It took two extra holes this time, but Alicia Dibos repeated as winner of the LPGA Legends Pro-Am Challenge, played at Country Club of Roswell as part of the Legends Collegiate Invitational.
Dibos shot 1-under 70 to tie five-time Legends winner Nancy Scranton. The two players returned to the par-5 18th hole at CC of Roswell, which both players bogeyed in regulation to deny them an outright victory.
After both parred the first extra hole, they headed back to the 18th tee, with Dibos emerging as winner when Scranton bogeyed the hole for a second time.
The victory was worth $15,000 for Dibos, who has scored both her Legends titles on the narrow and frequently perilous CC of Roswell layout. Scranton, one of the tour’s most successful players, took home $12,000.
Five players tied for 3rd at even par 71, including tournament host and Atlanta resident Rosie Jones. Also tying for 3rd were Hall of Famer Betsy King, Sherri Steinhauer, Laurie Rinker and Jenny Lidback, like Jones an Atlanta resident.
Hall of Famer Pat Bradley was 8th at 72.
The Judson Collegiate winner was recent Tulane graduate Maribel Lopez Porras, who shot 1-over 214 for 54 holes to finish four ahead of the runner-up, Louisville’s Laura Restrepo. Alabama’s Hannah Collier was 3rd at 219 and was the only other player within 10 shots of the winner.
The one-day Legends Pro-Am was considerably closer, with a number of players having opportunities to win. Dibos shot 68 last year to win by one Steinhauer, with Jones 3rd at 70.
“This is awesome,” Dibos said after her victory. “I won last year and won again this year.”
Dibos, a non-winner in her 10 years on the LPGA Tour, said a second straight victory at CC of Roswell “was in my mind. It’s nice to win back-to-back.”
A birdie on the opening hole got Dibos off to a successful start, and she ran off three birdies in eight holes, the last two in succession at 11 and 12 to get to 3-under. But she bogeyed both par 5s on the back nine, missing the green at the 18th after hitting her second shot into the rough on the hill left of the fairway.
Scranton shook off a double bogey on the par-4 fifth, as she also scored back-to-back birdies on 11 and 12. A birdie at 15 got Scranton to 2-under, but her third shot on 18 from a similar spot to that of Dibos scooted through the green into the lake just beyond the putting surface. She managed to save bogey with a deft chip to finish at 1-under, posting her score several groups before Dibos concluded her round.
After both players parred the first playoff hole, Scranton missed the 18th green with her third short and missed a short par putt, enabling Dibos to claim the victory with a two-putt par.
Dibos would have won in regulation with a par at 18, and said she put her finishing bogey “out of my mind” as she returned to the 18th tee for the playoff. She said she “did not know how I stood” throughout the round, and “did not know I had to make that par putt to win.”
Jones came up just short for the second straight year, with a double bogey at the par-4 17th costing her a chance to win outright or get into a playoff. To that point, Jones had bogeyed two of the easier holes on the course – the par-4 first and par-5 13th, while carding birdies on two of the tougher holes – the dangerous par-5 sixth and par-4 14th, along with the short par-3 16th.
But she drew a tough lie in the front greenside bunker on 17 and barely got it out of the sand, and was unable to get up and down from just off the green. She birdied the 18th to finish one out of the playoff.
King, who started on the back nine, made the turn in 3-under after a birdie at the 18th. But she suffered double bogeys on both par 3s on the front nine, with a birdie at the eighth getting her back to even par.
A bogey at the 17th dropped Steinhauer to even par, and was one of three bogeys she took on the back nine after shooting 2-under on the front. Rinker had five birdies on her card, including three on the back nine, but took a double bogey on the 14th and a bogey on the 17th, which offset a birdie on the finishing hole.
Lidback, one of two contenders with nephews on the PGA Tour, was the first player to shoot 71, finishing at even par after a birdie at the 18th. Lidback, who is Roberto Castro’s aunt, had a lengthy wait before Scranton closed out her 70 to end Lidback’s hopes of a playoff.
In addition to Jones and Lidback, there were a number of players in the Legends field who are current or former Georgia residents. Tifton native Nanci Bowen tied for 11th at 74, with Peachtree City’s Cindy Schreyer T18 at 75. Luciana Bemvenuti, an assistant at CC of Roswell and a former member of the Georgia women’s golf team along with Bowen and Schreyer, shot a 77, with long-time Albany resident and Hall of Famer Nancy Lopez lending her support to the event and shooting an 81.
The college players in the field competed along side the LPGA Legends in the first round before having the tournament to themselves the final two days.
Collier and Kennesaw State golfer Ket Preamchuen shared the opening round lead at 72, but Porras took control after a 67 the next day gave her a 3-shot lead over Collier at even par. A final round 72 gave Porras a 4-stroke margin over Restrepo, whose closing 70 was the lone sub-par score the final day.
Preamchuen tied for 4th at 224, with Alpharetta’s Amira Alexander, a member of the UGA women’s team, T6 at 226 after a final round 72. Bonaire’s Lacey Fears, who plays at Mercer, tied for 9th at 228, with Alpharetta’s Kaitlin Voll of Ole Miss T13 at 229. Mercer signee Haley Austin of McDonough was 20th at 232, with Louisville signee Emily Kurey of Alpharetta 24th at 238.
Roswell’s Lauren Judson, who started the tournament to honor her late parents, tied for 29th at 241. Judson plays on the golf team at Southern Mississippi.