Hunter Mahan

Hunter Mahan, 17, of McKinney, Texas, defeated Camilo Villegas, 17, of Colombia, 4 and 2, in the final to win the United States Junior Amateur Championship at the 6,445-yard, par -70 Country Club of York (Pa).

"This ranks number one on my trophy shelf," said Mahan. "It was a tough match. I knew it wasn't going to be easy."

Villegas jumped out to an early lead, winning the second hole with a birdie, the third with a par and the fourth with a birdie to go 3 up after four holes. Mahan won the fifth and seventh holes with pars. At the ninth, Mahan lagged a 35-foot birdie putt to within a few inches of the hole and Villegas conceded the par. Villegas chipped some six feet short of the hole and missed the putt to lose the hole and the match was square. That's when Mahan began a string of five birdies in the next seven holes.

The par-4 10^th hole was dramatic. Villegas hit his second shot to within three feet of the hole. Mahan missed the green, then chipped in from about 30 feet to stay even in the match.

"I hit it, it checked and started rolling and I thought it could go in," said Mahan of his chip shot. "That chip was big. It gave me a big break."

Villegas said he was unaffected by an enthusiastic gallery of about 800, the largest he had played before. "When I was playing, it was like nobody was there," he said.

Mahan won the 11^th with a 15-foot birdie putt and won the 12^th with a par to go 2 up. He halved the 14^th hole with a birdie, then birdied the 15^th, hitting 1 3-iron to within 12 feet of the hole. He was 3 up with three holes to play. When he hit a 185-yard 4-iron shot to within three feet of the hole on No. 16 and Villegas missed the green, Mahan knew the championship was his.

"I thought, 'This is it. This is what you've worked for all summer,'" he said.

In the morning's semifinal round, Mahan made seven birdies in the 15 holes of his match against Matthew Rosenfeld, 15, of Plano, Texas, and won, 4 and 3.

Villegas was trailing by one hole in his semifinal match against Jason Hartwick, 17, of Sacramento, Calif., when he rolled in a breaking 12-foot birdie putt on the 18^th green to even the match. Villegas won when he birdied the first extra hole and Hartwick parred.

A Friday night storm accompanied by hail the size of tennis balls caused some damage to the course and delayed the start of Saturday play. Some 150 volunteers began repairing damage to the greens at 6:30 a.m. "By 8 o'clock, they had fixed every green," said David Donnelly, the USGA's director of the championship. "You couldn't even tell there had been any hail."