Schlesinger opens defense with a win on her birthday

Defending Senior Championship division winner Lisa Schlesinger celebrated her 60th birthday with a victory on the opening day of match play in the 86th Ione D. Jones/Doherty Women’s Amateur Championship in Fort Lauderdale on Tuesday.

Schlesinger, of Fort Myers, defeated 2011 Senior champ Mary Jane Hiestand of Naples, 3 and 2 at Coral Ridge Country Club, which Schlesinger said would make for a happy birthday celebration Tuesday night.

“It wouldn’t have been any fun going to dinner having lost,” said Schlesinger, who won the first three holes of the match.

Schlesinger said Hiestand bounced back after her rocky start and won the fourth hole and the eighth hole to cut her deficit to one down after the front nine.

A former college and professional basketball player who didn’t take up golf until her mid-30s, Schlesinger won the par-4 10th hole with a birdie after hitting her approach to within a foot and a half to go 2 up. A two-putt par on the par-5 13th put her 3 up and she halved the next three holes with Hiestand to close out the match.

Schlesinger has another tough match in today’s quarterfinal round. She plays Susan West of Tuscaloosa, Ala., who defeated three-time senior champion Andrea Kraus of Baltimore, 5 and 4.

Also advancing was Sylvie Van Molle of France, the Senior medalist with a 2-over-par 75 on Monday, who defeated Alexandra Frazier of West Conshohocken, Pa., 5 and 4; 2017 finalist Terrill Samuel of Toronto, who beat Laura Carson of Vero Beach, 5 and 4; and Diane Lang of Weston, who defeated Bonnie Fry of Bel Air, Md., 6 and 5.

Fourth-seeded Marie Arnoux of Miami won three consecutive holes early en route to a 6-and-5 win over Karen Ford of Oak Brook, Ill., in the 13-player Amateur division.

The top three seeds – defending champion and No. 1 seed Alexa Pano; Haeley Wotnosky, who shot a 3-over-par 76 in Monday’s qualifier; and Georgia Oboh, who shot 77 — had byes for Tuesday’s round.

That left Arnoux, who also shot 77 Monday, as the highest-seeded player so she took on the 13th-seeded Ford.