The first decade of the new millennium ends at the stroke of midnight tonight, fittingly, because we're talking here about a golfing Cinderella, Michelle Wie.

Wie was clearly local golf's 2009 story of the year by making Headline 1s with her breakthrough LPGA victory and starring role in Team USA's Solheim Cup victory. She earned more than a million dollars — $918,658 in official money as a first-year LPGA member — with eight top-10 finishes in 19 starts, missing only one cut. Not bad for a student at Stanford. Wie also was chosen by the International Golf Federation to be the American representative of a golfing foursome that successfully lobbied the International Olympic Committee in Copenhagen to add golf to the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro.

What a way for Wie to end a decade that began in 2000 when the golfing world first heard of her as a precocious 10-year-old who became the youngest player to compete in an adult USGA event — the U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links. It's a record that still stands.

Wie was Hawai'i's top golf story the following year when she became the youngest to win the Jennie K. Wilson Invitational and the Hawai'i State Women's Golf Association Stroke Play Championship and the first female to play in the Mänoa Cup.

Wie was also local golf's biggest Headline 1r in 2003 when she became the youngest player to win the WAPL and shared 2004 honors with Mari Chun by nearly making the cut in the Sony Open in Hawai'i and being the youngest player in Curtis Cup history in leading the U.S. to victory.

Wie regained star billing in 2005 when she finished second in three LPGA events, third in the Women's British Open and became the first female to qualify for the U.S. Men's Amateur Public Links. And, oh yes, turning pro and earning millions of dollars in endorsement money from Sony and Nike.

Wie's achievement in 2009 has to be her most satisfying of them all in this closing decade as she rediscovered the joy of golf after injuries and frustrations the previous two years. Her expression said it all when she clutched that long-awaited and elusive trophy at the Lorena Ochoa Invitational in Guadalajara, Mexico.

With the new decade — the "K-Tens" — beginning tomorrow, the possibilities are now limitless for Wie, who clearly figures to dominate the Headline 1s in the coming decade as well.

Look for Wie to be joined by a bevy of youthful aspirants as the face of local golf gets younger and younger each year, as David Ishii and his peers have noticed. Not surprisingly, the majority of the noteworthy golf stories this year were turned in by the younger players:

• No. 2 — TJ Kua, a sophomore on the University of Hawai'i golf team, won the historic Mänoa Cup, an event that's been around for 101 years, the Barbers Point Invitational and went 3-0 to help the amateurs beat the pros in the John A. Burns Challenge Cup. Kua, 19, also came away with the most coveted prize in local amateur golf — an exemption to the Sony Open — by shooting a 5-under-par 67 at Waialae Country Club in a qualifier involving the 12 amateurs on the winning Governor's Cup team.

• No. 3 — Allisen Corpuz, an 11-year-old sixth-grader who arguably could be the best wahine golfer on the Punahou School campus, but won't be eligible to play high school golf for a few more years.

Corpuz became the youngest player to win the Hawai'i State Women's Golf Association Match Championship, won the U.S. Kids 11-year-old national title at Pinehurst, N.C., and beat an older (13-14) field in the Hawai'i State Junior Golf Association Turtle Bay Classic. She was even named HSJGA player of the year for that age group.

• No. 4 — 'Iolani School's Lorens Chan, 15, became the first freshman to win the state boys' individual title and won the Hawai'i State Amateur by eight strokes, but his personal highlight was playing in a PGA Tour event, the Sony Open in Hawai'i. He also won the Oahu Country Club Men's Invitational and the boys' 15-18 title in the Hawai'i State Junior Golf Association Tournament of Champions.

• No. 5 — Kimberly Kim, 18, a freshman at the University of Denver, reached the finals of the Women's Amateur Public Links and the U.S. Girls Junior Championship. Though she lost both finals, Kim became one of only five players to advance to the finals of three different USGA amateur championships. She became the youngest winner of the U.S. Women's Amateur when she won in 2006 and lost the WAPL final that year. Kim capped a successful junior golf career by winning the AJGA Rolex Junior Girls.

• No. 6 — Stephanie Kono, 20, earned first-team All-America honors as a freshman, out-playing more heralded UCLA teammates Maria Jose Uribe and two-time WAPL champion Tiffany Joh. The former Punahou standout was the 36-hole medalist in this summer's WAPL and lost in the U.S. Women's Amateur quarterfinals to Jennifer Song, who beat Kim in the final. Kono is ranked No. 11 by GolfWeek after the fall season.

• No. 7 — Kristina Merkle, 18, took her talent to the University of Tulsa after winning the Jennie K. Wilson for the third time in four years and successfully defending her O'ahu Interscholastic Association and state girls' individual titles before graduating from Moanalua High School.

• No. 8 — Tadd Fujikawa, who turns 19 on Jan. 8, became the second-youngest person to win the Mid-Pacific Open (he was the first the year before), won the Maui Open and earned $61,892 in making the cut in three PGA Tour events, including the Sony Open when he shot a 62 in the third round to excite the Waialae gallery as he did in 2007.

• No. 9 — Baldwin's Justin Keiley and Cassy Isagawa made it Maui no ka 'oi as the HSJGA players of the year in the 15-18 age division. A junior, Isagawa won five HSJGA tournaments and the Maui girls' individual title. Keiley, a senior, won three junior events and took individual honors in the Ed Hogan Cup in Portland, Ore. He lost in a playoff to St. Anthony's Taek Soo Kim for the Maui boys' title.

• No. 10 — Jarett Hamamoto and his uncle Kevin Hayashi would make an awesome bestball pairing. Hamamoto, a two-time (2001-02) state boys' individual champion from Waiäkea High School and former UH golfer, reached the final stage of the PGA Tour Q-School. Hayashi, 47, won Aloha Section PGA player-of-the-year honors for the sixth time this year and got the section's exempt spot in the Sony Open by winning the stroke-play championship.

• Honorable Mention: Sam Cyr (back-to-back NAIA individual championships playing for Point Loma Nazarene); David Ishii (Taiwan Fubon Senior Open and Asahi Ryoken Cup Invitational victories); Jesse Mueller (shooting 19-under par in the Hawai'i Pearl Open and the Turtle Bay Resort Hawai'i State Open to win in a romp); Miki Ueoka (two tournament wins for Santa Clara); Ryan Perez (Amatour Hawai'i player of the year and Army Invitational champion).

Bill Kwon can be reached at billkwonrhs@aol.com.