|
Sit in on a Kimberly Kim post-round press conference and you never know what you might get. Is she serious? Is she joking? Is she just playing with reporters' minds?
Whatever the motive, there's no doubting this 17 year old's talent. The Hilo, Hawaii, native is playing in her sixth U.S. Girls' Junior this week, the most by anyone in the field. She already has won the U.S. Women's Amateur at 14 and played in two U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links finals. Now she's a couple of wins from playing in a third different USGA amateur championship final.
That would put in a category with such luminaries as seven-time USGA champion and Hall of Famer Carol Semple Thompson, who has won a U.S. Women's Amateur, U.S. Women's Mid-Amateur and USGA Senior Women's Amateur title. On the men's side, Danny Green has played in the finals of three USGA events: U.S. Amateur, U.S. Amateur Public Links and U.S. Mid-Amateur.
Not even Tiger Woods can say that. He won six straight USGA titles, but they were either U.S. Junior Amateurs (three) or U.S. Amateurs (three).
And don't forget that Kim has also represented the USA in the Curtis Cup (2008) and Women's World Amateur Team Championship (2006). She's quickly playing her way onto another Curtis Cup team, which will be held next June at Essex Country Club in Massachusetts.
Nevetheless, Kim is quite the personality. She didn't use her regular caddie (Cyd Okino) on Thursday because Kim said "she wanted to go shopping." Her substitute was another fellow Girls' Junior competitor, Annie Park.
On how she turned things around on the second nine against Jessica Korda, Kim responded: "I don't know. When I'm down I kind of forget to pay attention and I think that helps."
On her mindset as she began making a comeback from being 3 down: "I was kind of tired. It was so late in the day that you kind of forget you are in a match."
Then she chipped in from 40 feet at 17 for par to keep herself in the match. "It felt like a 100 feet," she said.
In Friday's quarterfinals, Kim faces Jennifer Johnson, 17, of La Quinta, Calif.
|