Neither player was backing down as they faced the mighty 18th, a dogleg left that winds it's way around the lake, to a tucked, elevated green. With Ma cutting the corner a bit too much, he was forced to play his approach to the right of the green. Safe, but no easy par.

Meanwhile Crookall-Nixon was playing from the right side of the fairway, but his 7-iron approach came in hot to the firm green and left him a lengthy downhill birdie putt that he played to the 10-foot range, inside Ma's pitch shot, which came up 15- feet short.

With the first crack at par, Ma drained a putt that most players had been misreading. The match wasn't over, but the pressure was on the former USF golfer, Crookall-Nixon. A former top junior player in his native England, he showed no sign of fear and boldly struck his putt, but alas it caught two- thirds of the hole and lipped out. The match belonged to the high schooler, Ma.

"This tournament is the biggest win I have had so far in my golf career. Throughout the entire tournament, my long game was very consistent, and it was setting me up for many birdies during the round," said Ma the third youngest winner in the tournaments 101 year history.

"I hit a good putt on the last and thought it was in but it just caught too much of the hole and lipped out," said Crookall-Nixon, who overall was happy with his play considering it was just his second competitive tournament since graduating in May.

The players were never separated by more than two holes during the 36-hole final, which started under calm but cool conditions at 7:30 in the morning. Ma built a two-hole lead after 13 holes but Crookall-Nixon made birdies on the 16th and 18th holes to square the match at the lunch break. Ma was nursing a 1-up lead after he won the 32nd hole of the day (par-4 14th) with a bogey, but Crookall- Nixon squared the match on the next hole after rolling in a 15-foot birdie putt.

The Englishman missed an opportunity to take the lead in the match on the 34th hole, the short par-4 16th. After playing a brilliant second shot to within five feet, Crookall-Nixon's birdie putt slipped past the hole. The par-3 17th was halved with pars, setting up the thrilling finish on No. 18.

"My emotions almost got the better of me in the middle of the match," explained Ma. "But prior to the weekend I was working on forgetting about bad shots and accepting mistakes, and I was able to keep my head in the game."

-- USF Athletics, the NCGA and SF Chronicle contributed to this story

For the second straight year 15-year-old Sabrina Iqbal has won the San Francisco City Championship. With the victory Iqbal became the first back-to-back winner since since Casie Cathrea.

The top-seeded Iqbal won the 2nd hole of the 36-hole title match on Sunday and never looked back as she handled 15-seed Kiran Sangha 10&9.

Iqbal, a TCU commit, led 2 up after 12 holes but took things to a new level over the eight holes, winning seven of them to take a commanding 9 up advantage.

Iqbal concluded the match in dramatic fashion with an eagle on the 27th hole.

“I was looking forward to this. I wanted to go back-to-back," told the NCGA. "I love match play but don’t play in it often,” Iqbal said. “Overall, my game is in a good place. But I still need to improve on everything. There’s always room for improvement.”

In the Julie Inkster Division it was No. 10 Marie Dean besting No. 5 Cynthia Zhang in 19 holes

Once again Gary Vanier had to dig deep to emerge victorious. After winning his semifinal match on Saturday in 19 holes, Vanier had to play 20 holes on Sunday to win the title but in the end it was well worth it.

Playing as the top-seed, Vanier faced No. 26 Rich Rowley in what turned out to be a match of two sides. Vanier came storming out of the gates going 4 up after 12 holes. However, Rowley would fight back to win five of the final six holes and with his victory on No. 18 the match was all-square.

With his lead now gone Vanier regrouped and after halving the first extra hole he won the next and lifted the hardware.

The victory of Vanier was his fourth San Francisco City Championship Senior title and 10th overall after winning the championship draw six- times.

The Super Senior Division went to extra holes as well and it was eight-seed Ron Johnson who outlasted three-seed Tom O'Grady.

Johnson was 2 up through 13 holes, only to see O'Grady win the next two holes and square the match. After Johnson won Nos. 14 and 15 the duo halved the next three holes and set the stage for the extra hole triumph.