Like the recently deceased Cardinal Sin of the Philippines, Birdie Kim didn't start life with that magnificent eponymous moniker.
Kim is the Korean version of Smith, the most common family name in that country. So when you're one of seven Korean golfers called Kim trying to make an impression on the LPGA Tour, it helps if your other name is a bit of a stand-out.
So as Lee Seung-yong became New Zealand pro Eddie Lee and Park Ji-eun turned into the gorgeous LPGA star Grace Park, Kim Ju-yun changed her name a year ago to Birdie Kim.
Whether it was Ju-yun or Birdie, the lithe Ms Kim became the Michael Campbell of the week - the surprise winner of a US Open.
But apart from her extraordinary new name, the manner of her win is certain to overshadow the victory itself. Tied for the lead and in a deep bunker on the final hole, she appeared to half-blade the shot from the sand and watched in amazement with the rest of the golfing world as it went in.
About an hour earlier the perky Irishman Padraig Harrington stood over a putt more than 20m long on the final hole at the Westchester Country Club in New York. He was tied for the lead in the Barclays Classic with Jim Furyk at eight under and knew that if he could two putt, he'd more than likely win the tournament and more than a million dollars in prize money.
The putt needed to start out about four metres left of the hole, then it would break to the right over a ridge before bending back to the left about two metres out.
Apart from being virtually impossible to read correctly, it was incomprehensible that anybody could actually sink it.
Yet Harrington did. From the other side of the green, on a line that resembled an elongated S, the Irishman somehow found the middle of a cup only 108mm wide.
The two big tournaments of the week were therefore both decided by shots for which there are not enough cliches to go around. From "staggering" to "remarkable", "astounding" to "sensational" and "breathtaking", the thesaurus has been given a decent thumbing in the last few days.
Funny thing is neither shot has been called a fluke. Yet that's the real truth.
Such accidental strokes of good luck, as the Concise Oxford defines a fluke, are an integral part of golf's charm. At all levels, the unexpected holing of a shot can have a drastic impact on your score, let alone your mood. In fact, the most famous shots in golf history were flukes.
Gene Sarazen's "shot heard around the world" when he holed a fairway wood for an albatross on the 15th at Augusta in the 1935 Masters was well struck but it was pure luck that it went in from 200m out.
Tiger's chip-in on the 16th there this year was millimetre perfect for angle and speed before it finally fell on the last revolution of a semi-circular journey. Even Woods, whose destiny it is to hole more spectacular chip shots than anybody in history, reckoned he'd struggle to pull that one off again.
Lee Trevino's chip-in for par from the back of the final hole in the 1972 British Open at Muirfield is possibly the most outrageous fluke in major championship history. He beat Jack Nicklaus, who was chasing his third major of the year, by one shot.
Golfing flukes are like tax breaks. You never know when to expect them but by God, they're great when they happen. The week was so much the better for Birdie and Padraig's flukes. And for Birdie's name too.
- HERALD ON SUNDAY
<EM>Peter Williams:</EM> A stroke of luck always welcome
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