She is a real flesh and blood heroine who has just shaken the world of women's amateur golf by winning it's most coveted title - the US Women's Amateur.

And this, incredibly, at the tender, care-free age of 14 when, like most girls of her age, teeth braces come with the package and boys are only just beginning to become interesting.

Kim is such a laid back little character that she has named 'sleeping' as her favourite hobby and was totally unaware of the importance of the prestigious, 111-year-old event in which she was taking part until just two nights before her breath-taking one-hole triumph in the 36-hole final against 26-year-old German international business student Katharina Schallenberg.

This at the 6,380-yard, par-71 Witch Hollow Course of Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club.

"I didn't know it was that big a tournament until last night (Friday)," she told reporters.

"Then there was a commercial on the Golf Channel, and I thought, 'Wow, this is a big deal.'

"I don't even watch golf, I was just looking for myself," she added.

Kim, the youngest-ever winner of the Amateur - Laura Baugh was 16 when she set the previous record in 1971 - is the 2nd Hawaiian to burst on the golfing world at 14.

Michelle Wie, now 16 and playing professional golf, was the same age when she was 'discovered', but while she did win the US Women's Amateur Public Links Championship at 13, she never did get around to winning amateur golf's biggest prize and has yet to win in any of the 32-odd professional events she has played in, though she has come as close as second in the majors.

Kimberly, though shorter and less striking than the statuesque 6-foot Wie, can therefore claim to have a head start in any future contest that might well divide Hawaii and become a feature of women's golf sometime in the future.

Mind you, you can't be sure of that.

If she doesn't get her head right sometime soon, Wie is in danger of turning into another sporting glamour girl like Anna Kournikova, though in truth she has more than enough sheer talent not to let that happen. I'm not so sure you could ever have said that about Kournikova

Kim, on the other hand, has still to prove there is sufficient long-term drive and dedication behind her clear-cut talent, and she certainly wouldn't be the first, or last, US Amateur champion to fall by the wayside if she happens to go that way.

Winning is so much easier for the very young and naive who haven't yet come to fully appreciate victory and don't yet have a need to win so badly that they can taste it.

It's when they do, that the life of a top-level sportsman get's tougher - unless of course they have leaned to win at every step of the way in their climb to fame (as Tiger Woods has done) and victory becomes an easy-to-live-with companion, not something that seems to be as far away as the moon.

OUR DEEPEST SYMPATHIES, DARREN

Moving from triumph to tragedy, Golf365's feelings go out to Darren Clarke who on Sunday lost his wife, Heather, after a long, brave and uncomplaining battle with breast cancer.

Darren and Heather, anyone involved in the world of professional golf will tell you, were wonderful ambassadors for the game, he as the charismatic, easy-going, cigar-puffing character who, though yet to win a major, has always been good enough to do so, she as the smiling supportive wife, mother and life partner, always on hand until the last stages of her illness, to ease his way.

It is a tribute to the Northern Ireland couple that black ribbons were worn on both sides of the Atlantic this weekend by all of Clarke's peers on the US PGA and European Tours.

It's a further tribute that good friend Paul McGinley is prepared to forgo playing in this week's PGA Championship, the season's final major - and possibly forfeiting the chance of a third Ryder Cup cap - to be at Heather Clarke's funeral with his family

Heather, throughout her illness, encouraged, indeed urged her husband, he has often said, to keep playing; to keep trying to give his best; and in the circumstances he did pretty well, though he wasn't able to win as often as he had in happier times.

We feel sure he is aware she would have wanted him to overcome his grief and the mental pain he has had to bear in the past few months and get back to his old competitive self as quickly as possible.

Being the men he is, we have no doubt it will happen sooner than later, though sadly for Europe, it's not likely to be in time for the Ryder Cup in which he has so often played a crucial role.

LEHMAN'S DILEMMA EASED

Whilst talking Ryder Cup, a final thought for the week.

Tom Lehman may sometimes regret that he got within a play-off of qualifying for a US Ryder Cup team of which he has already been appointed captain.

But maybe it's best that he didn't.

Or is it?

The Americans are going to be under heavy pressure from their competitive nation to put a stop to their string of humiliating defeats next month.

Losing is never funny, but going out on a limb at 46, shrugging away conventional thoughts about non-playing Ryder Cup captain's roles and playing and losing would be something he might not want to think about.

On the other hand should he have been able to play, won a game or two, and broken the chain of defeats in Europe's back yard at the K Club in Ireland, he'd have been hailed as a conquering hero, not just an outstanding leader.

But then that's life, isn't it.

Fail to make a critical pass and lose the game and it will always be held against you and never forgotten, but make the same mistake, yet somehow manage to scramble the goal that wins the cup and you'll be remembered with great fondness as that brave, spunky guy who took a chance and pulled it off.

by NEVILLE LECK - FROM MY NOTEBOOK