April 25, 2003

Tamarac, FL - Fresh off of a third place finish at the 2003 Atlantic Sun Women's Golf Championship, Florida Atlantic University's Anne Fraser shook off a sluggish start to turn back the charge of a former LPGA player and win her first Broward County Women's Amateur Championship on Thursday at Woodmont Country Club.

Fraser, a Deefield Beach, FL, native, closed strong and shot a 1-over-par 73 on the Cypress Course, holding off Weston's Diane Lang in the 54-hole event. Fraser finished at 4-over 220, three shots better than Lang, 48, a former professional reinstated as an amateur.

"It means a lot to me," said Fraser, who finished third last year. "This is something I wanted to win before I turned pro, ever since I was a freshman in high school, I've been trying to win this. Now that I finally did, it feels good."

With a four-shot lead on Lang when the round started, Fraser started shakily bogeying her first two holes while Lang birdied the first. Fraser finished the front nine 2 over par, allowing Lang to move within two strokes.

"It was pretty close," Fraser said. "I just knew I needed to play better than I did in the first two [holes]."

Lang, who shot 1 under on the front side, couldn't close the gap. Fraser hit a lob wedge from trouble at the 10th to a foot from the pin and made birdie while Lang bogeyed to push Fraser's lead back to four shots.

"That was the match," said Lang, who played the LPGA in 1984 and regained her amateur status in '90.

Fraser won in her final appearance in the county amateur. She plans to turn professional after the U.S. Women's Amateur this summer and play the LPGA Qualifying Tournament in the fall. Ellen Dunne, a teammate of Fraser's at Cardinal Gibbons high school, won the county championship last year and later turned pro.