GOLF U.S. AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP : Second-Round Match Gets Away From Woods

DUBLIN, Ohio —  Tiger Woods’ bid to become the youngest winner of the U.S. Amateur Championship came to an end Saturday.

Woods, 16, of Cypress, a two-time winner of the U.S. Junior Amateur, lost to Tim Herron of Wayzata, Minn., 6 and 4, in the second round of match play at Muirfield Village Golf Club.

Herron was 5-up when he birdied No. 14 to end the match.

Woods said he was happy with his play in the tournament but that he might not have been ready.

“I didn’t expect to get this far,” he said. “I expected to get to match play but not the second round.

“This might have been a little early. My game’s not good enough yet. At the junior level you can play a bad match here and there and win.”

Herron, 23, a member of the University of New Mexico golf team, took a 1-up lead on No. 3 with a par to Woods’ bogey, then birdied Nos. 4, 5 and 6 to buildhis lead to 4-up.

Woods birdied No. 7 but that was the closest he got.

Woods, who had problems losing shots to the right, said his back was bothering him again. After his six-under 66 in the second qualifying round, Woods complained of spasms and pain.

“My back got tired,” Woods said. “I couldn’t fire my body through.”

Herron also was a big factor, with five birdies in 14 holes.

“He played really well today,” Woods said. “He was four-under or something like that. You can’t beat that, I was something like 20-over.”

Winners included Allen Doyle, a 44-year-old from LaGrange, Ga., and Justin Leonard, the country’s second-ranked amateur.

Doyle knocked off 48-year-old, two-time champion Jay Sigel, 1-up, and then beat 20-year-old Brian Kontak, 2 and 1.