Three-time Doherty amateur champion Alexa Pano returns to defend title at Coral Ridge

After a year off because of COVID-19, the 89th Ione D. Jones/Doherty Women’s Amateur Championship is back starting Monday with a stellar field of golfers who will play on a much tougher Coral Ridge Country Club course.

The prestigious match play event’s 18-player Amateur Division features defending champion Alexa Pano of Lake Worth. Pano, 17, started playing in the tournament when she was 9 and won the title in 2020, 2019 and 2017.

Also back is two-time winner Meghan Stasi of Oakland Park, who defeated Pano in the 2018 championship match and won in 2012. The four-time U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur champion was inducted into the Florida State Golf Association in November.

Other locals competing for a title that has been won by World Golf Hall of Famers Patty Berg, JoAnne Carner and Babe Zaharias, as well as current LPGA Tour pros Charley Hull and Lexi Thompson, include Elle Nachmann of Boca Raton, Staci Pla of West Palm Beach, Julia Matzat of Parkland, Marie Arnoux of Miami and Kayla Holden of Coral Springs.

The Senior Division for golfers 50 and older, which had a lengthy waiting list to get into the 40-player field, includes former winners Kim Eaton of Mesa, Arizona (2016 and 2010), Mary Jane Hiestand of Naples (2011) and Carolyn Creekmore of Ponte Vedra Beach (2009). Also back is Terrill Samuel of Boynton Beach, who advanced to the Senior championship match from 2017-19.

The Doherty veterans will encounter a much more challenging Coral Ridge course. Designed and built by the legendary Robert Trent Jones in 1954, Coral Ridge was renovated in 2020 by his son Rees, one of the world’s most respected golf course architects. In addition to his original designs, the younger Jones is known as the Open Doctor for his restoration of U.S. Open sites such as The Country Club in Massachusetts, Baltusrol in New Jersey, Congressional in Maryland and Bethpage Black in New York.

“I think the players who have been coming here for years, they’re going to see a big difference,” said Coral Ridge Director of Golf Scott Fox. “The golf course is better than ever. It was a gem before, it’s a shinier gem now. I think his dad would be proud to see what his son did.”

Greens and fairways were raised using fill from ponds on the course so they can better handle heavy South Florida rains. The old irrigation system was replaced and drainage was improved. All the cart paths are concrete. Fairways were contoured, greens were restored to their original size or made slightly larger, a variety of new turfs were put in and the course’s 100 or so bunkers were rebuilt.

“The goal was basically to bring the course up to today’s standards,” Fox said. “In general, the course is probably playing about three shots tougher.”