1996

On its 10th anniversary, the U.S. Women's Mid-Amateur was conducted at the Dinah Shore Course at Mission Hills Country Club, where Ellen Port of St. Louis, Mo., defeated Kerry Postillion, a 33-year-old reinstated amateur from Burr Ridge, Ill., 2 and 1.

By joining Sarah LeBrun Ingram as the event's only back-to-back winners, Port, 34, updated her resume with the following credentials: She's compiled a 21-4 Mid-Amateur match-play record this decade, was unbeaten in her last 12 matches-having been extended to the 18th hole but once in that span-and, as a winner in four of six matches in two Curtis Cups, firmly established herself as one of the preeminent amateurs-here or abroad.

Port led the final from the outset, taking the first three holes. Postillion made a run by winning the 12th on a five-foot birdie following a terrific 7-wood, then closed to within one hole at the 13th when Port missed her first fairway and first green of the day, making her first bogey of the round.

After Port regained a 2-up lead with a 20-foot birdie at the par-3 14th, the next three holes were halved to end the match.

Played under clear skies with temperatures near or above 100 degrees every day, this Women's Mid-Amateur was largely a coronation of players heretofore unrecognized on a national level. With the exception of Port vs. Martha Lang, also a former champion, each of the other quarterfinal pairings featured at least one Cinderella story.

Postillion advanced to the semi-finals by defeating Kathryn Hartwiger, a science teacher at Hoover City School in Birmingham, Ala., who, according to state law, couldn't get official time off to play in the Mid-Am. Hartwiger paid for the substitute teacher for every school day she missed to play at Mission Hills.

Postillion secured her spot in the final by eliminating Carol Semple Thompson, 1 up. Thompson, the 1990 Women's Mid-Am's champion, advanced to the final four with a 19th-hole triumph over hometown favorite Caryn Wilson, a former professional tennis player who began playing golf just four years ago.

Opposite the Port-Lang quarterfinal was one pitting Eva Monisteri, a 31-year-old bookkeeperr from San Mateo, Calif., against Pasatiempo Golf Club pro shop staff member Karen Ambler Gysin.

Only once had either player advanced beyond the first round of the Women's Mid-Amateur-Monisteri lost in the 1993 quarterfinals to Ingram, a defeat she atoned for in the first round at Mission Hills-and after Monisteri registered a comfortable victory, 4 and 3, she didn't trail Port until the par-4 16th hole, where Port got up and down from a bunker.