It was a pretty good week at Coral Ridge Country Club in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. for Suzi Spotleson, the reigning three-time Women’s Golf Association of Philadelphia Match Play Championship’s Senior division winner.
Spotleson lists Scottsdale, Ariz. as her hometown these days. In the past, Spotleson was always a Canton, Ohio resident. But she always seems to show up in the Philadelphia area, playing out of the RiverCrest Golf Club & Preserve, when it’s time for the WGAP’s biggest event.
Spotleson headed south for some warmth and competition and reached the final in the Senior division of the 93rd Ione D. Jones/Doherty Amateur Championship Friday before falling to Sue Cohn of Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., who claimed a 1-up decision.
The Jones/Doherty is one of the last vestiges of what once was known as the Orange Blossom Tour, a collection of amateur tournaments for women in South Florida in the winter.
For the second year in a row, two of the biggest events on what’s left of the Orange Blossom Tour, the Jones/Doherty and the South Atlantic Women’s Amateur Championship, The Sally for short, at Oceanside Country Club up Florida’s East Coast in Ormond Beach, Fla., overlapped last week.
I’ll get to The Sally, which was celebrating the 100th anniversary of its first playing, after I finish up with this post on the Jones/Doherty.
Both events draw an interesting mix of college players, mid-ams and junior players for the Amateur divisions and, certainly in the case of the Jones/Doherty, some of the best senior players in the country for the Senior divisions.
The Sally, a 72-hole stroke-play event, seems to be drawing more of the college kids these days, but there were some pretty good players teeing it up last week in the Jones/Doherty, a match-play test.
The winner of the Amateur division’s Championship Flight at Cedar Ridge last week, Anna Ritter, a senior on the golf team at Illinois in the Big Ten from New Albany, Ohio, couldn’t say enough nice things about the event after competing in the Jones/Doherty for the fourth straight January.
The 21-year-old Ritter claimed a 4 and 3 victory in the Amateur division’s Championship flight over Gabriella Albert, a freshman on the Georgia golf team in the Southeastern Conference from Delray Beach, Fla. who was the co-medalist in qualifying last Monday.
More on the Amateur division later.
As I checked in on the Senior division during the week, I wasn’t surprised to see Spotleson playing well.
An outfielder on a Northwestern softball team that played in the 1986 College Softball World Series, Spotleson seems to be getting better with age.
She claimed medalist honors in qualifying last Monday with a sparkling 1-under 71 over a Coral Ridge layout that played to 5,594 yards for the seniors. The Jones/Doherty often catches a cold front that reaches South Florida in January, but it sounds like the 2026 edition was blessed with some Chamber of Commerce weather this week.
Spotleson made birdies at the fifth, eighth and 10th holes before stumbling with a double bogey at 11. She finished up her round with a birdie at the 16th and a bogey at 17, but still managed to get it in in red figures. She had three 2s on her card as her birdies at the fifth, eighth and 16th holes all came on par-3s.
Cohn shared second place in qualifying with Adrienne MacLean of Tequesta, Fla. as each matched par with a 72.
Not a huge surprise to see Spotleson and Cohn in the final at Cedar Ridger as both earned spots in the match-play bracket in last September’s U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur Championship at the Omni Homestead Resort’s Cascades Course in Hot Springs, Va., Spotleson reaching the quarterfinals while Cohn fell in the opening round.
Cohn three-putted the first hole in the final to fall behind, but quickly rebounded with a birdie at the second hole to square the match.
Cohn built a 2-up lead following the 14th hole, but Spotleson made a birdie at 17 to send the match to the last at Coral Ridge. Spotleson couldn’t get a 30-foot birdie putt to fall at the 18th hole and Cohn made a two-putt par to secure the 1-up victory.
“The main thing I found this week is golf is a hell of a lot of fun,” Spotleson, who played 1-under par golf on Coral Ridge’s incoming nine, told Gary Gurreri, who posted writeups on the Jones/Doherty website all week. “There’s hope and hopefully working with a pro when I get home will sharpen me up for the season.”
Cohn and MacLean, with whom Cohn had shared second place in qualifying, met up in Thursday afternoon’s semifinals with Cohn reaching the final with a 3 and 2 victory.
Earlier Thursday, Cohn claimed a 4 and 3 victory over Stephenie Harris, a Furlong, Bucks County resident who is playing out of Philadelphia Cricket Club these days, in the quarterfinals.
Harris advanced out of a Golf Association of Philadelphia-administered qualifier at Gulph Mills Golf Club last summer, earning a trip to the U.S. Senior Women’s Open at San Diego Country Club in Chula Vista, Calif.
