An all-expenses paid trip to Japan as guests of golf officials there, has been extended to Bermudian Kim Marshall and her team-mates at Wake Forest University.

Wake Forest had their best-ever finish -- third -- in the recent NCAA Women's Golf Championships and that enabled them to get the invitation to visit Japan, alongwith the University of Florida women's team.

"It's a great opportunity for us to go,'' admitted Marshall this week. The two colleges will visit Japan in September for a week and will kick off their new season.

"We had hoped we would be picked and it's just an incredible thing for us to go over there. It's going to be the first tournament we will play in and it will be a fun trip, too, something different.'' The 20-year old Marshall, who enters her senior year at Wake Forest in the fall, just returned from a week in North Carolina where she received some coaching from professional Tommy Burd, who is the golf director at Pinehurst National Country Club.

The coaching was designed to sharpen her game in time for the US Amateur qualifying which is scheduled for Duke University in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina on July 24. The Amateurs will take place from August 7-12 in Massachusetts so there could be little time for the sociology major to relax this summer.

"He's only been there since March and this is the first time I've had lessons with him,'' Marshall said of her time with Burd, who is still an active player himself in North Carolina tournaments.

"We had seen him play so my dad arranged for us to meet. As far as the technical part of my swing we didn't do too much, he said I've got a pretty sound swing, but he only worked on my extension.

"What he wants to accomplish is my mental game and how I think about different shots while I'm on the course...getting into trouble and trying to get out with as least shots as possible. Just basically my mental aspect and strategies on the course.'' Marshall acknowledges that most of the success on the golf course comes down to the mental aspect which is the great leveller even for the most talented players.

"Golf is so mental and also trying to keep confident. I'll see him (Burd) two days at the end of July right before I qualify for the US Amateurs. We had a couple of thoughts in mind for my swing but nothing major at all.

"He actually let me hit a new driver which could help my game because I wasn't hitting my driver very well. Overall it went very well, he's a very positive person which helped me to be positive.

"Golf is 90 per cent mental so you don't really need to hit it. If you're confident and can think your way around the golf course then you can still score.'' KIM MARSHALL -- Recent third-place finish earned her Wake Forest team a trip to Japan.