Pano, 13, advances at Doherty
Lake Worth girl sinks key putt to halve 18th hole, defeat McKim.
FORT LAUDERDALE — The defending Amateur and Senior division champions each went the distance in Wednesday’s quarterfinal matches at the 86th Ione D. Jones/Doherty Women’s Amateur Championship at Coral Ridge Country Club.
Playing her first compet- itive round of the tourna- ment, Alexa Pano sank a 4-foot par putt to halve the 18th hole and defeat Courtney McKim 1 up. An hour later, reigning senior champ Lisa Schlesinger, who never led until the 17th hole, halved the 18th for a 1 up victory over Susan West.
“It was a re a l ly tough match,” said Pano,13, of Lake Worth, who was exempt from Monday’s qualifying round and had a bye for Tuesday’s opening round of matchplay. “It was really back and forth.”
McKim, 27, of Raleigh, N.C., took a 1-up lead when she got up and down for par on the first hole and Pano three- putted from 40 feet. Pano squared the match on the next hole when she got up and down from a greenside bunker and McKim bogeyed.
The match remained all square until Pano sank a 5-foot putt for birdie on the par-5 seventh. McKim evened the match when she got up and down after missing the par-3 eighth green to the right and Pano, whose tee shot rolled off the back of the green, missed her par putt.
Pano birdied the par-5 ninth after a brilliant chip to 4 feet on the upper tier of the difficult green. McKim’s third shot rolled past the pin and all the way down to the base of the elevated green. After chipping to 7 feet, she missed the par putt and conceded the birdie to Pano.
McKim, who played on Ala- bama’s 2012 national championship team and is a project manager for a medical company, came up short on a birdie putt at the 10th, and Pano, who missed the green, pitched to 4 feet and made the putt.
Pano birdied the par-3 12th from 5 feet to go two up and held that lead until the par-3 16th. Both players hit their tee shots in bunkers, but McKim, whose ball was buried, blasted to a foot from the pin to win the hole with a par.
McKim had another superb up-and-down after coming up short of the 17th green and chipping to within 2 feet, and when Pano missed a 5-foot birdie putt, the match went down to the final hole.
The other top seeds in the Amateur division did not fare as well as Pano. Second seed Haeley Wotnosky of Wake Forest, N.C., lost 1 up to Noelle Maertz of Clark, N.J. Third-seeded Georgia Oboh of Riviera Beach lost 3 and 2 to Meghan Stasi of Oakland Park. And fourthseeded Marie Arnoux of Miami lost 4 and 2 to Lexi Harkins of Crystal Lake, Ill. Harkins plays Pano in the semifinals starting at 8:48 a.m. today, followed by Maertz and Stasi at 8:56.
Schlesinger plays Therese Quinn of Jacksonville, a 5-and-4 winner over Marilyn Hardy of Magnolia, Texas, at 8:32. Senior medalist Sylvie Van Molle of France defeated Beatriz de Arenas of Guatemala 4 and 2. She plays 2017 finalist Terrill Samuel of Toronto, who beat Diane Lang of Weston, 5 and 4, at 8:40.