Woods Wins Third Junior

Eldrick (Tiger) Woods, 17, of Cypress, Calif., concluded the most celebrated career in junior gold by winning his third consecutive U.S. Junior Amateur Championship.

Woods made a stunning rally over the last two holes of the final at Waverly Country Club, in Portland, Ore., birdieing both to send the match against Ryan Armour, 17, of Silver Lake, Ohio, into extra holes. Woods won with a par on the 19th hole.

Woods was the youngest Junior Amateur champion when he won in 1991 at age 15 and in 1992 he successfully defended his title to become the only multiple winner of the championship. In four years of competition in the Junior Amateur Woods recorded a remarkable 22-1 match play recorrd capped with an 18-match winning streak.

The final was all square after 14 holes, but Armour made a 40-foot birdie putt at No. 15 and took the 16th when Woods three-putted from 40 feet. Woods then holed a 7-foot birdie putt on the par-4 17th and made a remarkable up-and-own from a bunker at the par-5 18th, dropping a 10-foot birdie putt to force extra holes.

The medalist was 16-year-old Ted Oh, of Torrance, Calif., who earlier in the summer had survived both phases of qualifying to earn a berth in the U.S. Open. Awarded an exemption from Junior Amateur qualifying by The USGA Executive Committee, Oh shot an even-par 140, two strokes ahead of Canandian Rob McMillan and three better than Woods.

The much-anticipated match between Oh and Woods was played in the semifinals, where Woods made three birdies early on the second nine and advanced by a score of 4 and 3. Armour secured his berth in the final by defeating 14-year-old Charles Howell, of Augusta, Ga., by the same score.

The championship drew 2,388 entries, breaking the previous record set in 1987.