Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Oakland Park and Lake Worth golfers to meet in Doherty final.
Meghan Stasi had the shot of the day Thursday in the 86th Ione D. Jones/ Doherty Women’s Amateur Championship, holing her approach to the par-4 17th hole at Coral Ridge Country Club for an eagle and a dramatic change in momentum.
The 112-yard shot gave Stasi a 1-up lead in her Amateur division semifinal match against Noelle Maertz in Fort Lauderdale. When Maertz, of Clark, N.J., needed two chips to get on the 18th green in five, she conceded the hole and the match to Stasi, who was 4 feet from the cup in three.
“I knew it was going to be close,” said Stasi, 39, of Oakland Park, of her shot to the 17th green with a 50-degree wedge, which landed short of the cup and rolled in. “I knew I needed to hit it 100 yards.
“I think Andy helped with that one,” added Stasi, referring to popular club member Andy DiBattista, who died suddenly last week and whose life was being celebrated at Coral Ridge on Thursday. “I’ve thought about him all week, because he was such an incredible guy.”
Stasi’s 2-up victory in cold, blustery conditions earned the 2012 Doherty winner a spot in today’s final against defending champion Alexa Pano. The 13-year-old from Lake Worth won the 17th hole and halved the 18th for a 1-up victory over Lexi Harkins of Crystal Lake, Ill.
Pano, a home-schooled eighth-grader, birdied the fourth, fifth and seventh holes to go three up, but Harkins, who plays golf for the University of Wisconsin, birdied the ninth and 10th holes to get to one down.
Harkins evened the match with an up-anddown par at the short par-4 15th after Pano hit her driver 300 yards into the lake next to the green, took a drop, pitched on and missed her par putt.
They halved the par-3 16th with bogeys, then Pano won the 17th with a bogey when Harkins four-putted from 15 feet after reaching the green in two.
Stasi was three down after six holes in her match against Maertz, but won the eighth and ninth holes with pars.
Lisa Schlesinger, of Fort Myers, gets to defend her Senior Championship division title after winning the 18th hole with a par to defeat Therese Quinn of Jacksonville, 1 up. She will meet Terrill Samuel, of Toronto, in a rematch of last year’s final. Samuel defeated Sylvie Van Molle, of France, 1 up.
“I’m looking forward to it. She’s a great competitor and nice person,” said Schlesinger, who defeated Samuel 2 and 1 last year.
Schlesinger won the seventh hole with a par, the eighth with a birdie and the 10th with a par for a 3-up lead over Quinn. But Quinn won the 13th with a twoputt par, saved par from a greenside bunker to win the 15th when Schlesinger couldn’t get up and down and evened the match with a par on the 17th.
On the 18th, after both players hit good drives, Schlesinger hit the green and Quinn missed left of the green. Quinn putted from there, but came up 15 feet short, then Schlesinger two-putted from 20 feet and Quinn missed her par attempt.