Kelli Kuehne

Kelli Kuehne of McKinney, Texas, joined JoAnne Carner as the only other player to follow a victory in the Girls' Junior one year with a Women's Amateur title the next by defeating Australia's Anne Marie Knight in the 36-hole final match by a 4-and 3-margin.

The Country Club, located in Brookline, Mass., and one of the USGA's founding clubs, served as the host site this year.

Kuehne started her collegiate career last fall at the University of Texas. The 24-year-old Knight, meanwhile, had quit her job in Adelaide to take a 10-week vacation in the U.S. that would allow her to test her game against the top women amateurs in the world.

The first 18 holes of the final match were closely contested. The players alternated the last seven holes of the morning, with Kuehne holding a 1-up lead at lunch.

It stood that way until the 21st hole, when Knight hit a perfect drive into the heart of the fairway while Kuehne pushed her tee shot far right. The ball finally came to rest some 40 yards above the sloping fairway, just a few paces from the adjacent seventh green. A stand of trees seemingly blocked any kind of direct path back toward the third green.

But Kuehne opted to gamble and used her favorite club, a 6-iron, to send her ball whistling through the branches back to the fairway, only 77 yards from the hole. She proceeded to hit her approach to nine feet and make her birdie putt, somehow winning the hole for a 2-up lead.

Knight managed to trim the margin at the 26th hole, but Kuehne won the next two holes to take a commanding lead and emerge victorious.