Amanda Dixon of Hillsboro brushed aside two frustrating finishes in the Dayton Women’s Amateur Match Play championship Friday by defeating Centerville’s Molly Ginger, 2 and 1, to win the 2011 title at Wildwood Golf Club in Middletown.

The 21-year-old Dixon was not the same golfer who took a 9 and 8 beating from Ginger in the 2009 championship match at Yankee Trace and lost to Kathleen Glavin by the same margin in last year’s final at Beavercreek.

This time she bounced back with clutch putts every time she needed them in a well-played, 35-hole tug-of-war, much of which was played in rain.

“She made every putt,” Ginger said after the match.

It was sweet revenge for Dixon, who on Monday lost the Dayton Amateur Stroke Play crown to Ginger in a playoff. Ginger is a recent graduate of Marshall University.

Dixon, who will be a senior at Northwestern Oklahoma State University, was 4-up during the morning round only to see the 22-year-old Ginger tie the match before they took a lunch break.

In the afternoon, Dixon went 1 up with a birdie at the ninth hole, but she lost the 10th to Ginger’s par and the match was all square until Ginger made a fatal driving mistake on No. 15 – Wildwood’s  No. 1 handicap hole for women

Ginger’s drive sliced into the woods and was unplayable, costing her a stroke, and Dixon won the pivotal hole with a par. They halved the 16^th, and Dixon won the 17^th after Ginger pulled her approach shot into a tree 40 yards short of the green and was unable to match Dixon’s par.

Why was Friday’s match so different from those frustrating finals in 2009 and 2010?

“I’m more experienced in match play, and I think my game has matured overall,” Dixon said, adding, “Today the putts were falling.”

Samantha Boyer, a Miami University student from Hamilton, won the consolation title by defeating Cynthia Pratt, 4 and 3, in an 18-hole match.

Article courtesy of Bucky Albers