Chip-in gives 16-year-old Singhsumalee Women’s Am title

Bing Singhsumalee became the youngest champion in the 80-year history of the Illinois Women’s Amateur golf championship in spectacular fashion on Friday at Cantigny, in Wheaton.

The 16-year-old junior at Waubonsie Valley High School chipped in from 30 feet on the first extra hole to beat Lauren English, a University of Iowa junior from Bloomington, in the title match.

Singhsumalee, who shared medalist honors in Tuesday’s 80-player qualifying round, took up golf at age 4 at Cantigny’s Youth Links and played there as well as on the 27-hole main layout regularly, though the Naperville resident now lists Bolingbrook as her home course. She was 1-up going to the last hole of regulation play — No. 9 on Cantigny’s Lakeside nine — but English stayed alive by rolling in a 12-foot downhill par putt after both players missed the green on their approaches at the par-4.

The match then went to No. 1 on the Woodside nine. Singhsumalee came up short on the 362-yard par-4 with her second shot while English put her second on the green. Singhsumalee then chipped in for birdie, and English missed her birdie putt. A day earlier English won a playoff against Burr Ridge’s Samantha Postillion in the quarterfinals with a par on the same hole.

English was trying to join brother Kyle as a champion in a top Chicago amateur event. Kyle won the Chicago District Amateur at Medinah in 2011. Their parents, Mark and Mary, are both golf professionals.

The Illinois Women’s Amateur will be played at Crestwicke in Bloomington in 2014. That’s English’s home course, and Kyle is now an assistant professional there.