BY GARY CURRERI,
Special to GGP
FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. |
Alexis Thomp-
son finally gets a day off.
Just one day after repeating and win-
ning the 78th annual Ione D. Jones/
Doherty Women's Amateur Golf Cham-
pionship at Coral Ridge Country Club
Saturday, with a 3 and 1 victory over Taylor
Collins, 20, of Davie, Fla., a weary but
happy Thompson said she would put down
the clubs for a day.
“I am going to take tomorrow off,” said
the 14-year-old Thompson, concluding her
fifth tournament in the past five weeks.
Thompson won twice, finished second in
two and third in the other. “I am tired, and
this is a huge relief. It was a tough match all
day. I had to make birdies to beat her and
sometimes she even tied me with a birdie.”
Thompson, from Coral Springs, Fla., is
the first back-to-back winner of the Jones/
Doherty since Jane Bastanchury Booth won
in 1972 and 1973, and just the seventh to
win back-to-back titles in the nearly eight
decades of the tournament. That prestigious
list of winners includes Patty Berg and Lou-
ise Suggs, two LPGA Hall of Famers.
“That’s really cool,” said Thompson,
who last year became the youngest winner
of the Jones/Doherty tournament. “I am
honored to win the tournament again. It’s
a great tournament. I played really well in
the Doherty except for my first match, but
I feel really good about my game now.”
Thompson’s next tournament will be
the Verizon Junior Heritage, which begins
Feb. 5 in South Carolina. There she will
defend her 2009 title. Thompson is also
scheduled in April to play in her second
straight Kraft-Nabisco Championship, the
LPGA’s first major of the year.
from Hebron, Ky., was down three holes
at the turn before she got rolling with an
improbable eagle on the par- 4 10th. Leach
was 145 yards out into the wind and hit a
2-hybrid, avoiding a tree, toward a bunker
guarding the green.
Leach came within six inches of getting
another eagle on the 11th but her birdie won
the hole to cut her deficit to 1-down. After
both players parred the 12th, Leach hit it to
within a foot again for another birdie to tie
the match. Thompson eventually won with a
six-foot eagle putt on the par- 5 18th. Leach
flirted with an eagle on that hole when she
hit the pin on a chip from 30 yards out.
FERREE GETS AN ACE IN TOURNAMENT
GREEN IS TOP AMATEUR
TEACHER NEARLY GIVES A LESSON
EATON IS TOP SENIOR
Alexis Thompson has finished first twice,
second twice and third once in the past five weeks.
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