Julia Matzat advanced over the top seed
on Thursday (YouTube photo)

With standing water on the greens of a number of holes and no end in site, tournament officials decided to suspend play at Coral Ridge Country Club.

"We didn't want to subject the players to more uncertainty," Coral Ridge director of golf Scott Fox told the Sun Sentinel, as he noted that players were spread out from the 2nd hole to the 10th.

Players will return Saturday morning to complete their matches, with the same pin positions and yardages will remain the same as Friday.

"We'll resume play no earlier than 9 a.m.," Fox told the Sun Sentinel. "The finals will be after. We'll give the players an hour break after they complete their first round."

Six of the matches are semifinals in the amateur championship, senior championship and senior first flight divisions. The matches in the amateur first flight and senior first and second flights are all finals.

JANUARY 21 STORY

FT. LAUDERDALE, Florida (Jan. 21, 2016) -- Wednesday’s trend of top seeds losing continued Thursday at Coral Ridge Country Club at the Jones/Doherty Championships. The top seed, LSU’s Carly Ray Goldstein, ran into the same buzzsaw that defeated here at last year’s tournament, 15-year old Julia Matzat.

Matzat once again came out on top, this year winning 5&3, but it was a match that almost didn't happen. She almost withdrew from the tournament earlier in the week, but decided to fight it.

"I am pretty proud of myself," Matzat told the Sun Sentinal, explaining how she felt ill but fought through it. "I think I have the flu, so I have just been taking Advil and NyQuil. I was going to withdraw [Tuesday], but I just told myself to do my best."

Friday’s semi-finals pit Matzat against Lake Worth’s Alexa Pano. Pano, the 5th seed, is the youngest in the field at 11 years old. She defeated #20 Susan Kirschenman on Thursday, 3&1, to advance in the upper portion of the bracket.

In the lower bracket, 15th seed Claire Fitzgerald continues to play well, so far beating seeds 18 and 2 on her way to a 2-up win over the No. 7 seed, Tara Joy Connelly. Sanford’s Fitzgerald will face the highest seed remaining in the Amateur division, LSU commit and third seed Kendall Griffin.

Matzat and Pano will face off at 8:16 on Friday with Fitzgerald and Griffin going off at 8:24, each hoping to reserve the 8:20 tee time for Saturday’s final round.

In the Senior division, top seed and defending champ Andrea Kraus withdrew from the tournament to return to Baltimore for a family emergency. That allowed 8th seed Lynne Cowan to advance by default, going against #21 Susan West. West defeated 29th-seed Alexandra Frazier, 4&3.

Past champion Kim Eaton moved on by going to extra holes for the second match in a row. She defeated Lisa Smego 1-up in 20 holes. Eaton will face Gigi Higgins, a 4&3 winner over Alison Reifers, in the semi finals on Friday.

View results for Jones/Doherty Women's Amateur