After winning the LPGA Legends Pro-Am at Country Club of Roswell the first two years the tournament was played, Alicia Dibos very nearly pulled off a three-peat.
Dibos shot a 3-under 68 in the one-day event, and for the second straight year found herself in a playoff. This time, the results were reversed. Barb Moxness carded a pair of birdies on the par-5 18th to win on the second extra hole.
“It’s hard to say, but it feels like I won three in a row,” Dibos said. “I lost the playoff, but I defended really well. I congratulate Barb. She played the two playoff holes impeccably.”
Moxness reached the 18th in two both times in the playoff, having good looks at eagle on each occasion. Dibos also birdied the 18th the first time around, but hit her second in the long bunker short and right of the green and was unable to get up and down on the second extra hole.
It was just the second Legends victory for Moxness, with her first win coming 10 years ago in Indiana. Moxness enjoyed a short but relatively successful career on the LPGA Tour in the late 1970s and early 1980s before leaving the tour to be a stay-at-home mom.
Moxness has worked as an instructor since the mid-1980s and resumed her career when the Legends Tour was launched in 2000. She ranks among the top 10 in the tour’s career money list.
“I spent 15 years at home with my kids and now I’m 61 and playing with Laura Davies and Rosie Jones and Pat Bradley,” Moxness said. “This is very gratifying to me to be competing with them at my age. It’s really special.”
The two players arrived at their scores of 3-under 68 in different fashion. Moxness began on the back nine and enjoyed her highlight of the day early in the round when she holed her third shot from the fairway for eagle on the par-5 13th. She also added a birdie on the difficult par-4 17th hole, and got to 4-under on her round with back-to-back birdies on the fifth, another difficult par 4, and the par-5 sixth.
Moxness bogeyed the par-3 seventh to card a 68, taking the lead in the clubhouse from Val Skinner and Liselotte Neumann, who both shot 70.
Dibos played in the final pairing off the first tee, and started fast with three birdies on the first four holes around a bogey at the par-3 second. Bogeys at 7 and 8 left her at even par at the turn, but she ran off another string of birdies early on the back nine.
Birdies at 10, 12 and 13 got Dibos to 3-under for the round, and she took the lead with a birdie at the short, par-3 16th. But Dibos missed a par putt of around five feet on the 17th, and missed a birdie putt of similar length at the 18th, sending the tournament to a playoff.
“I had a chance to win at 18, but I missed a short putt after missing one at 17,” Dibos said. “That’s tough.”
Moxness said she also missed a few short putts, but otherwise “I putted really well. I made some good par putts to keep the round going.”
In the playoff, Moxness twice reached the green on the downhill 18th in two with low, running 3-woods that stopped within eagle range. Although she did not hole either putt, the first birdie kept the playoff going and the second one won it.
Moxness earned $15,000 for her victory, with Dibos taking home $9,600. Skinner and Neumann tied for 3rd at 70 with tournament host and Atlanta resident Rosie Jones, who finished among the leaders in the Legends Pro-Am at Country Club of Roswell for the third straight year.
Jones had three birdies and two bogeys on her round, with Neumann battling back from a triple bogey on the par-4 fourth. She played her final 11 holes in 4-under.