Catherine Cartwright

Catherine Cartwright, 17, of Bonita Springs, Fla., became the youngest champion in the history of the U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links Championship when she defeated Russamee Gulyanamitta, 3 and 1, at the 6,146-yard par 72 Legacy Golf Links in Aberdeen, N.C.

"I was shaking, actually," Cartwright said of winning the match. "I was in shock. Oh, my gosh, I won one."

Cartwright, a high school senior, and Gulyanamitta, who arrived in the United States from Bangkok, Thailand, one month before the championship, played some loose shots in the match but rallied to provide a close contest.

The two players had tied as co-medalists in stroke-play qualifying, shooting 4-under-par scores of 140 over 36 holes. To get to the final, Cartwright eased through her morning semifinal match, defeating Cindy Lee, Tempe, Ariz., 4 and 3. Gulyanamitta defeated Jamie Vannoy, Carrollton, Texas, 5 and 4.

In their final match encounter, Cartwright won the third hole with a par to go 1 up. Gulyanamitta drove into the rough on the 4th and 6th holes, losing both to pars.

She picked up a hole at the par-three 5th when Cartwright pulled her iron shot into a water hazard, then won the 7th with a birdie and evened the match at the 8th with a par when Cartwright three-putted.

Gulyanamitta moved ahead for the first time when she birdied the 12th hole and Cartwright bogeyed. But Cartwright birdied two of the next three holes to take a 1-up lead, then won the 16th and 17th with pars to close out the match.

Cartwright became the youngest champion in history, edging Lori Castillo, who was 18 when she won the 1979 U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links.

With the victory, Cartwright gained an exemption to play in the U.S. Girls' Junior Championship and an exemption into the 2000 U.S. Women's Amateur Championship.

The Women's Amateur Public Links featured another record when Michelle Wie, Honolulu, Hawaii, qualified for match play with stroke-play qualifying scores of 74-76-150. At the age of 10, Wie became the youngest competitor ever to qualify for a USGA women's amateur championship.

In the team competition, Becky Lucidi of Fallbrook, Calif., (74-77-151), Angle Yoon of San Diego, Calif., (75-69-144), and Gulyanamitta of Thailand, (71-69-140), representing Murrieta, Calif., sailed past the second-place Miami, Fla., team. In counting the best two scores for each day of stroke play, the team had a total of 283, seven strokes ahead of the team from Miami. Twenty-nine teams were represented.