There is a moment during my conversation with Alexa Phung when I realise this is not a typical 14-year-old. It comes somewhere between hearing about her back-to-back national championship wins, the product she invented and is now marketing under a Middle East brand name, and her plans to help establish an LPGA Girls Golf chapter in the UAE. Most teenagers are working out what they want to do with their lives. Alexa, it seems, is already doing it.
The Palm Beach-based golfer – she splits her time between New York City and Florida – comes from a family steeped in the game. Her sister Amelie plays collegiate golf at Rice University, and Alexa is the first to credit that sibling rivalry for sharpening her competitive instincts.
“My sister was already playing because of my dad, and I kind of have a competitive bond with her,” she says, with the matter-of-fact certainty you come to expect from someone who has already achieved rather more than most players twice her age.
Making History
The achievements are, by any measure, remarkable. Alexa has won the Drive, Chip and Putt National Championship at Augusta National – twice – making her a four-time DCP finalist and tying the all-time record in the process. Last September, she claimed the Pam McCloskey-Brosnihan Championship, becoming the first player to win that title back-to-back. Add world junior titles in Ireland, Portugal and the USA, and competitive appearances in Italy, Scotland, Puerto Rico, Panama and now the UAE, and you have a resume that most seasoned tour professionals would envy.
The Brosnihan win earned her a year’s membership at The Club at Quail Ridge, one of Palm Beach’s finest courses. It also came just as an invitation arrived for the Junior Dubai Desert Classic – 54 holes of World Amateur Golf Rankings competition against the best under-18 talent in the world, held in the week preceding the Hero Dubai Desert Classic on the DP World Tour.
“I was ranked 42 in the world on TUGR and 417 in WAGR, with a plus 5.3 handicap coming into the event,” she says. “My goal is simple: keep climbing while having fun meeting new friends.”
Her father had always spoken highly of the UAE, having professional connections to the region through his work with Masdar City. When the invitation arrived, it felt like destiny. What she found on arrival exceeded expectations.
“Playing at night on the Faldo Course at Emirates Golf Club was unforgettable,” she says. “I had never experienced golf under the lights like that.” Competing on the Majlis Course – the same stage on which the Hero Dubai Desert Classic was played days later – added another layer to what was clearly a formative week. Watching UAE professional Ahmad Skaik compete in the men’s event and feeling the passion of local fans around the ropes, had a big impact.
Away from the course, she approached the country with the same curiosity she brings to everything else – the Burj Khalifa, Dubai Marina, the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi, even a stint on the slopes at the Mall of the Emirates. “The architecture and culture left a big impression on me,” she says. “I know I’m blessed and I’m just overall really happy and grateful that I get these experiences.”
As if the golf alone wasn’t enough, Alexa also arrived in Dubai with a business venture in tow. Together with her business partner, she has developed ShadeTee – a lightweight, portable umbrella system designed to provide shade for golfers between shots during practice, which she rebranded as Noor Shade for the UAE market, a name that feels entirely appropriate given the intensity of the Gulf sun.
“The idea came from my own experiences competing in different climates and realising there was a need for something practical and efficient,” she explains. “This project goes beyond golf equipment. It reflects my curiosity and initiative, and shows that even at 14, I can take an idea and build it into something real.” While in the UAE, she gathered feedback from players and coaches to refine the product for local conditions – the kind of diligent market research you might expect from someone twice her age with a business school education behind them.
Her plans for the UAE do not stop there. As an ambassador for LPGA Girls Golf, she is keen to collaborate with the Emirates Golf Federation to establish a Girls Golf chapter in the country, with proceeds from Noor Shade earmarked to support the initiative. For someone who also tutors young children in both golf and STEM subjects back home, the philanthropic impulse appears to be as natural as the competitive one.
She has already been invited back for the UAE Cup in December, and there is every reason to expect her presence in the region to grow. Her USGA Women’s Four Ball partner Maya Gaudin – who plays for the UAE National Team – will compete alongside her at the USGA Women’s Four Ball Championship in May, a partnership that straddles continents and speaks to the kind of global network Alexa is quietly building around herself.
When asked about her dream foursome, she answers without hesitation: Tiger Woods, Annika Sorenstam, and Michael Jordan. “I’m also trying to get Cristiano Ronaldo into golf,” she adds, with the wry smile and easy confidence of someone who has already done enough to suggest that stranger things have happened. “Maybe Dubai can host us someday.”
At 14, life is coming at Alexa Phung fast. She says she would not want it any other way.
