Youngsters advance in Doherty Championship

FORT LAUDERDALE — A published author who is working on her fourth novel at only 14 years old, Casey Weidenfeld had a storybook finish in Thursday’s quarterfinal matches of the Ione D. Jones/Doherty Women’s Amateur Championship.

Down by two holes to medalist Selena Costabile with five to play, the American Heritage eighth-grader won the 14th and 15th holes at Coral Ridge Country Club to square the match.

After getting up and down for par to halve the 16th, Weidenfeld took her first lead of the day at 17 with a 10-foot birdie putt that rolled around the cup before dropping.

At the 18th, after Costabile just missed her birdie putt, Weidenfeld calmly sank a 4-foot par putt to win the match 1 up.

“I was like, ‘It’s going to be close, but if I fight back I can come back and maybe win,’” Weidenfeld said. “I never gave up.”

Also advancing to Friday’s semifinals in the amateur championship division of the 85th annual tournament was 12-year-old Alexa Pano, of Lake Worth, who defeated long-hitting Noelle Maertz, of Clark, N.J., 5 and 4.

The home-schooled Pano won the first three holes against Maertz, a Wagner College graduate who plans to go to the LPGA’s Q School.

Maertz, who averages 280 yards off the tee, won the fourth and sixth holes, but Pano went 2 up with a birdie at the par-5 seventh, won the par-5 11th with a birdie and went 4 up with a two-putt par from off the green at the 12th. Pano closed out Maertz on the 14th by hitting a 6-iron from 168 yards to 2 feet.

Pano plays Tara Joy Connelly, of Palm Beach Gardens, who defeated defending champion Kendall Griffin of Sebring 7 and 5. Weidenfeld meets Claire Fitzgerald, of Sanford, a 4-and-3 winner over Dana Williams, of Boca Raton.

Weidenfeld, of Pembroke Pines, lost the second and third holes to go 2 down to Costabile, who shot a 1-under-par 72 in Monday’s qualifying round. Weidenfeld evened their match with birdie putts at the par-3 fifth and eighth.

But when Costabile, 18, of Thornhill, Ontario, faltered with bogeys at 14 and 15, Weidenfeld made clutch par putts of 4-5 feet. She did it again at the 16th, much to the relief of her mother, Tracy.

“My mom probably had a mental breakdown a few times,” Weidenfeld said. “I do drills every day. I putt from 3, 4 and 5 feet. I have to make 12 in a row from each distance.”

At 18, Weidenfeld said she hit a solid approach shot, but the wind knocked it down short of the green. After she pitched on and watched Costabile miss her hole-winning birdie attempt, she knew what she had to do.

“I said, ‘Oh gosh, I have this to win. Don’t worry, just make a smooth stroke. You make them all the time in practice,’” Weidenfeld said.

In the senior championship division, top seed Lisa Schlesinger, of Fort Myers, defeated three-time senior champ Andrea Kraus, of Baltimore, 3 and 1. She’ll play Tama Caldabaugh, of Ponte Vedra Beach, who scored a 3-and-2 victory over Diane Lang, of Weston.

The other semifinal has Corey Weworski, of Carlsbad, Calif., a 4-and-3 winner over Ann Fulginiti, of Plantation, playing Terrill Samuel, of Toronto, who defeated fellow Canadian Judith Kyrinis 1 up.