Honolulu's Stephanie Kono suffered a heartbreaking loss in her quarterfinal match yesterday at the 2007 U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links at Kearney Hills Golf Links in Lexington, Ky.

Kono, with a 2-up lead with two holes to play, watched her opponent, Mina Harigae of Monterey, Calif., sink three consecutive birdies to pull out a victory on the 19th hole.

Last year, Harigae beat Kono, 4 and 3, in the U.S. Girls Junior Amateur quarterfinals. Kono was looking for a little payback in a battle of 17-year-old incoming high school seniors.

"Yeah, I was," a teary-eyed Kono said on the tournament's Web site. "I guess I will have to wait."

Harigae advanced to today's 36-hole final against Stephany Fleet of Dewitt, Mich.

Kono attends Punahou School and is sixth in Golfweek's junior rankings. Harigae, who verbally committed to Duke, attends Stevenson School in Monterey, Calif. She is ranked second and will play in next week's U.S. Women's Open.

Kono led from the second hole to the 18th, only to see Harigae birdie the 372-yard par-4 17th and the 450-yard par-5 18th to square the match and force extra holes. Harigae won it with a third consecutive birdie on the 347-yard, par-4 first.

"Once I got ahead, I was just trying to make pars and make her make birdies, which she did in the end," Kono said.

Harigae said all she did was listen to caddie Tom Cermac: "He said 'You can do it. You can birdie three holes in a row.' "

Kono, who qualified for the 64th and final match-play spot in a playoff Tuesday, advanced to quarterfinals by first upsetting No. 1 seed Tiffany Lua in the first round Wednesday and winning two matches Thursday.

She seemed to be on her way to continuing Hawai'i's recent dominance in this event, possibly joining Michelle Wie and Kimberly Kim as finalists. Wie won in 2003 and advanced to the final in 2004. Kim also advanced to the final in 2006.

Kono went 1-up with a par on the second and never relinquished the lead until the 19th.

After both birdied the third, Kono increased her lead to 2-up with another par on the fourth.

After losing the sixth hole, Kono won the next two holes with pars for a 3-up lead. But Harigae won the ninth with a birdie and the 11th with a par to close to 1-up. Kono won the 12th with a par, but Harigae won the 13th with a birdie. Kono went back up by two holes by winning the par-5 14th with a birdie from five feet.

"I hit good shots at 14, 15, 16 and 17," said Kono, "and gave myself chances at birdie, but the putts just slid by."

The momentum began to swing at the 17th. Kono stuck her approach to 11 feet. Harigae, meanwhile, was 125 yards away in the rough.

"I saw she stuck it and I was like, 'Oh my God, I have to stick it,' " Harigae said.

Enter Cermac, a family friend who kept pumping up Harigae with proper yardage and positive reinforcements.

Harigae hit her approach to 10 feet and made birdie. Then, after hitting her second shot into a grass bunker below the 18th green, Harigae again trusted a little flop shot she just recently learned from her coach, Greg LaBelle. Harigae plopped her ball to within 3 feet for another birdie.

At the 19th hole, Harigae drove into the left rough and had 130 yards to the flagstick. She was content to hit pitching wedge, but Cermac convinced her to be more aggressive and hit 9-iron.

The shot came off poor and was headed left of the green when the ball caromed off the grassy slope and rolled toward the hole, resting five feet away. After Kono's chip from about the same location that Harigae's ball bounced stopped inches short, Harigae drained the birdie.

Later in the day, Harigae beat Wonjoo Choi of Korea, 2-up, in the semifinals. Fleet eliminated Michelle Shin of Cape Coral, Fla., 5 and 4.

Information from an article written by Stuart Hall on www.uswapl.org was used in this report.