Teeing off in the penultimate group in the final round of the Amundi Evian Championship, Casandra Alexander would have soaked up the surroundings and liked what she saw. Big Sunday crowds lining the fairways at Evian Golf Resort. A Sunday in Major contention.

A Saturday 63 had set her up nicely for a run at the 'podium', but it would take a spectacular implosion to catch three-shot leader Haerun Ryu. Alexander, who turns 27 in August, was on 11-under, eight behind, but only three behind third-placed Brooke Henderson after Friday-Saturday rounds of 129.

While Alexander went up and down on the hilly, slopy course, needing a birdie at the last to close with a level par final round, she signed for her second top-10 finish in only her eighth Major. Her year-end career ranking has gone from 336 in 2022 to 280 (2023), 143 (2024) and 64 (2025). This top 10 saw her head to the final women's Major, the AIG Women's Open, at a career high 28.

Alexander is confident in herself and her abilities and it's with an experienced eye that we can say that she is a potential Major champion-in-waiting.

Everything is trending for this adrenalin-junkie to crack the big time. Although golfers aren't fans of having their earnings discussed, those sort of statistics are gobbled up by the public and at the Evian Championship Alexander's share of 10th amounted to around R3-million. She's leading the Ladies European Tour of Merit and has her sights set on the LPGA Tour. It's all systems go.

Alexander's rise makes for good viewing. She's a six-time winner on the Sunshine Ladies Tour and cracked a win on the LET, in Czechia last year. Her earnings from her top 10 in the Evian Championship eclipsed that win, but the South African is getting to the point where she doesn't have to worry about money. Her gross prize money from her first 101 starts on the LET stood at 1.43m Euros (about R26m).

Sure, what you see is not what you get once you've paid your team, taxes and travel. Golf is not an individual sport and there's all manner of professionals who slot in behind the scenes and with every fairway missed or short putt that slips past the hole you can feel the cash falling out of your pocket. And SARS now have fancy AI algorithms.

However, freed from the constant need to make the weekend cut and worry about how you're going to get to your next event and where you'll stay, you are able to give entire focus to your game and the first page of the leaderboard.

That's where Alexander is in her career right now.

While her Sunday didn't pan out like her Saturday had – where a 63 was eclipsed only by a remarkable 60 from eventual winner Ryu, the lowest round in Major championship history – Alexander knows that she 'belongs'. There's no arrogance attached to that, only necessary confidence.

Being in the penultimate group on a Major Sunday was another box ticked. She'd got there by being aggressive, not tip-toeing her way around as she might have been doing on the opening day where she posted a 73. Soon, she will start attacking things on the opening day of a Major. Every day will be moving day, not just Saturday.

While the pace of play in women's golf is a talking point and the golfers took nearly five-and-a-half five hours to complete their round – despite the 66 making the cut split into 11 groups of three each starting from the 1st and 10th – there was plenty to keep one riveted to the action. Henderson had a Major record three eagles and a hole-in-one, and leapt up the leaderboard by going four-under par through the 7th and 8th holes, while a statistic said that no women's Major champion, since 1992 at least, had won without a final round birdie.

That stat remains. Ryu needed a birdie on the 72nd hole, and found one, to force a playoff. She promptly birdied the 18th again to win the first extra hole.

Afterwards, Japan's Akie Iwai, who'd slipped out of the playoff with a final-hole par, broke down in tears when the on-course TV interviewer pressed her. The cameras stayed on her, which made for good television, but perhaps common sense should have said switch away. Of course the opposite view is that people were watching, and that ultimately is good for the women's professional game.