CORAL SPRINGS—
Every time it looked like Shannon Aubert might let the Dixie Women's Amateur slip away, she came up with golf shots that would make a touring pro proud.
The best one came on the first playoff hole Friday afternoon. Tied with Simin Feng after 72 holes at 8-under-par 280, Aubert was in a greenside bunker on the par-4 18th hole at Heron Bay Golf Club.
She blasted out nine feet past the pin. Feng, whose approach rolled into the fringe at the back of the green, had an easy chip that she tried to make and it rolled five feet past the hole.
Knowing she needed to save par to keep playing, Aubert made a perfect stroke and started walking to the hole before the putt even fell into the cup.
When Feng, who'd struggled with her putting all week, lipped out her par attempt, the 18-year-old high school senior from Port St. Lucie was the winner.
Aubert was the only one in the 112-player field to break par each day with rounds of 68-70-71-71. Feng, 18, who lives in Windermere and is a freshman on the golf team at Vanderbilt, shot 72-71-69-68. She had only three bogeys all week, all because of three-putts.
"My putting wasn't so pleasant this whole week," said Feng, who said she pushed her playoff par attempt. "I knew she was going to make her putt because she was making that kind of putt the whole day. I was actually going for the pin with my chip and it went a little too long."
Nicole Morales, 17, who is from South Salem, N.Y., but moved to Lake Mary this year to attend Lake Mary Prep and play more golf, was a shot behind in third at 281 after a 69 Friday.
Meghan Stasi, of Oakland Park, shot 73 to finish in a three-way tie for seventh at 287. Defending champ Isabelle Lendl, who was followed by her famous father, Ivan, was 10th at 289.
Aubert, who started playing golf when she was 8 and will attend Stanford on a golf scholarship, started the day with a three-shot lead over her playing partners Feng and Morales.
That lead vanished as Feng birdied Nos. 1, 2 and 4 and Morales birdied 1, 2 and 6. Aubert regained the lead when both her opponents bogeyed. When she bogeyed the par-5 9th and Morales birdied it, she was behind by a shot.
"On the first nine, I was hitting fairways and hitting greens and kept making pars," Aubert said. "I birdied 10, 12 and 13, so that really helped me."
Those birdies gave her a two-shot lead over Morales, who bogeyed 12 and birdied 13, and a three-shot lead over Feng, who birdied 14 to get within two shots.
Aubert made a tough up and down from a greenside bunker on the par-5 16th by sinking a 6-footer for par.
She faltered on the par-4 17th, hitting her drive left into a fairway bunker, then plugged her approach into a greenside bunker. She came out short onto the fringe and two-putted for a bogey.
"I think it was just nerves on that drive," Aubert said. "It was kind of good to make a bogey after that."
Morales had an excellent opportunity to tie Aubert on 17, but her 5-foot birdie putt rolled over the edge of the hole.
The excitement was far from over. On 18, Morales drove right, into a lateral hazard, and had to take a drop because her ball was embedded. She hit her third shot on the green, but took consolation in sinking the 33-foot putt for a par.
Aubert's second shot landed 20 feet from the pin. Feng, who had hit every green, saw her approach end up on the fringe about 50 feet from the pin. Using a 60-degree wedge, Feng chipped the ball into the hole for birdie.
"I saw her hit that chip and thought, That looks too good," said Aubert, who left her birdie putt short, setting up the sudden-death playoff.
"I'm very pleased to finish second," Feng said. "Being in a playoff, it's all I could ask for after being three shots behind with five holes to play.
"I'm pleased that I gave myself a chance."
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