Tim Clark

Tim Clark, 21, of Raleigh, N.C., jumped out to a 5-up advantage through the first 11 holes and went on to defeat Ryuji Imada of Tampa, Fla., in the 36-hole final match at the U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship at Kearney Hill Golf Links in Lexington, Ky., 7 and 6.

A native of South Africa enrolled at North Carolina State University, Clark never trailed in the match. He took the lead to stay on the fifth hole with a par 4 and then won four consecutive holes to go 5-up through hole No.11.

He won four of the first seven holes of the afternoon round to go 9 up and closed out the match when both players made par 3 on the 30th hole. Clark made nine birdies in the final match and one-putted nine times with a long putter he began using just two months before. He made just one bogey over his last 49 holes of match play.

"I really felt confident over the ball today, the best I felt all week," said Clark, who finished tied for tenth at the 1997 NCAA Division I Championship and won his first Junior title at age 16 in South Africa.

The win provided Clark an invitation to play at the 1998 Masters Tournament.

"It's always been a dream to go there," said Clark. "I went to a practice round on Monday at The Masters this year. And when I was 9-up I began to think that I might be playing there."

Imada made a brief run to keep the match alive near the end. He made three consecutive birdies to pull to within 7 holes with eight holes remaining. It was the first time in six matches that Imada, a 20-year-old freshmen-to-be at the University of Georgia, trailed after the sixth hole. He had made only two bogeys in his five previous matches, but against Clark he bogeyed two of the first five holes.

"I had no choice but to make those birdies, but it was just too late, I guess," said Imada.

It was the first USGA final between foreign-born players since the 1910 U.S. Women's Amateur and the first male final between foreign-born players since the 1900 U.S. Amateur.

The APL received 6,209 entries and had six players exempt into the field, including three past champions: Tim Hogarth (1996), Chris Wollmann (1995) and Guy Yamamoto (1994). Two members of the 1997 Walker Cup team were also in the field: Steve Scott and Wollmann. Scott was defeated in the second round of match play, Wollman was defeated in the third round.

The 36-hole cut to match play came at 4-over-par 148 and featured a 16-for-7 playoff to determine the final berths for match play. There were two 14-year-olds and one 61-year-old player in the 156-player championship field, but none of them advanced to match play.