Woods Wins U.S. Amateur With Irons : Golf: The short game that was off during Masters is clicking as 19-year-old defends title.

Tiger Woods, who had trouble controlling his short irons in his first Masters, executed the problem shot to perfection to win his second U.S. Amateur Sunday at Newport, R.I., and earn another trip to Augusta.

“I spent hours and hours on the range and it paid off on the 18th hole,” said Woods, who hit an eight-iron approach on the final hole within 16 inches to all but end his 36-hole match with George (Buddy) Marucci. “It’s nice to see that hard work pays off.”

One-up heading to the final hole at Newport Country Club, Woods lofted his second shot from 140 yards in the the middle of the fairway and watched it spin back to the pin. He pumped his fist as he walked up to the green.

“I hit it straight and let the wind just ride it,” said Woods, a 19-year-old sophomore at Stanford.

The match ended when Marucci, a 43-year-old auto dealer from Berwyn, Pa., missed a 20-foot birdie putt and conceded Woods’ putt.

“I’d be pretty arrogant if I said I wasn’t thrilled [about simply making the final],” Marucci said. “I don’t think it’ll ever be the one that got away. . . . I can live with losing to Tiger.”

Woods, 19, of Cypress, is 36-3 in U.S. Golf Assn. matches, winning the U.S. Junior in 1991, ’92 and ’93 before becoming the first black winner and youngest U.S. Amateur champion last year.

While the victory was not as dramatic as his 1994 comeback from 6-down in Ponte Vedra, Fla., Woods struggled to shake Marucci, who stayed close with smart, conservative play and a strong short game.

Woods said older amateurs like Marucci and Maine’s Mark Plummer, who Woods beat in Saturday’s semifinals, are tough opponents even if they can’t match his distance game.

“They may have hit the ball all over but they got up and down and they made all the putts they looked at,” Woods said.

On Sunday, Woods did not take the lead for good until the 30th hole and trailed Marucci, a four-time Pennsylvania amateur champion, for 15 of the first 27 holes.

The tide turned on the 30th hole, played on the par-four 12th, when Woods hit the green in two and parred the hole. Marucci drove into the rough on the right and reached the green with his third shot.

Marucci missed a 13-foot par putt to halve the hole, giving Woods a lead he never surrendered.

Golf Notes

There was some good news for Buddy Marucci, as he was one of five players selected to the U.S. Walker Cup team. Marucci will be the oldest of 10 American players who will face a team of British and Irish amateurs Sept. 9-10 at Porthcawl, Wales. Also selected to the team were 1994 U.S. Amateur runner-up Trip Kuehne, 23, of McKinney, Texas; Jerry Courville Jr., 36, of Norwalk, Conn.; Kris Cox, 21, of San Antonio; and Chris Riley, 21, of San Diego.

Tiger Woods was among the players previously named to the team.