September 24 - 27, 2009 San Ramon Valley • Blackhawk CC |
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| You are here: Home > History > 2004 | ||
 2004 Champion Christina Kim |
2004 Christina Kim Records First Career Victory San Francisco Chronicle Brian Murphy, Chronicle Staff Writer At 20 years old -- "still young and fertile," she says, laughing - - Christina Kim has blazed through her two years on the LPGA Tour as a hyper- active, hyper-aware kid who oozes life, flittering hither and thither with a chatty swagger innate to the young and carefree. On Sunday at The Ridge Golf Course, she finally met her match. Her hands dripped with sweat, causing her golf club to slip out of her hands. She needed her father to remind her to breathe. She watched events unfold on the 72nd hole of the Longs Drugs Challenge in what she called "agonizing" time-lapse, all in "slow motion" -- a speed unfamiliar to the fast-forward personality that marks this California girl, the one who left San Jose's Oak Grove High in her junior year to chase her dream of professional golf. Coming face-to-face with that dream nearly undid her, but it turns out there are few things as powerful as a young lady whose time has come. Kim's time came in the form of a final-round 65 at the Longs Drugs Challenge, a storm of a Sunday that had her zoom past Los Altos' Juli Inkster on the back nine, hold off Australia's Karrie Webb on the final hole and claim her maiden LPGA Tour victory, just a few hours from her South Bay home. That's wink-wink Christina -- the chirpy and happy girl who turns heads with her colorful wardrobe (always bright colors, always pigtails, always a Kangol hat at a rakish angle). The Christina who had to navigate her way to victory was slightly different -- dead-serious over her shots, and ice-cool under pressure. It showed in her outrageous charge to the winner's circle, playing her last 12 holes in 7-under-par to finish at 18-under 266 overall. She took the lead with a stiff 9-iron to 10 feet and subsequent birdie putt on the 17th hole, erupted in joy ("I hurt my arm on that fist pump," she said later) and then made a rock-solid par on the 18th that was good enough for victory when Webb (final-round 64) missed a birdie putt from 8 feet. When Webb's putt rolled past -- the one that Kim said moved in super slo-mo -- and when Kim made her 2-footer for par, she sank to her knees and wept. Her father and caddie, Man, broke down, also. The long road that started when she first pounded balls at Santa Clara Golf Club's public driving range, that continued when she graduated early from Oak Grove, that saw her ace one year on the LPGA's Futures Tour, finally ended in the ultimate validation. That it came down to a Kim-Inkster-Webb showdown was apparent when third- round leader Leta Lindley faded badly, en route to a 76. Inkster went out in 33 and had a three-shot lead on Kim, two-shot lead on Webb at the turn. Inkster, 44, went into stall mode on the back nine, missing some key putts, while Kim went into overdrive, shooting 30 on the back nine with birdies on 11, 12 (where her sweaty grip nearly flew out of her hand), 14, 15 and the key hole, 17, when she moved ahead of Webb. For all her personality-driven antics, the larger theme is that Kim can play golf. "Everything is coming together," she said, adding: "and I'm putting damn good right now." All that was left was the celebration. She said she'd drive home to San Jose in her own car and "halfway home, I'll probably just start screaming." As for the myriad emotions of an unforgettable Sunday? "It's great," she said. "It makes you feel alive." Briefly: Anna Acker-Macosko set the course record with an 11-birdie round of 60. She had a 30-footer on the 18th hole for a 59 -- only Annika Sorenstam has reached that number in women's golf -- but missed a foot to the right. |
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