CHERRY HILLS VILLAGE, Colo. - The grueling golf course turned Annika Sorenstam into a sideshow and made Michelle Wie look like the teenager she is. It left some players in tears and sent dozens more home jolted by such a demanding test.

Finally, stunningly, a girl named Birdie proved that Cherry Hills really could be tamed - or at least subdued long enough to produce one of the most thrilling U.S. Women's Open finishes in history.

Birdie Kim, the 23-year-old Korean who changed her name so she would stand out, made a 30-yard sand shot for - what else? - birdie on the final hole Sunday to defeat heartbroken 17-year-old Morgan Pressel.

"It was like, `I can't believe that actually just happened,'" Pressel said, recalling her reaction when she saw Kim's shot go in while she stood on the 18th fairway.

Tied with Pressel and playing one group ahead of her on 18, Kim readily acknowledged that when she stepped down into the deep bunker to the front-right side of the green, she was only hoping to get the ball close enough to save par, then hope for a playoff.

"But I never thought about the ball going into the hole," she said.

It did. Pressel put her hands on her head in dismay. Kim raised her arms above her head in jubilation. And after Pressel's desperation try to match Kim's birdie failed, Kim, who closed with a 1-over 72, had the victory with a score of 3-over-par 287 in the toughest test in golf.

Along with that went the trophy and, of course, a $560,000 winner's check, which is more than seven times her career winnings.

"I never think about to win," she said. "I was never a good bunker player. Finally, I make it."

Kim's birdie was just the fourth of the tournament on the 459-yard, par-4 18th, the last stop on a course that played 4.797 strokes over par over in days and put an unceremonious end to Sorenstam's quest for the Grand Slam.

Trailing by five coming in and knowing she would need to play aggressively to have a chance, she promised to hit more drivers in the final round, and she did - off a tree and into a creek on No. 1 and into the rough on No. 2.

The result was two quick bogeys en route to a round of 77. She finished 12-over-par 296, tied for 23rd place and said she wasn't second-guessing her game plan, which went from conservative to aggressive and back again and never really worked.

"Right now it feels like it's super-difficult," Sorenstam said of Cherry Hills. "I mean, just look at the scores. I think they say it all."

Wie came into the day with a share of the lead. She ended it with an 82, a humbling round that left her joking that she'd wished she'd had a satellite attached to her ball so she would've had an easier time finding it all day in the ankle-high rough.

"`Difficult' would be too easy a word," the 15-year-old amateur said. "It was really hard out there for me today."

Despite Wie's struggles, this tournament was a good one for the amateurs.

Brittany Lang, the 19-year-old recent Duke graduate, finished with a round of even-par to finish tied in second with Pressel, another amateur who was oh-so-close to capturing the tournament she first qualified to play at age 13.

"I know I can win," Pressel said, her face streaked with tears, still shocked from the unexpected finish. "I know I can play well. I was there the whole day. But I finished second and I'm not holding a trophy."

She was one of the very few to get ahead against Cherry Hills, making five birdies over her first eight holes of the tournament to get to 5 under. She gave those shots back, but hung in there and had chances.

Had a birdie putt on No. 16 traveled one revolution further, "I thought it would have been mine."

After watching Kim sink her amazing shot, Pressel knew she had to do something special on her second shot from the middle of the 18th fairway. Instead, she blocked one into the short, right rough. She pitched that to 20 feet, ending her chances at the win and starting the flow of tears.

"You'd like to just toss this one off, but it's a tough one," said Pressel's grandfather, Herb Krickstein. "It didn't work out, and it's no fault of hers."

Instead, the credit goes to Kim who, in two years on the LPGA Tour, had made only 10 cuts in 34 starts and only once finished in the top 10. Her career earnings was a meager $79,832.

As a rookie last year, she went by her given name, Ju-Yun Kim. But she came out this year with a new nickname, hoping to stand out from the other five players with Kim as a surname on the LPGA Tour.

"I wanted something different, something simple and easy," she said at the start of the season. "Birdie is good in golf, and it's good for me."

And on Sunday, birdie was good enough to make her the most unlikely of champions.