Oberparleiter and Pano (Credit Jones/Doherty)
Heading into the final match of the 89th Jones/Doherty Women’s & Senior Women’s Amateur Championship at Coral Ridge Country Club in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. against three-time winner
Alexa Pano, 16-year-old
Brooke Oberparleiter met the moment by focusing on her process and her recent work on her putting to deliver one of the best rounds of her career, with Pano conceding on the 18th hole for a 2-up victory.
“In the end,” Oberparleiter told AmateurGolf.com over email, “you can only control what you’re doing, not what your opponent is doing.”
Oberparleiter and her coach, Jeff Leishman, worked on a drill heading up to the Jones/Doherty of picking a putt on a practice green and building the putt to hole on a line Oberparleiter felt the putt needed to go in with multiple golf balls. They worked up to five, with consistent improvement leading into the tournament.
“Doing this drill has helped me create better pictures out on the golf course,” Oberparleiter said, “so that I can make confident strokes.”
That improved stroke delivered Oberparlieter a litany of birdie opportunities, posting four of them on the front nine to pressure Pano, who told the Palm Beach Post she plans to play on the Symetra Tour, the LPGA Tour’s developmental tour, as an amateur this upcoming season.
Oberparlieter made yet another birdie on the 14th to move two up with four to play, her most significant shot of the day Friday, letting her relax and continue playing golf to finish the victory.
“I know that to take my game to the next level my putting has to improve,” Oberparlieter said. “My work really started to show up in this event and definitely paid off for this final match.”
It’s Oberparleiter’s second victory in the last six months, along with the AJGA’s Imperial Headwear Junior Classic last August.
Kim Keyer-Scott won the senior division 4&3 over Susan Curtin, who played in the U.S. Senior Women's Open. It's another trophy added to Keyer-Scott's mantle of recent Florida senior amateur golf dominance. Keyer-Scott won the Women’s Senior Open and the Florida State Golf Association’s Women’s Senior Amateur in 2021.
“Once I got up,” Keyer-Scott told the
Palm Beach Post, “all I was doing was trying to hit greens and make her make putts. She almost made some putts. Unfortunately, she hit a lot of edges."
ABOUT THE
Jones/Doherty Women's Amateur
The third event on the "Orange Blossom" circuit of
ladies events in Florida, with an illustrious list of past
champions
including Patty Berg, JoAnne Carner, Babe Zaharias
and
Marlene Stewart Streit, Natalie Gulbis, Michelle
McGann, Vicki
Goetze, Charley Hull and Lexi Thompson.
Tournament
consists of two divisions (Women's and Senior
Women's) playing an 18-hole qualifying for
match play flights in each division as follows:
Championship Flight of 16, First Flight of 16, Second
Flight
of 8.
View Complete Tournament Information