July 2 — Fan fave Christina Kim, seeking her first LPGA Tour victory in five years, was two strokes back of leader Na Yeon Choi after 36 holes of the LPGA’s Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic.
A week after Cristie Kerr raised the banner for U.S. women golfers, Kim was hoping to join the “U.S.A! U.S.A.!” party. The popular and flamboyant Kim, who regularly writes about her golfing woes and everything else on her Twitter account, ended the day at 4-under and 9-under for the tourney at Highland Meadows Golf Club.
Join the party. Golf watchers and fellow American LPGA’ers fell all over themselves after Kerr became the first American to sit atop the world rankings.
“There’s been a lot of talk on our tour about the international influence,” Morgan Pressel told Golf.com prior to this week’s event in Sylvania, Ohio. “To have somebody from the United States…I hope it inspires young girls to come out and could inspire a new wave of American golf.”
Paula Creamer, on the comeback trail after thumb surgery, was also pleased with Kerr’s victory.
“That was really neat to see, to have an American on top,” Creamer agreed, according to Golf.com. “It shows that it’s anybody’s title right now. It’s great that we’re finally there. We’ve focused so much on ‘Where are the Americans? Where are the Americans?’ I think it’s kind of a little punch there saying, ‘Here we are.’”
No pizzaz. Despite all the hoopla about Kerr’s win, the kudos lacked a certain, shall we say, pizzaz, that a Kim victory would most certainly inspire. Given her victory drought, the eight-year LPGA veteran is known more of late for her flashy outfits and confessional memoir, “Swinging from My Heels: Confessions of an LPGA Star,” than for her on-course prowess.
“Honestly, I get more questions about my book,” Kim recently told the Buffalo News. “The only thing people ask about my game is what’s wrong with it.”
Opened up. Not surprising, since writing the book with Sports Illustrated’s Alan Shipnuck was like “opening myself from the jugular down to my belly button,” as Kim told New England Golf Monthly in January.
A win, however, might change all that, as well as remind golf fans how Kim got to where she is.
After a stellar amateur career, Kim turned pro at age 18, in 2002, and promptly fired a 62 in her first event. She had two top-10 finishes in 2003, and won a tourney in 2004 and 2005.
With or without tour victories, Kim has won fans wherever she plays, which is just about everywhere LPGA golfers tee it up. Kim attracts women, men, boys, and girls at every stop with her eye-popping attire, over-the-top personality, and unabashed joy of life.
Get over it, Dottie. A curmudgeon like Dottie Pepper may take issue with what she considered Kim’s unseemly flag-waving at last year’s Solheim Cup, but Kim could care less.
“Love how Dottie Pepper said I had Ochocinco syndrome,” Kim tweeted, back in March. “Still makes me laugh. She was the MOST outrageous and discourteous player ever to be!!”
The Cincinnati Bengals’ Chad Ochocinco is renowned for his showy on-field celebrations that earn him hundreds of yards in penalties and tens of thousands of dollars in NFL fines.
Kim, like the recently retired Lorena Ochoa, makes it a point to thank tourney volunteers and autograph every golf ball, hat, vuvuzela, and other items of memorabilia shoved her way.
One of a kind. Kim, however, dispenses a joie de vivre unmatched by Ochoa, Annika Sorenstam, Kerr, or anyone else since, maybe, Nancy Lopez. She is the life of the party that the LPGA desperately needs.
Making the cut. After two rounds, Vermont native Libby Smith was set to play on the weekend. The six-year tour pro carded a 4-under 67 Friday to put her in the hunt at 3-under for the tourney.
It hasn’t been easy for Smith, who, like many LPGA golfers, has split her time among the Futures Tour, European, and Asian tours. And that’s after four years of golf on the University of Vermont men’s golf team.
Smith, however, lost her playing privileges in 2006 and took a break from pro golf in 2008. She made the cut in the only other event she played this year, the Bell Micro Classic in May, and told the Rochester (N.Y.) Democrat & Chronicle she was refreshed and ready to go after her short hiatus.
Boston golfer Alison Walshe (Westford, Mass.) made the cut on the line, at even-par for the tourney.
Slamming the trunk. Liz Janangelo (West Hartford, Conn.) and Carri Wood (South Dennis, Mass.) did not make it to the weekend. Janangelo was at 2-over for the tourney, despite the presence of fiance and Nationwide Tour golfer, Jason Caron (Hyannis, Mass.), on hand to wave the pompoms. Wood was at plus-six.
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