Kim is the youngest winner since Laura Baugh, who was 16 years and two months old when she won in 1971.

Kimberly Kim, in a state of disbelief, cradles the Robert Cox Cup Sunday. (Steve Gibbons/USGA)

Kimberly Kim

Name: Kimberly Kim

Age: 14

Hometown: Hilo, HI

Kim rallied from being five holes down after the 15th hole of the 36-hole match. She did not take the lead until the 30th hole. The match ended on the 36th. On the final hole, after Schallenberg made a 25-foot birdie putt from the fringe, Kim ran in a 5-foot birdie putt to win.

“I was shaking so much,” said Kim of the putt. “I don’t even know where I aimed or anything. I just, like, hit it. It’s like, whatever, just hit the ball.”

In a match long on thrills, Schallenberg took an immediate 1-up lead with a birdie on the first hole. She won the fourth hole with a birdie, the fifth with a par and the sixth with a birdie before Kim claimed a single hole. 

Kim was five holes down when she hit her approach shot to within 6 feet of the hole on the 16th and birdied to win the hole. She hit superb approach shots on the closing holes, making a 2-footer for a winning birdie on the 17th and a 4-foot winning birdie putt on the 18th. Schallenberg went to lunch with a 2-up lead.

Kim, who earlier this year was the runner-up at the U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links Championship, played somewhat tentatively in the morning 18. But she turned her game around and began firing at the flagsticks in the afternoon at the advice of her caddie, Frank Nau.

“Actually he just said we’re going to play smash-mouth golf,” Kim said.