USGA

USGA Year in Review:
Four Past Champions Add Titles

Far Hills, N.J. - Four past champions added another title and the youngest winner ever was crowned at the 13 USGA national championships held in 1999.

Those four who had won previous USGA championships are Juli Inkster, Payne Stewart, Dorothy Delasin and Carole Semple Thompson.

Inkster, then 38, broke the U.S. Women's Open 72-hole scoring mark with a 16-under 272 total at Old Waverly Golf Club in West Point, Miss., to win her fourth USGA championship. She won three consecutive U.S. Women's Amateur crowns from 1980-82.

Stewart won his second U.S. Open title of the '90s in dramatic fashion with a 18-foot par-saving putt on the 72nd hole - the longest putt in history to win the Open - at Pinehurst (N.C.) Resort and Country Club's historic No. 2 course in June. Stewart also won the 1991 U.S. Open.

Tragically, he lost his life, along with five others, in a plane crash on October 25th.

Dorothy Delasin, 18, of Daly City, Calif., who won the 1996 U.S. Girls' Junior Amateur, was the equivalent of 7 under par in winning her second national title - the U.S. Women's Amateur at Biltmore Forest Country Club in Asheville, N.C., 4 and 3.

Carol Semple Thompson, 50, of Sewickley, Pa., captured the USGA Senior Women's Amateur at the Desert Mountain Club in Tucson, Ariz., with her 78-year-old mother, Phyllis Semple caddieing. It was her fourth USGA title. A member of the USGA Executive Committee, Semple Thompson had previously won the 1973 U.S. Women's Amateur and the 1990 and 1997 U.S. Women's Mid-Amateur.

Aree Wongluekiet was 13 years, three months and seven days old when she won the U.S. Girls' Junior Amateur title, more than a year younger than the former youngest champion, Kay Cornelius, who won in 1981. Wongluekiet of Bradenton, Fla., who emigrated from Thailand in 1997, played the last 11 holes of the final in the equivalent of 4-under-par to win at Green Spring Valley Hunt Club in Owings Mills, Md., 2 up.

Jody Niemann of Rigby, Idaho, won three of the final six holes to capture the U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links crown at Santa Ana Golf Club in Santa Ana Pueblo, N.M., 1 up. It was the first USGA championship in that state. Neimann, 22, was a member of Arizona State's 1997 NCAA Championship team along with past USGA champions Kellee Booth and Grace Park.

Dave Eichelberger fired a 4-under-par 68 in the final round to come from behind and win the U.S. Senior Open Championship by three shots at Des Moines Golf and Country Club in West Des Moines, Iowa.

Record crowds saw the 55-year-old register his first USGA win after 36 years of trying. Hunter Haas, then 22, of Norman, Okla., tallied nine birdies and never trailed in winning the U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship at Spencer T. Olin Community Golf Course in Alton, Ill., 4 and 3. The University of Oklahoma golfer was later selected to the 1999 U.S. Walker Cup squad.

Sharing a first name and a first-time USGA title was Hunter Mahan, 17, of McKinney, Texas, who won the U.S. Junior Amateur at the Country Club of York (Pa.) in July. He won seven of the last 11 holes for a comeback victory, 4 and 2.

At the U.S. Amateur Championship, David Gossett, 20, of Germantown, Tenn., jumped out to a 6-up lead after nine holes and went on to a convincing win at Pebble Beach (Calif.) Golf Links, 9 and 8. A freshman at the University of Texas, he was subsequently chosen to play on the U.S. Walker Cup squad.

Tenacity helped Danny Green win the U.S. Mid-Amateur (age 25-and-over) at Old Warson Country Club in St. Louis, Mo., 2 and 1. On his way to the title, Green, 42, of Jackson, Tenn., defeated two former Mid-Amateur champs.

Alissa Herron, 26, of Minneapolis, Minn., buoyed by the caddieing of her brother, Tim, a PGA Tour player, won the U.S. Women's Mid-Amateur, 1 up, at the Cherokee Town and Country Club in Atlanta, Ga.

Bill Ploeger, 59, of Columbus, Ga., overcame an ailing back and celebrated his recent retirement from insurance work by winning the USGA Senior Amateur Championship at Portland (Ore.) Golf Club in October, 3 and 2.

The 10-man U.S. Walker Cup squad lost its first-day lead and was defeated by Great Britain and Ireland, 15-9, at Nairn (Scotland) Golf Club in September.

Earlier in the month, Texas and Florida won the USGA Men's and Women's State Team Championships, respectively, at the Golden Horseshoe Golf Club in Williamsburg, Va. The championships were shortened to 36 holes because of severe weather.

For more information on USGA national championships for 1999 or 2000, contact the USGA media relations department at (908) 234-2300.

THE USGA BY THE NUMBERS IN 1999

252,800...total attendance for the 1999 U.S. Senior Open

51,200...record final round attendance for the U.S. Senior Open at Des Moines Golf and Country Club

39,083...record entries for all 13 USGA national championships combined

7,920...USGA record entries for the U.S. Amateur at Pebble Beach (Calif.) Golf Links in August

489...length in yards of longest par-4 in U.S. Open history, the 16th at Pinehurst's No. 2 course

104...age in years of the United States Golf Association

80...number of USGA national championships in which Carol Semple Thompson, of Sewickley, Pa., has played

64...lowest round shot by a player in the 1999 USGA national championships season - Kelli Kuehne in taking the first round lead at the U.S. Women's Open

43...number of consecutive U.S. Opens in which Jack Nicklaus has played

40 (or more)...age of all four semifinalists at the U.S. Mid-Amateur won by Danny Green, 42, of Jackson, Tenn. (Mid-Amateur is for those age 25 and older)

36...number of years U.S. Senior Open winner Dave Eichelberger had been waiting to win a USGA championship (beginning with the 1963 U.S. Amateur)

28...number of holes for U.S. Amateur champion David Gossett, of Germantown, Tenn., to close out Sung Yoon Kim in the final match, 9 and 8

18...the length in feet of the putt holed by U.S. Open champion Payne Stewart on the 72nd hole at Pinehurst's No.2 course - the longest putt to win in the championship's history

17...age of youngest U.S. Amateur finalist - Sung Yoon Kim, of Seoul, South Korea, at Pebble Beach (Calif.) Golf Links

16...strokes under par U.S. Women's Open Juli Inkster finished at in record-setting performance at Old Waverly Golf Club in West Point, Miss. in June

13...age of youngest USGA champion ever -- Aree Wongluekiet of Brandenton, Fla, who won the U.S. Girls' Junior Amateur in July at Green Spring Valley Hunt Club in Owings Mills, Md.

12...number of points won by the Great Britain and Ireland team won on final day to overtake the United States team at the 37th Walker Cup Match in September, 15-9

9...number of state represented by the hometown of the 10 USGA amateur champions in 1999; two hailed from Tennesee

7.9...TV rating received by NBC for the U.S. Open's fourth round coverage

7...number of U.S. Open winners with residences in the Orlando, Fla., area in the 1990s

6...number of strokes by which Juli Inkster's record broke Alison Nicholas' mark of 10- under in 1997 at the Women's Open

5...number of holes-in-one at USGA national championships in 1999

4...number of USGA championships won by Carol Semple Thompson, 50, of Sewickley, Pa., with her victory at the USGA Senior Women's Amateur at Desert Mountain Club in Scottsdale, Ariz.

3...the number of players who won the U.S. Open twice in the 1990s - Payne Stewart (1991 and 1999), Lee Janzen (1993 and 1998) and Ernie Els (1994 and 1997)

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