Chun, who goes to Kamehameha Schools, has been here before. She fell to Bobbi Kokx a year ago in the championship and has hardly lost a hole since. Chun ousted Idaho sophomore Ayumi Hori yesterday, 5 and 3, at Oahu Country Club.

Chun's only bogeys came on the 13th and 14th, the result of lip-outs that would have closed the match but were transformed into three-putts by OCC's slippery greens. She finally ended it by hitting her third shot within a foot on the par-5 15th.

Nishimoto, from Iolani, stopped Kokx's roll into history, winning 1-up with par on the 19th hole. Last year, Kokx became the first woman to defend a match play title in nearly 20 years. It had been nearly 70 years since a golfer won three in a row.

Speaking of years, Kokx, 40, is older than the combined age of today's finalists. Monday, she asked Nishimoto — who will be 18 next month — if she felt old in today's precocious golf world.

When Nishimoto said yes, Kokx laughed and told her, "I must be ancient."

Neither looked old yesterday. Their match was never separated by more than a hole. Kokx took her only lead at the eighth hole. Nishimoto's birdie on the ninth left it even at the turn.

They were still even three shots into the 17th. Then Nishimoto dropped a four-footer for par into the heart of the hole while Kokx lipped out from three feet.

Needing to win the final scheduled hole to extend the match, Kokx crushed her drive on the 18th and made easy par.

Nishimoto air-mailed her approach shot over the green.

"We were debating between 3-iron and 7-wood," Nishimoto recalled. "We ended up choosing the 7-wood, and I think I had a little adrenaline pumping. It went really far over the green."

Nishimoto won it with a two-putt birdie at No. 1 (401-yard par-5). Kokx thought she hit her approach shot perfectly, but it splashed down on the front of the green and bounced backwards. She could not get up and down to salvage a tie.

Kokx characterized that putt from the fringe, the birdie putt that followed and the lip-out at the 17th as "tentative." Too tentative to beat Nishimoto.

"Her short game is 10 times better than mine," Kokx said. "She closes the deal.

"She made those 10- and 12-footers when she needed to to halve the hole. She finished. She outplayed me by getting the ball in the hole."

Chun, 16, has also shown a penchant for finishing. She won the qualifying, hasn't trailed all week and was 2-under par yesterday even with the late bogeys. Some success can be traced back to last year's loss to Kokx.

"Bobbi is a really good match play player," Chun said. "I learned you really need a whole lot of mental strength to endure all those holes. Especially when you're down. She's a good role model. She's really consistent ... like I need to be."

That hasn't been a problem here. Chun was 4-up at the turn yesterday and didn't make a bad swing all day — particularly on the green.

"Everything about her game is good," Hori said. "But her putting ... she's really confident."

Hori, whose game has blossomed in college, wasn't playing badly. She simply couldn't keep up.

"Match play, I let it get to my head," Hori said. "If this was stroke play, I'd be happy with my scores."