Following four days of gray skies and rain, the sun finally made an appearance at Jupiter Hills Club on Wednesday.

Then again, the spotlight had been shining brightly on Cole Hammer, of Houston, Texas, and Garrett Barber, of Stuart, Fla., since they arrived on the property late last week.

Wind, rain, gray skies, blue skies … it didn’t matter.

These two 18-year-old stalwarts weathered every challenge from the outset of the championship. It all culminated with a 4-and-3 victory over Floridians Marc Dull, 32, of Winter Park, and Chip Brooke, 42, of Altamonte Springs, in the 18-hole final.

“Growing up watching U.S. Opens and U.S. Amateurs on TV, I just knew being a USGA champion is something that I desperately wanted,” said Hammer, who qualified for a U.S. Open three years ago at 15. “And to finally do it, it feels incredible. It feels as good, if not better, than I thought it would. And especially being able to do it with Garrett. It’s really cool to share this moment, and I’m sure we’ll look back on this for a long time.”

Added Barber: “Pretty cool. I mean the USGA, everybody knows it’s a world-class organization, the best championships around the world. It means so much to be on that Wall [of Champions] in the [USGA] Museum [at Golf House]. I can’t really put it into words.”

Just how dominant were Hammer and Barber? In their five matches covering 71 holes, they only trailed for two holes – they lost No. 1 and halved No. 2 in their quarterfinal encounter against Texans Zach Atkinson and Brad Gibson – and shot the equivalent of 28 under par, with the usual match-play concessions. They also never played the 17th or 18th holes after stroke play, and they won 31 holes against eight losses.

The Nos. 52 (Hammer) and 57 (Barber) competitors in the World Amateur Golf Ranking™ combined for 10 birdies and two eagles in their two victories on Wednesday. They were 7 under par in the championship match. During the two rounds of stroke play, which included a championship-record 28 on the outward nine of the Hills Course – Jupiter Hills’ Village Course was the stroke play co-host – they posted 9-under 131 to earn the No. 3 seed.

Hammer and Barber also are the second consecutive tandem of juniors to win the title following Frankie Capan and Shuai Ming (Ben) Wong, both of whom were 17-year-olds last year at Pinehurst Resort & Country Club.

Unlike last year’s final when Capan and Wong had to rally to win, Hammer and Barber took control early. Although the sides split the first two holes – Brooke chipped in on No. 2 – the juniors slowly took control from No. 3 when Hammer, who shot the equivalent of 4-under 31 on the first nine, holed a 30-foot chip shot for a winning birdie. Dull said after the prize ceremony that the one shot he wanted back was the 12-foot birdie putt that stopped inches short to halve that hole.

Hammer continued his wizardry on No. 6, which was playing 285 yards with the tee moved up. Hitting his second shot from the pine straw, he perfectly judged a pitch, allowing his ball to go past the flagstick and then curl back from the sloping green to 3 feet for a conceded birdie that halved the hole. Two holes later, Hammer’s 6-iron uphill approach into the wind from 167 yards landed 3 feet from the hole for a winning birdie and a 2-up advantage.

“I tugged it a little bit,” said Hammer. “I didn’t think it was going to get there. That was big.”

Then on No. 13, Barber laced a towering 4-iron from 235 yards that stopped 3 feet from the flagstick for what became a conceded eagle-3 and a 4-up advantage.

“Cole didn’t want me to hit 4-iron,” said Barber. “He didn’t think I could get it there. I was like, ‘I got it.’ So I hit it hard, hit pretty much a perfect shot. It was a crazy shot.”

Two holes later and dormie-4, the final nail was struck by Hammer. With the tees moved up, he drove the green on the 370-yard, dogleg-left, par 4 and calmly two-putted for a birdie.

“Cole Hammer is a special player,” said Brooke. “He did some things that – obviously he’s going to Texas [and] I’m not saying he is Jordan Spieth, but there are certain things that he does.

“They’re just a lot better than we are. I mean, there’s no other way to say it. They’re phenomenal players. We had a couple putts that we almost made, and who knows, with two, three holes left with pressure, you never know. But they beat us today, and we tried as hard as we could.”

In the morning semifinals, a 40-yard holed flop shot for an eagle by Hammer on the par-5 fourth hole led to a comfortable 5-and-4 victory over fellow juniors and Idaho high school teammates Sam Tidd, 18, of Meridian, and Carson Barry, of Eagle. Hammer and Barber registered five birdies and the eagle, while their opponents’ two birdies came on the fourth (lost hole) and par-5 13th holes (halved).

Dull and Brooke eliminated former Seattle University teammates Kyle Cornett, 23, of Seattle, Wash., and Patrick Sato, 23, of Bellevue, Wash., 3 and 2.