Notes from Kingsmill

Christina Misses the Cut
Christina Kim missed the first cut of her LPGA career at the Michelob. Unfortunately, the bad play that had started with her final hole at the Chick-Fil-A continued in the first round of the Kingsmill tournament. She shot her career worst 79, lowlighted by the back nine, where she scored bogeys on four of the first five holes (interrupted by a lone birdie), and then added two more bogeys after that for a 5 over par 40. She went three over on the front nine as well, but amazingly had nothing worse than a bogey. The second day was better but hardly great: a 2 over par 73, which caused her to miss the cut by a mile. But apparently she wasn't too miffed: a fan reports running into her afterwards, and Christina was upbeat, saying she still had fun and will do better next time. Good attitude!

Peanut chips during round 2
Reuters/Brendan McDermid

Mi Hyun shines
Mi Hyun Kim fans by now know what to expect from her in a season. She tends to start slowly but decently, notching a few top twenties, maybe a top ten, but not really contending. Then she slowly kicks it up a notch, and starts getting top tens, maybe even contending. Then all of a sudden, she's on the leaderboard week in and week out. Looks like 2003 will be no different. After solid but unspectacular performances in her first few events, Peanut played wonderfully at the Michelob. In the final round she shot a blistering four under on the front nine to climb to within a shot of the lead. She stalled on the back and ended up with a fifth place, but Mi Hyun Kim contending is a sure sign of summer being just around the corner. Look for her to be a factor in the next few weeks, and maybe even add her name to the growing list of Seoul Sisters with a 2003 win.

Don't forget Hee-Won
Hee-Won Han has developed into a top notch player in the last couple of years. Just last year, it was still unclear to me who the fourth best Korean golfer was, Hee-Won or Gloria Park. Well, Han has answered that question with extremely solid play in 2003. While Gloria has yet to make any kind of mark, Hee-Won has already achieved her third top ten, with a solid 8th place finish at the Michelob Open. This moved her to tenth place on the money list and announced in no uncertain terms that she is a force to be reckoned with. No doubt her first win is not too far away!

Reuters/Brendan McDermid