Tiffany Joh

Tiffany Joh, 19, of San Diego, Calif., played 11-under-par golf over 31 holes, with the usual match-play concessions, in defeating 14-year-old Kimberly Kim of Hilo, Hawaii, 6 and 5, to win the 2006 U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links Championship at Walking Stick Golf Course in Pueblo, Colo.

Joh's brilliant play was punctuated with a hole-out from the fairway for an eagle 2 at the par-4 11th hole, the 29th hole of the match. She went 6 up at that point and two holes later she closed out the match with a 6-foot birdie putt to halve the 31st hole of the scheduled 36-hole final.

Kim, meanwhile, was trying to become the second-youngest champion in WAPL history behind fellow Hawaiian Michelle Wie, who won as a 13-year-old in 2003.

Joh ended a three-year skein of under-18 WAPL champions that started with Wie and continued with 15-year-old Ya-Ni Tseng (2004) and 17-year-old Eun Jung Lee (2005).

"Honestly, I can't even really believe it yet," said Joh, who was a first-team National Golf Coaches Association AllAmerica as a freshman in 2006 at UCLA. "I'm just kind of going to like sit here and let it soak in. I couldn't tell you [how it feels] because in my mind, it doesn't even feel like I've won yet."

Coming into the final, Kim had not trailed in any of her previous five matches and had played just 67 holes, including a 9-and-7 quarterfinal victory over stroke-play co-medalist Mina Harigae of Monterey, Calif., but she lost the second hole to a double bogey. She eventually would take a 1-up lead after nine holes with a chip-in for eagle at the par-5 fifth and a 10-foot birdie putt at the ninth. But Joh squared the match at 10 with a par, then took the lead for good with back-to-back birdies at 14 and 15 (30-footer and a conceded 2-footer, respectively).

After lunch, Joh shifted into high gear, winning four consecutive holes with birdies starting at the 20th, when she knocked her approach shot 6 feet below the hole. Kim had chances to halve with birdies at holes 21 and 22, only to miss putts inside 10 feet.

Kim would trim the margin to 4 up at the turn, chipping in for birdie at the 23rd and driving the 326-yard, downhill, par-4 27th hole, and two-putting for a birdie. But the momentum was short-lived with a three-putt at the 28th - she missed a 5-footer for par - and Joh's eagle at 29.

"When I went to 10, I thought I had a chance and then I three-putted and that turned everything around," said Kim. "And she kept playing really, really well."

The brilliance was capped when Joh's 110-yard approach with a 52-degree wedge spun left and trickled into the front left hole location, drawing a huge cheer from the 200 spectators.

"When I first saw it disappear, I was like ... `Don't go starting running around the golf course looking like a fool,' " said Joh, who had never advanced past the second round in any of her previous USGA-championship appearances. "I just felt super, super blessed and actually just on the side of No. 12 green (30th of match), I kneeled down and I seriously just made a little prayer and was like, `Thank you, Lord. That was, seriously, a gift from heaven.' "

Kim hardly had time to digest the defeat as she was one of five competitors in the 2006 WAPL who qualified for the U.S. Women's Open at Newport (R.I.) Country Club that started four days after the WAPL final.

"I think I have like a three-day break the rest of the summer," said Kim. "I am a little tired and wish I had a little break. I definitely have had a good start this summer. I hope that ... I can keep it going.

"[My caddie/sister] told me everything happens for a reason, so even if I lost today, it must have been for some reason. She just played excellent golf."

Joh added her name to an impressive list of WAPL champions, including Wie, Jill McGill, Candie Kung, Danielle Ammaccapane and Pearl Sinn.

"Coming into this tournament, I really didn't have too much confidence in my game," said Joh. "And this definitely gave me a little bit of a boost. When you go from thinking that you might have a chance of missing the cut to like winning the tournament, you are like, whoa, hold on a second, rewind.

"It just blows me away on everything that's happened this week."