Jenny Shin

Almost on the verge of throwing in the towel, 13-yearold jenny Shin of Torrance, Calif., found a pleasant surprise waiting for her on the 37th hole of the championship final of the U.S. Girls' Junior at Carmel Country Club in Charlotte, N.C.

Vicky Hurst, 16, of Melbourne, Fla., conceded.

Hurst, after sticking her approach in a leftside water hazard and then hitting her next shot thin into a greenside bunker, walked over to the Rules official and said she was going to concede. Shin, who was on the green in two, would have had to four-putt from 25 feet - assuming Hurst would hole out her next shot -just to halve.

A shocked Shin froze, shook Hurst's hand, and with that became the second-youngest champion in Girls' Junior history. Aree Song Wongluekiet, in 1999, holds that record.

It was only the second time Shin competed in a Girls' Junior.

"I kind of gave her that look like, `Whoa, why is she giving me that putt?"' said Shin. "There were a lot of breaks to that. ... She gave me a little present. After I got the trophy, I was like, `Is this mine?"'

Shin admitted that after Hurst won the 22nd, 23rd and 24th holes to go 3 up, she didn't think the day would go her way. In fact, she added that before she fell asleep Friday night, she thought Hurst would win because had knocked off the previously invincible Mina Harigae, 16, of Monterey, Calif., who was the medalist.

Shin, consistently out-driven by 40 to 50 yards by Hurst all match, hung close by spectacular play with her woods. She held a brief 2-up margin in the morning's first 18 holes before Hurst evened things by the time they broke for lunch.

Over the final 19 holes, Shin found the fairway 13 of 15 times but had trouble locating greens, just eight in that span. She had 31 putts. Conversely, Hurst rarely had to scramble, hitting 12 fairways and 14 greens.

But the tide changed on the 395-yard, par-4 31st. For the second time on the hole in the match, Hurst yanked her drive into deep rough. When she left her 9-foot par putt short and Shin hit a 4-footer, the lead dropped to 1 up.

"I thought it was there, on that hole, she was getting better and I was drifting away," said Hurst.

Outside of her mistake on No. 15, the playoff hole, the most crucial miss for Hurst occurred on No. 33. After again building a 2-up advantage, Hurst only needed to tap in a 2-footer to halve it, but her ball lipped out.

Clinging to the 1-up cushion, Hurst had a golden opportunity to win on the 35th hole, but her 15foot birdie putt stopped inches away for another halve.

"I just didn't play the correct break on that one," said Hurst.

Somehow the 36th hole got away from Hurst, who played with thoughts of her deceased father in her head. Sixty-one-year-old Joe Hurst died in April from complications from a stroke.

"He would have been really proud," said a somber Hurst, who also competed in the 2006 Women's Open.

Hurst pulled her second shot on the uphill par 5 into the left rough. With 93 yards to the hole, she fired at the flagstick but the ball stopped 25 feet above the target. Shin chipped to within 4 feet of the hole from just off the front of the green. The pressure was squarely on Hurst to convert the unforgiving downhill putt. Hurst tapped it but the ball rolled 10 feet by. When she missed the comebacker, all Shin needed to do was sink her putt to force the extra hole.

James Bramlett, Shin's 14-year-old caddie, tried to calm her.

"I said that it isn't over until you make that last putt," he said.

Indeed it wasn't.