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Michael Sim knew he wouldn’t have to do anything heroic to win the Southern Amateur championship at The Honors on Saturday.

Having played near flawless golf for 54 holes, Sim, the 19-year-old Australian, just want to keep his ball in the short grass and leave the heroics to someone else. If another player on the leaderboard wanted to throw a 65 at Sim, well, let them have a go at it.

As it turned out, the four-shot lead Sim carried into the final round was never seriously threatened. And Sim’s game plan was carried out to perfection. He quickly applied a knockout punch to any upstarts in the field, making consecutive birdies at No. 2 and 3 to go 11 under par for the tournament. And neither Spencer Levin or Trip Kuehne, his closest pursuers after three rounds, mounted a serious challenge.

At the end of the day, Sim’s 1-under-par 71, which gave him a 72-hole total of 10-under-par 278, was more than enough to win the championship, one of amateur golf’s oldest and most prestigious, plus an exemption into the PGA Tour’s 2005 Bay Hill Classic. Levin, who has played exceptional golf the last six weeks, didn’t make a birdie until the 15^th hole and shot 70, for a four-round total of 281, three shots behind Sim.

Chattanooga’s Andrew Black, the tournament’s first-round leader, rallied with a closing 69 and finished third at 283. Black, who loves the Southern Amateur, finished second at Atlanta’s East Lake two years ago. Dalton’s David Noll shot a closing 71 and was alone in fourth place at 284. Kuehne, who shot 76, fell out of the top 10.

Chattanooga’s Ricky Honeycutt fashioned a closing 69 that included an ace at the par-3 third hole and finished fifth along with Oklahoma State sophomore Ryan Posey, who also made a hole-in-one (at No. 16) and 2002 champion Lee Williams.

"I’m so happy to win this tournament, this is massive," said Sim, whose game has been steadily building toward a victory after a seventh-place finished in the Dogwood Invitational two weeks ago and a third-place finish in the Sahalee in Seattle last week.

As for the invitation to Bay Hill, good only if Sim remains an amateur, count him in.

"I’ll definitely come back across for that," he said.

Sim has become fond of the U.S. His parents, who got a 2:30 a.m. wakeup call on Sunday with the good news of their son’s victory, agreed to bankroll his trip here this summer, and it’s paid big dividends. Sim left Perth, Australia in late May and hasn’t been back since, his schedule filled with the best amateur tournaments in the country. He hopes his trip will culminate in an appearance in the U.S. Amateur. By the time Sim returns home, he’ll have been gone three months.

"I’ve definitely been playing well since I got here, a little better each week, it seems," Sim said. "Maybe it’s the competition. Maybe that lifts your game a little bit."

Sim definitely lifted his game for The Honors. He took the lead after a second-round 66 and wasn’t seriously threatened after that. Perhaps the most impressive thing about his performance was the fact he didn’t make a double-bogey all tournament. That raised more than a few eyebrows among the club’s staff and members.

"That’s impressive," said long-time member Gary Chazen. "It’s almost impossible."

Indeed, while his competitors were falling victim to The Honors’ many perils, Sim rarely made a mistake. And when he did, his short game saved him.

Sim might have given back some ground after his two birdies on Saturday. He missed the green at No. 4, but chipped up to eight feet and made the putt. At No. 5, his approach flew the green. Sim pitched to within six feet and again trained a par putt.

After that, Sim was untouchable.

Kuehne fell by the wayside with a double-bogey at No. 4 and bogeys at No. 7 and 8. And although Levin hit the ball well all day, he couldn’t make a putt.

"He struck the ball well enough to shoot 59," Sim said. "He just couldn’t get a putt to fall."

"It was one of those days," Levin said. "I hit some bad putts, but I hit some good putts, too, that just didn’t go in. You can have some putts out here that are difficult to read."