Rebels ousted in amateur

Friday, Aug. 20, 1999 | 5:32 a.m.

Tied after 18, they were about to tee off on the first of five sudden-death holes when Bryce Molder turned to James Oh as an evening chill descended on Pebble Beach, Calif., and the U.S. Amateur Championship.

With a quarterfinal spot on the line, Molder asked his opponent: "Are you having fun yet?" Oh responded with a grin.

Youth defeated experience in Thursday's two rounds of match play, with two 17-year-olds and six college students reaching the quarterfinals. No player older than 22 survived the third round.

Two UNLV golfers -- Michael Kirk and Scott Lander -- were eliminated Thursday, ironically, by the same person. James Driscoll, a senior at Virginia, beat Lander in the morning round and Kirk in the afternoon. In the last and most dramatic match of the day, Oh made a 10-foot birdie putt on the fifth extra hole to defeat Molder -- who also had gone into overtime while winning his second-round match earlier Thursday.

Oh's next opponent was to be another 17-year-old golfer. Sung Yoon Kim, a high school junior from Seoul, South Korea, reached the quarterfinals by rallying from a 3-stroke deficit to defeat Canada's David Hearn.

Joining Oh, Kim and Driscoll in the quarterfinals today were David Gossett, 20, a sophomore at Texas; Ben Curtis, 22, a senior at Kent State; Andrew Sanders, 20, a junior at Houston; Hunter Haas, 22, a senior at Oklahoma; and Charlie Woerner, 22, a senior at Southern California.