FRENCH LICK, Ind. – Two of the greatest names in the history of women’s golf were champions again on Sunday in The Legends Championship, played on the rugged Pete Dye Course at French Lick Resort.

Juli Inkster won the main tournament for players who have passed their 45th birthday. Jan Stephenson took the Super Legends title, an eight-player competition for past stars who have passed their 63rd birthday.

The titles both represented milestones for players who have already achieved so much as LPGA competitors. Inkster won for the first time on the Legends circuit after finishing second in her previous two tournaments. Stephenson, who recently turned 63, triumphed in her first Super Legends event.

Inkster carded a 4-under-par 68 on Sunday, giving her a 36-hole total of 5-under 139 for the tournament and a two-shot win over Trish Johnson. Stephenson, playing from slightly shorter tees, finished even par 144 for the tournament and won by eight over her playing partner, Judy Dickinson.

“Winning can never get old,’’ said Stephenson. “Competing with Juli is impossible for me now, so this was so much fun. And it was really emotional for me. It was for my mom. She passed away earlier in the month.’’

Stephenson debated playing in the more lucrative division, but decided that making her debut in the Super Legends Division made more sense.

“I’ll probably go back and forth, but this was such a hard golf course and it was our big championship,’’ she said. “I really wanted the trophy to jump out of the box. Plus, I had to go back to Australia and didn’t practice. I only arrived back this week. I didn’t feel match-fit.’’

Winning the trophy in her Super Legends debut was a satisfying reward, but Inkster was the big winner. She took home a check for $37,7s00 from the event’s $300,000 purse. Stephenson’s winning check was for $5,000.

“If a 55-year old can win, they can, too,’’ said Inkster. “This has been a tough year, and I’m really tired right now. I have an outing Tuesday in Detroit then I’ll be home for a week.’’

Before the Solheim Cup, however, she’ll take on her LPGA rivals in one of that circuit’s biggest events – the Evian Masters.

Inkster, in the next-to-the-last group, got her game together on the back nine, just in time to hold off Johnson who was playing in the final twosome. They had gone into the final round tied for the lead with Johnson’s playing partner, Dame Laura Davies.

“I wasn’t playing very well on the front side,’’ said Inkster, “but I birdied 13, 15, 17 and 18. That won the tournament for me. I stayed patient and started hitting it a lot better. I had no idea where I was in the tournament. I just tried to keep making birdies. It was good to win. I feel good.’’

The Inkster-Johnson duel came down to the final two holes. Inkster hit the par-4 17th with a 3-wood and 9-iron, setting up a birdie putt. Johnson made birdie behind her. Light rain started to fall as Inkster made her birdie and continued as she played No. 18, a par-5. She got up and down for her final birdie there, then the rain got heavier. That didn’t help Johnson, who three-putted the finishing hole for a bogey.

That handed the title to Inkster, whose 68 was the best round of the day. Pat Hurst, who tied with 2013 champion Lori Kane for third place, shot 69 on Sunday while Johnson posted a 70. Laurie Rinker, the defending champion, made an early run with three birdies on her first eight holes before dropping back. She finished eight strokes back in a tie for 12th.

FRENCH LICK, Ind. – The pre-tournament festivities ended Friday night. Now 58 members of the LPGA Legends Tour will battle for two days in the circuit’s biggest tournament over the Pete Dye Course at French Lick Resort.

Players arrived here in time for practice rounds on Thursday and Friday was devoted to the day-long pro-am competition. That preceded the evening’s Champions Dinner and Hall of Fame Induction, during which JoAnne Carner and Rosie Jones were added to the select group.

As for the competition in the $300,000 championship, it all starts at 8 a.m. on Saturday when Karen Davies and Joan Pitcock, the survivors of Thursday’s qualifying round, are the first twosome off the tee. Fifty-six more players will follow them with the last group starting play at 12:40 p.m. That last group will be a special one – 2014 champion Lori Kane and the defending champion, Laurie Rinker.

Rinker is coming off a big win in the LPGA Teaching Division and Club Professional National Championship earlier in the week in Florida. That was a tournament she almost didn’t enter.

“I considered not playing,’’ she said, “but I felt I had enough experience on this (Pete Dye) course. Plus, we’re professionals here and it’s much easier transitioning from slow greens to fast greens. So, I’ll be fine.’’

She’s been very much fine over the last two Legends Championships on the Pete Dye Course, having finished second to Kane in the first one before her win last year when the tourney was reduced from 54 to 36 holes by bad weather on Sunday.

Kane needed a 3-under-par 213 for her victory in the first year of the Legends Championship. Rinker shot 71-66 for her win. This year’s tournament will be played over 36 holes.