In Wednesday’s round of 16, Cohn earned a 4 and 3 victory over Wendi Christensen of Coral Springs, Fla.
In Thursday morning’s quarterfinals, MacLean reached the semifinals by outlasting Mary Jane Hiestand, a South Florida legend, on the 19th hole. Hiestand, quite memorably, reached the final of the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship at Champions Golf Club in Houston, Texas in 2017 at age 58.
My rooting interest in the Senior division, Tara Joy-Connelly of Middleborough, Mass, fell to Hiestand, 5 and 3, in Wednesday’s round of 16.
Got a chance to caddy for Joy-Connelly in the U.S. Women’s Mid-Am at Stonewall’s North Course in 2023 and she survived a playoff to earn a spot in the match-play bracket. Joy-Connelly captured the title in the Jones/Doherty Senior two Januarys ago.
Spotleson pulled out a 1-up decision over Kay Daniel of Lexington, La. in her semifinal match Thursday afternoon.
Spotleson reached the semifinals earlier in the day Thursday in another tight match as she edged Alice De Roquemaurel of Miami, 1-up. De Roquemaurel qualified for last summer’s U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur at the Homestead Resort as a senior “rookie.”
Spotleson faced a tough customer in a round-of-16 match Wednesday, but claimed a 3 and 2 victory over Virginia Derby Grimes of Auburn, Ala., a member of three winning U.S. Curtis Cup teams and the captain of a really talented 2018 U.S. Curtis Cup team that cruised to a victory over Great Britain & Ireland at Quaker Ridge Golf Club in Scarsdale, N.Y.
It was a strictly WGAP affair in Tuesday’s opening round of match play for Spotleson as she rolled to a 7 and 6 victory over Cedarbrook Country Club’s Diane Cardano-Casacio, the Pennsylvania Golf Association’s Super-Senior Player of the Year in 2025.
Such was the depth of talent among the senior players at Coral Ridge that the winner of last summer’s U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur at the Homestead Resort and the defending Jones/Doherty Senior champion, Dawn Woodard of Greenville, S.C., was knocked out in the round of 16 by Daniel, who pulled out a 2-up victory.
In the Senior division’s First Flight final Friday, Claudia Ramirez of Alamo Heights, Texas earned a 1-up victory over Gigi Higgins of Cape Coral, Fla. to claim top honors in the flight.
Ramirez and Higgins both show up in the match-play bracket in September’s U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur at the Homestead Resort. Ramirez fell in the first round to eventual runnerup Sue Wooster of Australia and Higgins reached the second round, where she was knocked out by three-time U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur champion Lara Tennant of Portland, Ore.
In Thursday’s Senior division Second Flight final, Kelly Green of Denver, Colo. edged Anna Schultz of Heath, Texas, 1-up, to take top honors in the flight.
Ritter had reached the semifinals in the Jones/Doherty Amateur division’s Championship Flight a year ago and she would not be denied in her final appearance at Coral Ridge, which played to 6,300 yards for the Amateur division.
After winning the first hole of the final against Albert, Ritter rattled off three wins in a row at four, five and six and never let Albert get back in the match.
A soccer and softball player as a youngster, Ritter, who plans to give professional golf a shot, has gotten pretty good at this golf thing.
“I fell in love with golf,” Ritter told Carreri of the Jones/Doherty website. “It became my passion because you can just constantly get better, no matter how good you are, and so I just want to keep doing that.
“I love match play because of the mental resilience it takes. This course is amazing and everyone here is amazing. It is one of my favorite tournaments.”
Ritter reached the final with a hard-fought 2-up victory over Abra Richmond, a sophomore on the Princeton golf team in the Ivy League from Glendale, Calif., in Thursday afternoon’s semifinals.
Earlier in the day, Ritter knocked off another Georgia Bulldog with a 3 and 2 verdict over Maria Eidhagen Harrouch, a graduate student from Sweden who transferred to Athens from Colorado, in the quarterfinals.
In Wednesday’s round of 16, Ritter earned a 3 and 2 victory over Erin Mullin of Clifton, Va.
Ritter opened her march through the match-play bracket by cruising to a 6 and 5 decision over Maggie Carlson, a freshman at Kentucky in the SEC from Inverness, Ill., in an opening-round match Tuesday.
Albert reached the final with a 4 and 3 victory over Ellie Yeazell, a senior at Division II power Findlay from West Chester, Ohio, in Thursday afternoon’s semifinals. Yeazell earned a trip to the U.S. Women’s Amateur at the Bandon Dunes Resort in Oregon last summer, but was unable to claim a spot in the match-play bracket.
