Christina, meanwhile, finished Saturday with the ultimate birthday gift: a 62, which vaulted her into second place, only one shot behind Lorie Kane. She would be playing in the final round on Sunday in her very first LPGA event!

On Sunday, she started out with a bang, despite the fact that she was 'nervous up the rear' in her own inimitable words. She birdied the first two holes and showed she would not be going away easily.

Perhaps it should not come as a surprise that Christina has done so well. What most did not know until this week is that she toured the country last winter playing many of the courses that LPGA events will be contested on. Some of those courses, such as Wykagyl, were under several inches of snow, but that did not stop her! The Dell Urich course, site of this event, was her home for the previous week or two. No doubt future rookie prospects are watching and taking notes.

Well, the weather got rough as the round progressed. Christina had some particularly bad luck when, just as she started to play the reachable par 5 13th, a squall whipped up that made playing difficult. She ended up bogeying that hole and the next, ending her quest to become the first player in 52 years to win her first LPGA event. But she showed spunk right to the end, nailing a 6 footer for par on 18, then curtsying in gratitude to the crowd for their loud cheers. She ended up with a 4th place finish and a lot of new fans.

Christina finishes her 62 on her 19th birthday

Young Kim in round 4
Reuters/Jeff Topping

Young Kim, meanwhile, was never able to get things going in the difficult, windy weather on Sunday. She had ended her Saturday round with a long chip that stopped right next to the hole to the delight of the crowd. But on Sunday, she shot a 71, one over par. Since everyone else was also struggling that day, however, she did not lose any ground. She finished 9th, her first top ten in her first LPGA event. One good result of that is that she qualified for the Nabisco in two weeks (as did Christina), something rookies have had a hard time doing in recent years.

The future looks promising for these two rookies. Let's hope they keep their confidence and their good attitudes as they progress through this long season. Good luck to them in pursuing the Rookie of the Year title as well!