The Champions Dinner is always a highlight of Legends Week at French Lick, which also hosted the Senior PGA Championship for the men in the spring when Colin Montgomerie won the title.

Carner and Jones join a great group of previous inductees. The original class included Louise Suggs, Mickey Wright and Betsy Rawls – all winners of LPGA tournaments at French Lick from 1958-60 – plus Kathy Whitworth and Jan Stephenson. Last year’s inductees were Legends executive director Jane Blalock and Nancy Lopez. The Hall is located at the West Baden Springs Hotel near the Pete Dye Course.

Whitworth handled induction honors for Carner, who was most appreciative of her selection.

“It’s wonderful,’’ she said. “It makes all your work worthwhile. My career was a long, long one.’’

Carner, who won five U.S. Amateur titles and two U.S. Women’s Opens, didn’t turn pro until 1970, when she was 30 years old. She’s still a regular competitor on the Legends circuit and will captain the U.S. team in the Junior Solheim Cup matches in Germany next month.

Also most intrigued by the chance to play in her first Legends Championship was Jane Geddes, who recalled her first visit to French Lick in 2008. She was working as a staffer for the LPGA then, following a successful playing career, and hadn’t been back since.

“I came with Carolyn Bivens (former LPGA commissioner), and the (Pete Dye Course) was just being seeded,’’ said Geddes. “We liked the facility and it’s fun to see how the course is now. It’s also amazing to see just how the town as grown since then. It’s just delightful. You can feel it.’’

Beneficiary of the tourney, presented by Old National Bank, is again Riley Children’s Foundation.

In winning the 115th U.S. Amateur at Olympia Fields Country Club DeChambeau joined Jack Nicklaus (1961), Phil Mickelson (1990), Tiger Woods (1996) and Ryan Moore (2004) as the only players to win the NCAA Championship and the U.S. Amateur in the same year.

The whole week was never much of a contest. Both finalists, DeChambeau and Derek Bard, get berths in next year’s Masters, U.S. Open and British Open, but there were few other similarities in their status after Sunday’s match.

DeChambeau never played beyond the 16th hole in his first five matches and had even less trouble with Bard in the 36-hole final, winning 7 and 6 with a torrid nine holes immediately after the lunch break. That’s one of the widest victory margins since the tourney was inaugurated in 1895.

“I kept putting the pedal to the metal,’’ said DeChambeau. “I wanted to play Bryson golf, and that’s what I did. I just made everything.’’

A physics major at Southern Methodist University who lives in Clovis, Calif., DeChambeau, 21, opened birdie-birdie to go 2-up quickly, but that lead didn’t last. Bard, a 20-year old junior at the University of Virginia, won four of five holes in one stretch to go 2-up, but DeChambeau took charge for good after chipping in to win No. 8.

The 47-minute rain delay didn’t help, but he battled back to get to all square and then won Nos. 14, 15 and 16 to claim the lead for good. There were some moments of adversity, though.

During the 42-minute lunch break DeChambeau’s regular caddie, Mike Sly, told him that he couldn’t continue on the bag in the afternoon. A case of plantar fasciitis was too painful. No problem. DeChambeau called on a friend who had carried his bag occasionally in the past and only briefly lost momentum.

His first tee shot of the afternoon round sailed left into the woods, and he was lucky to find his ball. Still, no real problem. Bard, who had won No. 18 to conclude the morning round, took advantage of DeChambeau’s rare muff to win that hole, too. Still, DeChambeau wasn’t ruffled.

He went on a tear, stringing one great iron shot after another and backing up those approaches with brilliant putting. He had Bard dormie after winning No. 10 and closed out the match when Bard’s birdie putt lipped out on the 30th hole.

It wasn’t just the dominating result that set DeChambeau apart from the field during the week. It was also his unconventional style. His trademark is a cap like the one Ben Hogan wore. He also spoke proudly of going to the same college as the late, great Payne Stewart, who also wore similar headgear.

“Obviously he’s a very smart kid,’’ sad Bard. “I was prepared for all that. Whatever works –and this week it worked for him pretty well.’’

DeChambeau talked during the week of “revolutionizing’’ the game – eventually, of course. He plans to stay amateur for a while to take advantage of the perks of being the U.S. Amateur champion. He’s already on the U.S. Walker Cup team and invitations to a wide variety of big events are in the offing.

“Some people think I’m too technical and analytical,’’ said DeChambeau, “but I’m also an artist. At times I was a little frustrated, but I also was determined. I knew my game was good enough to win this tournament.’’

Bryson DeChambeau can join the select group – one that includes Jack Nicklaus, Phil Mickelson, Tiger Woods and Ryan Moore — with a victory on Sunday at Olympia Fields Country Club. Moore was the last to pull off the NCAA-U.S. Am sweep in 2004.

