But above and beyond this, golf provides women with a camaraderie no other sport comes close to offering. According to Cindy Boal Janssens, staff writer at the US online magazine Travel Golf it’s all down to the way women learn the game.

“The key to understanding the female golfer is to understand that women agonize over their play. They worry that everyone is watching and judging them. They worry that they will embarrass themselves. So after a woman has learned enough about golf to begin to feel some confidence, she joins a nine hole group. This can be either a league or just an informal group, but more than that it is a support system. It is a group of other women, all with high handicaps, who will not laugh at each other, who will always cry "Great shot!" and who will chuckle with you at your whiffs. Perhaps the greatest camaraderie in all of golf is found among women.”

Kim agrees. “I am very competitive by nature, but I don’t think women reveal their competitiveness in the same way men do. There is none of that machismo. We play politely and we win with grace.”

Golf for Kim is a hobby, of course, albeit an obsessive one. Modeling, and lately acting (she is soon to appear in the new Catwoman movie) are how she actually makes her money. I am speaking to her in Las Vegas where she is attending Maxim magazine’s annual bash to celebrate the famous and the beautiful. It will be the fourth time Kim has been invited to attend. In 2000 the magazine’s editors awarded her the title of ‘Second Most Beautiful Woman in the World’ (model and actress Estella Warren was top of the list). Amazingly this prompted a thousand Kim Smith fan-sites to pen angry editorials complaining that she had been cheated out of the number one spot. The story of how Kim got into modelling might actually make a movie in its own right. With engaging modesty Kim describes it as “a very happy accident”.

“I got my start by attending a ‘Model Search America’ contest with a friend. I had no intention of modelling. I was just there purely as a spectator. You know, just holding her hand, ’cos that atmosphere can very pressured, very stressful, you’re in a very charged and pretty bitchy place.”

She was instantly spotted by the organiser and president David Mogul. He asked her why her identity tag said "Guest", and quickly changed it to one that read "Competitor."

» Kim Smith part 4