KEY POINTS:
Not since Michael Campbell strode down the 18th fairway at the 2005 US Open has there been a greater day for New Zealand golf than today at the Pinehurst course in North Carolina.
Within hours of the Olympic Games drawing to a close in China, New Zealand golfer Danny Lee secured a gold medal of his own by winning the US Amateur championship title today.
Lee capped off a thoroughly dominant week by winning the 36-hole final 5 and 4 over American Drew Kittleson.
After trailing his opponent through the first eight holes, Lee, 18, hit four birdies on the second nine to reach the halfway point five holes up.
Kittleson, 19, fought back in the second 18 to get within two holes of Lee leaving the 25th hole but the New Zealander reasserted himself, winning the 26th and 27th to draw nearer to victory.
Lee secured his victory by winning the 32nd hole to win by a comfortable margin with four holes to spare.
The victory gives him exemptions into next year's US and British Opens, a probable invitation to the Masters, and a 10-year exemption into the US Amateur, as long as he remains an amateur.
Lee, a South Korean who settled in New Zealand with his family nine years ago, can now look forward to contesting the Masters, the US Open and the British Open.
He rewrote the record books in becoming the first New Zealander and just the ninth foreign-born player to win the US Amateur, which was first contested in 1895.
He also became the younger winner after 108 editions of the championship.
Having turned 18 last month, Lee is six months younger than Tiger Woods when the American won the first of his three successive US Amateur titles in 1994.
Lee's victory was achieved at the same Donald Ross-designed Pinehurst No 2 course on which New Zealander Michael Campbell won the 2005 US Open.
His next major assignment is to attend a ceremony in his home town of Rotorua early next month when he will become a New Zealand citizen.
Then, he will join teammates James Gill and Jared Pender in the New Zealand team for the Eisenhower Trophy world amateur teams championship in Adelaide in October.
Lee has taken his game to a new level in the past four weeks, after landing in the US in May to play the amateur circuit there.
Since the start of this month he has spent more time on the course than off it, and today's round marked his 18th competitive round since August 1.
He won the strokeplay and medallist honours at the prestigious Western Amateur in Michigan, won his US Amateur sectional qualifying event in Illinois by five strokes, then accepted a sponsor's invite to make his PGA Tour debut at the Wyndham Championship in North Carolina where he stayed for the duration to tie for 20th.
He was named the No 1 player on the amateur world rankings and then began the opening round of strokeplay at the US Amateur without the benefit of a practise round on the Pinehurst course.
He capped his 11th consecutive day of competitive golf today by sinking a 30-foot birdie putt on the 14th, dropping his putter and thrusting his fists into the air in celebration.
Lee's coach Steve Jessup, who is based at Wairakei near Taupo, described his latest victory as "an incredible effort".
"He's been incredibly dominant in the highest pressure tournament he could possibly want to play," Jessup told Radio Sport.
Jessup said Lee headed to the US in May with the Amateur event, in which he was eliminated in the first round of matchplay last year, as his specific goal.
"To actually pull it off is a pretty amazing accomplishment."
Until today Lee had not visited the 17th tee through five rounds of matchplay, underlining the dominance he had over a field containing the very best amateurs America has to offer.
- NZPA
