Hank Kuehne won the US Amateur Championship, holding off a late rally by Tom McKnight for a 2 and 1 victory in Sunday's 36-hole match-play final at the Oak Hill Country Club.

Kuehne squandered a 3-up lead after 18 holes but rebuilt it as McKnight bogeyed three straight holes. Kuehne appeared in control with six holes to play but his lead was cut to 1-up after he bogeyed the 14th and McKnight birdied the following hole.

However, the 22-year-old Kuehne reached the green in two on the par four 18th hole while McKnight's approach landed in a bunker. McKnight hit his next shot well past the pin and his 35-foot par putt lipped out before he conceded the hole - and the tournament - to Kuehne.

"This has been an unbelievable week for me," said Kuehne, a recovering alcoholic and three-time All-American at Southern Methodist University. "This is the second-best thing that's ever happened in my life. The first is going to rehab. I can't explain how I feel right now. It hasn't sunk in yet, but I'm so happy that my family could be here to share this with me."

Kuehne earned a 10-year exemption at the US Amateur Championship, a first-round pairing with Mark O'Meara at next year's Masters and British Open, and first and second round pairings with O'Meara and Lee Janzen at the 1999 US Open.

"I'm so happy that my brother was able to share this with me," said Kuehne, whose brother, Trip, was the 1994 Amateur runner-up to Tiger Woods. "It made it extra special for me and extra special for him."

The 44-year-old McKnight, the 1988 amateur stroke-play medallist was the oldest finalist since Buddy Marucci lost to Woods in 1995. The last man over 40 to win the US Amateur was 41-year-old Bill Campbell, who defeated Edgar Tutwiler in 1964.

"I felt like we were in a boxing match out there, taking each other's best shots," said McKnight.