The victory gives Kim a record that probably will never be matched.

Beginning with her first victory in 1961, as a 15-year-old, Kim has now won the event in five straight decades.

Enjoying a blast from the past didn't come by accident for the youthful grandma, who once dominated local women's golf as a young teenager named Beverly Kong.

With her two kids having left the nest, Kim now has more time to spend on her game. It used to be that good friend Lily Yao had to drag her kicking and screaming to the golf course. Not anymore.

"Lily's like an eager beaver junior golfer. You can't say no," Kim said.

Hawai'i Hall of Fame golfer Bev Kim has finished first and second in her past two tournaments. Advertiser library photo • June 27, 2002

"I hadn't had a lesson since Guinea Kop. But my husband Randy said to go ahead and get one to kill some time," said Kim, who is in Victoria, British Columbia, this week with the Hawai'i team in the Girls Junior America's Cup.

With her new swing and renewed enthusiasm, Kim's game seems to be peaking.

The week before winning at Waialae, she contended in the Pua Melia Invitational, losing in a playoff to Ku'ulei Ka'ae. Now, Kim is looking forward to representing Hawai'i in the USGA Senior Women's Amateur Championship for the third straight year. The local qualifying is set for Sept. 14 at the Honolulu Country Club.

It used to be "been there, done that" for Kim, who was inducted into the Hawai'i Golf Hall of Fame last year. Now she wants to be there again.

Big Island Amateur

For amateur golfers from the Big Island, there was no bigger tournament than the Big Island Amateur Championship, which was first played in 1924 at the old Hilo Country Club.

The 81st playing of the event will be Saturday and Sunday at the Waikoloa Kings' Course with Douglas Oki defending his title. It will be a 36-hole format for the first time.

The list of previous Big Island Amateur champions reads like a Who's Who of Big Island golf — Steve Veriato, Dennis Rose, Alan Texeira, Lance Taketa and some of the old-timers, including Merrill Carlsmith, who won the event an incredible 16 times, Harold "Sonny" Henderson and Delbert Araujo.

It was a big deal in the old days, according to Araujo, 76, a retired Hilo police officer who won it eight times, the majority of them in the 1950s.

"We always used to ask, 'you goin' play Big Island Champ?' " said Araujo, who shot a tournament record score of 8-under-par 208 in 1979 at the Volcano Golf & Country Club.

Volcano hosted the event after Hilo C.C. closed down. The event moved to Waikoloa in 1991 through the efforts of Rose, then the director of golf and now at Mauna Lani Resort.

"I wanted to make it a gross-only event again because it's the biggest amateur tournament for Big Island residents," said Rose, who won it in 1970 during a summer break from college.

Wie, oui

A lot of critics, including GolfWeek's Ron Sirak, felt that Michelle Wie should have played in the U.S. Girls Junior Championships at Fort Worth, Texas, instead of the Evian Masters in France last week.

What good is a 33rd-place finish in the LPGA event compared to possibly winning a national championship was the contention.

May we make a dissenting comment?

They're missing the point, besides still not realizing the loftier goals that the 14-year-old continues to seek. She has always, well since she was 11, taken roads previously not taken in her quest to become golf's next superstar.

It should be apparent by now that winning tournaments isn't a primary goal for the Wie family, including Bo and BJ, the mom and pop proprietors of the future franchise of golf.

They have learned to dismiss talk that their precocious daughter must first learn how to win. They've already seen her win before. It's now a matter of getting better and they feel it's by playing against the best possible competition, which is at the LPGA level.

And, one of these years, probably before she graduates from high school, Wie will record a breakthrough victory on the LPGA Tour.

She has the game to do it except for an occasional balky putter.

However, those who have seen her play in the Kraft Nabisco Championship — when she didn't three-putt once in 72 holes — know that she's capable of commanding that part of her game as well.

For Wie, the decision to play in the Evian Masters instead of the U.S. Girls Junior was a no-brainer. Who would pass up a chance to play in an LPGA event?

And a tie for 33rd, which was better than half the field, and a closing 3-under-par 69, wasn't a bad showing considering the travel and playing an unfamiliar course.

Besides, a week of sightseeing and shopping afterwards in Paris — not Paris, Texas, either — sure beats Fort Worth, don't you think?

This and that

Interesting to note that the South American country of Paraguay dominated the golf news last week. Carlos Franco won the U.S. Bank Championship (once the Greater Milwaukee Open) and fellow native Julieta Granada, 17, captured the U.S. Girls Junior Championship ... Despite losing to Granada in the semifinals, Paula Creamer still ranks No. 1 among the junior girls in the GolfWeek/Titleist Performance Index. Incoming Kamehameha Schools senior Mari Chun is No. 18 following her victory in the Callaway Junior World Championships for girls 15 to 17 ... After missing the cut in six straight PGA tournaments, Dean Wilson posted his best finish of the year — tied for 22nd — in the U.S. Bank Championship last week.