Alex Pano beats Marisa Messana to win Jones/Doherty Championship

FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida: A week after a near-miss at the South Atlantic Women's Amateur, Alexa Pano redeemed herself with a head-to-head victory over Marisa Messana in the championship match of the Ione D. Jones/Doherty Championship at Coral Ridge Country Club. 
Pano, who won this tournament in 2017 as a 12-year-old, defeated Messana, a soon-to-be-pro who grew up in Fort Lauderdale before going on to a stand-out career at Clemson University, on the 18th hole. The Jones Doherty victory marks Pano’s second tournament title in the past month. She also won the Dixie Women’s Amateur to end December.
Messana had taken down four-time US Women’s Mid-Amateur champion Meghan Stasi at Coral Ridge Country Club in a battle that went to the 18th hole. Messana eventually won by two holes.
In the senior championship, Lisa Schlesinger defeated Terrill Samuel, 5 and 3. Samuel was a semi-finalist at the U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur, while Schlesinger won the 2008, 2009 and 2016 Maryland Women’s Mid-Amateur Championships and was the medallist in the 2011 and 2012 U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur.

The winner in the senior first flight was equally notable. M J Hiestand, winner of the Florida Women’s Senior Open and runner-up at the 2017 US Women’s Mid-Amateur, defeated Andrea Kraus 5 and 4.