DeChambeau, 21, won the NCAA title in April while playing for Southern Methodist. He’ll need to beat Derek Bard, a University of Virginia junior, to complete his sweep of the two big amateur titles.

“I’m the underdog,’’ declared Bard. “Bryson’s had an incredible career and he’s very smart – physics is his major. It’s going to be tough, and I’ll have to play my best to have a chance.’’

Bard might be selling himself short or exercising some gamesmanship. He knocked off Spain’s Jon Rahm, the No. 1-ranked played in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, in Friday’s quarterfinals and has two big wins earlier in the last calendar year – the U.S. Collegiate during the school year and the Sunnehanna Amateur this summer.

Like DeChambeau, Bard had no trouble surviving his semifinal match on Saturday. Japan’s Kenta Konishi went down 3 and 2 against Bard while Sean Crocker, a University of Southern California golfer, was a 4 and 3 loser to fellow California native DeChambeau. DeChambeau is No. 7 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking and Bard No. 51.

DeChambeau, who didn’t play beyond the 16th hole in his five matches this week, isn’t thinking about joining the ranks of Nicklaus, Woods and Mickelson just yet.

“That’d be incredible, I’d be so honored, but I haven’t thought about it yet,’’ he said. “I’m just looking forward to the challenge. In a 36-hole match anything can happen. I will do my best, and I think my best will be good enough.’’

DeChambeau, from Clovis, Calif., is – by his own admission — “unique.’’ All his irons are the length of a standard 6-iron.

“It’s an odd-ball way of playing golf, but it works for me and I think that down the road that could be very beneficial for people starting out.’’

DeChambeau, a right-handed golfer, also trains by writing cursive backwards and left-handed because “it creates more sensitivity with my hands.’’

Both finalists receive exemptions into next year’s U.S. and British Opens and are likely to also be invited to next spring’s Masters tournament.

This 115th U.S. Amateur started with over 7,000 entrants, and 312 survived the nation-wide qualifying rounds to make it to Olympia Fields. The field was reduced to 64 after 36 holes of stroke play competition at Olympia, and all of the matches so far have been over 18 holes. The final calls for 18 holes starting at 8:30 a.m. and another 18 starting at 1:30 p.m.

This is the first time the U.S. Amateur has been played in the Chicago area since Cog Hill, in Lemont, hosted in 1997. The U.S. Golf Assn. presently has no other of its 13 annual national championship tournaments scheduled in the Chicago area. Olympia Fields, a private club in the South suburbs, is hosting the tournament as part of its Centennial celebration.

The 115th U.S. Amateur started with over 7,000 entries world-wide, and 312 qualified for this week’s finals at Olympia Fields Country Club. Now there are only four players left.

Saturday’s semifinals pit Japan’s Kenta Konishi against Derek Bard, a University of Virginia golfer, and Bryson DeChambeau, the NCAA champions from Southern Methodist, against Sean Crocker, an 18-year old from Westlake Village, Calif.

DeChambeau, 21, from Clovis, Calif., was the most impressive survivor in Friday’s quarterfinals. He knocked out of Ireland’s Paul Dunne 3 and 2. Dunne, 22, was a sensation at last month’s British Open when he became the first amateur since Bobby Jones in 1930 win lead that major championship after 54 holes before finishing in a tie for 30th place.

The season has already been a success for DeChambeau, in that he qualified for the U.S. Open and has already been selected for the U.S. Walker Cup team that will take on the Europeans this fall. He’s also the only player in the top 10 in the World Amateur Golf Rankings to still be alive in the U.S. Amateur. DeChambeau carries at No. 7 ranking.

“I so excited,’’ said DeChambeau. “This is the first time I’ve made the semifinals in a USGA event.’’

To get to Sunday’s 36-hole title match, however, DeChambeau must handle Crocker, a 2-up winner over Austin James of Canada. Crocker, born in Zimbabwe, moved to the United States when he was 6 years old. He attends Southern California and is No. 64 in the world rankings.

Konishi, ranked only 632, is playing in his first USGA championship. Konishi was a 1-up winner over Matthew Perrine, a Baylor University sophomore from Austin, Tex., on Friday.

Biggest upset of the quarterfinals came when Bard eliminated Spain’s Jon Rahm’s, the worlds’ top-ranked amateur, 1-up. Bard came after 3-down after 10 holes to get to the semis.

“The whole time I tried to stay positive and patient,’’ said Bard, who birdied the 11th and 12th holes and pulled even when Rahm, who attends Arizona State, three-putted at No. 16. Bard won No. 17 and they halved the 18th.