Jeff Quinney

Jeff Quinney, 21, of Eugene, Ore., rolled in a 30-foot birdie putt on the 39th hole to win the weatherdelayed championship final match of the U.S. Amateur at Baltusrol Golf Club's Upper Course.

Quinney and James Driscoll, 22, of Brookline, Mass., had played 38 holes the day before when play was suspended because of darkness. Driscoll had mounted a comeback to win the last three holes of regulation.

"I'm glad that one of us made a birdie to end it and that no one made a mistake," Quinney said. "What an emotional roller-coaster it was this week. It's unbelievable. This is the biggest thing that's ever happened to me."

Driscoll was the first on the tee in the morning and hit his 5-iron through the green and into the rough on the back right of the green. Quinney followed with a 4iron to the middle of the green. After Driscoll's speedy downhill chip went 15 feet past the hole onto the fringe, Quinney holed the match-clinching putt.

"My lag putting is a strength for me," said Quinney, who played the third hole eight times during the week with six pars and a bogey before the final hole. "I was pretty confident I was going to cozy it up there and force him to make his par putt. But fortunately it dropped in for me. It looked great from about five feet out. I knew it was going in."

With the victory, Quinney earned the fourth and final berth on the U.S. team for the World Amateur Team Championship in Berlin, Germany.

Driscoll's comeback rivaled that of Tiger Woods, who was 2-down to Steve Scott with three holes in play in 1996 before taking holes 34 and 35 to tie before winning on the 38th hole.

On the last day (Sunday), Driscoll won hole 34 by concession and then holed an 8-footer for birdie on the par 5 35th. He sent the match to extra holes by making a 5-footer for par on the 36th. The two halved the first two extra holes with pars. The 39-hole match tied for the longest final match in Amateur history with the 1950 championship in which Sam Urzetta defeated Frank Stanahan

"Who wants to lose?," said Driscoll of his comeback. "You're not here to give up. I just wish we could have finished it Sunday. To get it over with would have been so much better."

A senior at Arizona State University, Quinney won two of the first five holes with pars. He lost hole six but rebounded with winning birdies on holes eight and nine to stand 3 up.

Driscoll picked up the pace with winning birdies from close range on holes 10 and 13 to cut Quinney's margin to 1 up. But Quinney started Sunday afternoon with a flurry, winning the first two holes with par, building a 4up lead, his largest margin, before Driscoll began to fight back.

Quinney's play at the Amateur has capped a successful summer. He won the Pacific Northwest Golf Association and Oregon match play titles, and was runner-up at the Pacific Coast Amateur.

For Driscoll, his runner-up finish at the Amateur adds to his list of successes at USGA championships. He was quarterfinalist at the 1999 Amateur, where he lost to eventual champion David Gossett. And in 1995, he was runner-up at the U.S. Junior Amateur.

The youngest of seven children, Driscoll is a two-time Massachusetts State Amateur champion (1996 and 1998). He also was invited to play in the PGA Tour's Pleasant Valley Classic in the Boston area in 1998.

A first time qualifier, Quinney followed in the footsteps of ASU alumnus Phil Mickelson, who won the Amateur in 1990.

The Amateur winner is exempt into the next Masters, U.S. Open and British Open. The two finalists

are invited to play in the next Masters.

Quinney reached the finals with easy wins in his first two matches before adopting a come-from-behind trademark in his next three. He first beat Matt Weibring of Plano, Texas, 6 and 5; then Luke Glover of Greenville, S.C., 3 and 2. He overtook Ben Curtis of Kent, Ohio, in 23 holes, and took five straight holes to edge Hunter Mahan of McKinney, Texas, 2 and 1. He won four of the first eight holes and then hung on to beat David Eger of Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., in his semifinal round, 3 and 1.

Driscoll never trailed beyond the ninth hole in any of his five matches prior to the final. And he led in each from the 13th hole forward. First he beat B.J. Staten of Dallas, Texas, 4 and 3; then David Bennett of Stowe, Vt., 2 and 1; and Richard Smith of Dresden, Tenn., 5 and 3. He edged Jerry Courville of Milford, Conn., in his quarterfinal match, 1 up; and outlasted Luke Donald of England in his semifinal round, 2 and 1.