Rotorua's Jae An won the Aaron Baddeley 72-hole world junior championship in Fiji yesterday with a 16-under total - seven shots clear of his closest rival.
The 16-year-old's win was sealed with a final-day 67, which included six birdies.
It was the Rotorua Boys High School student's best total for
a 72-hole tournament.
But his emphatic victory was not enough to stop the United States taking the teams' event. New Zealand were second, five shots clear of Australia.
An's victory assures him of a starting spot in next year's Australian Open and secured him a personally made set of MacGregor clubs.
An said he felt no pressure going into the day with a five-shot lead.
"I just wanted to play my own game. I had some good irons this week and only missed 10 greens all week but my putting wasn't great."
His second shot on the 18th was a stunning three wood to within 3.6m of the pin, before narrowly missing the eagle putt.
"I tried to go for it. I hadn't hit that green all week so I wanted to do it," An said.
An returns to Rotorua Boys next year to complete Year 13 and will compete in several tournaments leading up to Easter, including the New South Wales Amateur, the Tasmanian Open and the New Zealand under-23 championship.
His goal is to turn professional by the end of next year.
The best of the other New Zealanders were Mitchell Jeon, of Auckland, on one-under in 10th, and Jumbo Kim, of Auckland, on two-over in 13th. American Tiffany Joh ran away with the girls' title.
Auckland's Sharon Ahn, 13, finished even-par in fifth and team-mate Sarah Bradley, 17, of Waikato, was two-over in sixth.