Earlier Thursday, Albert knocked off the local favorite, Ashley Balcom, a 15-year-old phenom who has won the women’s club championship at Coral Ridge three straight times, 5 and 4, in the quarterfinals.
Albert defeated Samantha Galantini, a junior on the Quinnipiac golf team from West Orange, N.J., 5 and 4, in a round-of-16 match Wednesday.
Albert had a bumpy start on her road to the final in Tuesday’s opening round as she found herself 3-down to Ana Hernandez, a youngster from Doral, Fla., after nine holes before rallying to earn a 3 and 1 decision.
It was during the Jones/Doherty three years ago that the USGA announced that Meghan Stasi, the South Jersey native who has spent the last couple of decades or so in the Fort Lauderdale area, would be the captain of the U.S. Curtis Cup team in 2024 at Sunningdale Golf Club in Berkshire, England.
Stasi was Meghan Bolger when she won the WGAP Match Play Championship seven straight times from 1999 to 2005 playing out of Tavistock Country Club. She would go on to win the U.S. Women’s Mid-Am four times.
It was at Coral Ridge where Stasi met Danny Stasi, chief cook and bottle washer of Shuck n Dive, a cajun-style restaurant in Fort Lauderdale. Danny Stasi would propose to Meghan on the Swilcan Bridge on the 18th hole at the Old Course at St. Andrews in 2008 when Meghan was representing the United States in the Curtis Cup Match.
Meghan Stasi has won the Amateur division’s Championship Flight in the Jones/Doherty twice and she was at Coral Ridge competing, as always.
Stasi lost in Wednesday’s round of 16, dropping a tough 1-up decision to Aliya Liberatore of Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.
Liberatore, who shared medalist honors in qualifying with Albert, the eventual runnerup, by matching par with a 72 was a junior standout who was recruited by Missouri, but after a semester in the Midwest, she decided to come home to play at South Florida in Tampa.
Liberatore was unaware of the glittering match-play credentials of her opponent, but figured out she was up against a tough customer when Stasi, who had been 2-down going to the 15th tee, rattled off back-to-back birdies to get back to even.
Liberatore holed a 20-foot birdie putt on the 17th hole to take a 1-up lead to the finishing hole. Stasi nearly sent the match to extra holes, but her 15-foot birdie try at the 18th hole refused to fall.
Liberatore fell to Princeton’s Richmond, 3 and 1, in Thursday morning’s quarterfinals.
Stasi’s U.S. team fell, 10.5-9.5, to GB&I in the Curtis Cup Match at Sunningdale, but she’s going to get another crack at it this year.
Stasi will tee it up with a dozen candidates for this year’s U.S. team in a couple of weeks at Bel-Air Country Club, the George C. Thomas gem in Los Angeles that will be the site of the Curtis Cup Match in June.
Four members of Stasi’s 2024 U.S. team will be among the players auditioning for a spot on this year’s team at Bel-Air.
Another casualty in the round of 16 in the Amateur division’s Championship flight was Taylor Oberparleiter, who splits her time between Jupiter, Fla. and South Jersey.
Oberparleiter, winner of GAP’s inaugural Women’s Championship during a summer sojourn in South Jersey in 2022 at Bala Golf Club, played college golf at Limestone and Georgia Southern.
Oberparleiter shared second place in qualifying with Ritter, the eventual champion, and Findlay’s Ellie Yeazell with a 1-over 73,
Oberparleiter dropped a 3 and 1 decision to Kamryn Shannon, a senior on the Ferris State golf team from Jackson, Mich. who led the Bulldogs to a berth in the NCAA Division II Championship last spring.
Ellie Yeazell pulled out a 2 and 1 victory over Shannon in Thursday morning’s quarterfinals.
In Friday’s First Flight final, Caroline Patterson, a senior on the North Carolina Asheville golf team in the Big South Conference from Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., defeated Lisa Copeland of Naperville, Ill., 3 and 2, to take top honors in the flight.
Copeland will follow in Ritter’s footsteps and join the program at Illinois in the Big Ten at the end of this summer.
Patterson claimed a 2 and 1 decision over Ellie Yeazell’s younger sister Clare in Thursday’s First Flight semifinals to reach the final. Copeland edged Ariana Silva, 1-up, in the other First Flight semifinal.
Clare Yeazell announced last month that she will join the program at Toledo in the Mid-American Conference after spending the first part of her college career at Bowling Green. Silva is a freshman on the Kennesaw State golf team in Conference USA from Sunrise, Fla.
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