Longest Title Match Has Quick Ending

SPRINGFIELD, N.J. —  With one dramatic, lightning-quick putt on the only hole of the day, Jeff Quinney won the U.S. Amateur, avoided a lifetime of “what ifs” and got a bonus--a golfing date next year with Tiger Woods.

Quinney, who blew a three-hole lead with three holes to play in regulation, won the weather-suspended 100th Amateur on Monday by sinking a 30-foot birdie putt on the 39th hole to defeat James Driscoll.

The 39 holes tied the U.S. Amateur record for the longest title match. Sam Urzetta beat Frank Stranahan in 39 holes in 1950.

Along with the title, Quinney of Arizona State earned exemptions for the U.S. Open and British Open and an invitation to the Masters next year. The U.S. Open is the big one. The reigning U.S. Amateur champion plays the first two rounds with the reigning U.S. Open champion--Woods.

“Hopefully, I can hit the ball,” Quinney said.

Once play resumed on an overcast, muggy morning, all it took to decide the championship was one hole, the par-three, 204-yard third on the Upper Course at Baltusrol Golf Club.

Driscoll, a recent Virginia graduate, hit first, and his five-iron went right and landed in the deep rough at the back of the green built on the side of a hill. “I never thought I could have hit it back over that green in a million years . . . at that time of day and with that weather,” he said.

Quinney debated a few seconds and hit an easy four-iron to the center of the green.

Then Driscoll’s soft downhill flop shot scooted 15 to 20 feet past the hole and almost off the green, meaning all Quinney needed was to get his left-to-right putt with a break of about 15 inches in close, and Driscoll would have to make a long one to extend the match.

“I would have been real disappointed if I would have lost,” Quinney said. “I would not have been able to show my face [as school] the way things went yesterday when I gave it back to him. I wouldn’t have been able to forgive myself.”

When he thinks back, Driscoll may wonder what would have happened if play had not been stopped because of the threat of bad weather on Sunday night. He had the momentum and seemingly the crowd, including about 100 relatives, on his side.

“It definitely was a different atmosphere this morning,” Driscoll said.