born in Youngstown, an opportunity to compete alongside the world’s best golfers the teenager admitted that she was a bit surprised to have two weeks in a row.“I knew I was going to get into a couple Monday qualifiers, and I just wanted to make one,” Gianna said at the time. “I didn’t expect to go back-to-back, but I produced two really good rounds. That’s what happens.”
But it was only after she shot 65 to advance through her third straight qualifier and secure her spot in the 2022 Kroger Queen City Championship field that the name Gianna Clemente became synonymous with teenage success. It was then that Gianna’s star really began to rise and that her professional golf dreams started to feel like an eventuality.
“I remember my first one was in Canada, and I was incredibly overwhelmed,” a now 17-year-old Gianna said when asked about her experience in 2022. “That was my first time being around professionals inside the ropes, and I didn’t know what to expect. I think by the time we got to that third week, I already felt more comfortable. I think I just needed to gain a little bit of confidence.”
In the years since that trio of Monday qualifiers, Gianna has added several other accolades to her already stout resume. She won the 2023 Girls’ Junior PGA Championship and then captured the 2023 U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball title alongside Avery Zweig. She won the AJGA portion of the 2024 Mizuho Americas Open and was named the 2024 AJGA Rolex Girls Player of the Year.
Gianna has competed in three Augusta National Women’s Amateurs, was a member of the first U.S. National Development Team organized by the USGA and played on two U.S. Junior Solheim Cup Teams. She has teed it up in seven LPGA tournaments across the last three seasons, two of which were 2025 major championships, and she nearly won an Epson Tour event earlier this year, going toe-to-toe with eventual champion and 2025 Epson Tour Player of the Year Melanie Green in a five-hole playoff at the Guardian Championship.
And now that she’s made the most of every opportunity she’s had as one of the game’s top amateurs, Gianna has decided it’s time to turn her focus to her ultimate goal of playing on the LPGA Tour someday, announcing via Instagram on Nov. 5 that she has elected to turn professional.
“I am extremely thrilled to announce that I am turning professional. I want to thank my family for supporting my dreams, helping me through the highs and lows, and standing by my side through it all,” Gianna’s post began, later continuing, “As I close this chapter of my life, I realize how junior and amateur golf has shaped me as a player and as a person. I will always cherish the memories and friendships made through these past five years.“So beyond excited for this next chapter. Let’s get to work!”
For those who have followed the upward trajectory of Gianna’s career over the last several years, this choice is hardly surprising.
The 17-year-old advanced through the second stage of the 2025 LPGA Qualifying Series last month and had to turn pro if she intended to compete in Final Qualifying in December. But because she is under 18, Gianna needed a waiver to participate in the last leg of Q-School from LPGA Commissioner Craig Kessler, a request he ultimately approved.
And even though some might have expected her to want to take a traditional route, to experience life as a collegiate athlete having been home-schooled for quite some time, Gianna knew fairly quickly she wanted to travel a different road.
“It’s such a big decision to make, and at 17 years old, it feels even bigger,” Gianna said of turning pro. “I took a couple of (college) visits, and I enjoyed my visits, but I decided that that route wasn’t for me. I know everybody’s path is different. There are many ways that you can get to the LPGA if that’s your goal, but I decided to give myself a good opportunity at Q-School and see how it went.“I think I’ve performed at the professional level a little bit over the last couple of years and gotten really good experience from that, so I just think I’m ready now, and I don’t see a reason to delay it.”
Gianna’s choice was obviously well-discussed with her family and the support staff she has acquired in recent years, a cohort that includes her IMG management team and renowned instructor Jorge Parada, who also works with LPGA Tour winners Carlota Ciganda and Ryann O’Toole, among others.
But she also leveraged the opinion of another Tour athlete who forwent college, someone who knows exactly what Gianna is about to experience, no matter what circuit on which she winds up competing in 2026.“Alexa Pano has been like a big sister to me over the past couple of years,” Gianna said. “I don’t play that much golf with her now, but she definitely knows, and I’ve talked to her a lot about what Q-School was going to be like before and what the Epson Tour was like for her. She’s a really good resource for me, and she’s been super kind and super supportive of me.”
The top 25 and ties from Final Qualifying will earn LPGA Tour membership next season, and while Gianna is certainly hoping to find herself among that group come the end of the week in Mobile, Ala., her performance at Qualifying has already helped her meet the one goal she had for 2025 Q-Series – securing Epson Tour status for 2026.
With that in mind, Gianna is doing her best to mitigate both the external and internal expectations already percolating around her performance in early December, knowing that, at the end of those five rounds, no matter what happens, she still has a tour on which to play full-time in her first year as a pro, a coveted position for any young athlete to find herself.
“The goal for me for next season was full Epson Tour status. I was really happy with that at second stage, and I’m really excited to tee it up again,” said Gianna, later continuing, “(Final Qualifying is) a lot of golf. You just have to remind yourself – it’s so much golf. It’s okay to have a bad nine holes or even a bad round. It’s a long tournament, so it’s important to stay in the moment and every shot matters.”
But just like she did in those Monday qualifiers three years ago, Gianna is likely to once again surprise everyone at Final Qualifying, as earning an LPGA Tour card at 17 years old doesn’t sound out of the realm of possibility for the teenaged talent.
