Christina Kim, on the LPGA Tour since 2003, is appearing in her fourth U.S. Women’s Open this week at Cherry Hills Country Club. She tied for 27^th in 2003, her best finish in the championship. Kim holds the USGA record for lowest 18-hole score in a USGA competition when she shot 8-under 62 during the 2001 U.S. Girls’ Junior. She shares her thoughts with www.uswomensopen.com:

Well, my finish in my first round this morning pretty much summed up the entire round.

Due to the weather suspension yesterday, I started the day on the 17^th fairway with 59 yards left to the hole and failed to get up and down from there for my birdie on the par five. And on the 18^th I had 180 yards to the front and 200 yards to the pin. I hit my 4-iron short and failed to get up and down for par when I missed about a 3 ½ footer.

I went to the lunchroom and caught a quick bite to eat and hit a few drives, couple of iron shots, putted and then I was back out.  I only had 40 minutes to practice for 20 holes, which is not what I’m use to, but it seemed to work out in the second round.

Before I started the second round I told myself to scrap what happened to me in the first round and just focus on the so many positive things can happen out there, still 18 holes left.  A lot of people may think I have 18 holes to mess it up, but I told myself I had 18 chances to get some strokes back and I did; I improved by 11 shots. 

I just did everything better. I hit my drives better, my irons better and I putted better (Note: Kim hit 12 of 14 fairways, 14 of 18 greens and only had 30 putts in the second round), getting in the fairway, getting on the greens in regulation and keeping the putts close to the hole and making the putts. That was the difference.

Both scores are out there, my 81 and my 70.  Yesterdays 81 -- it’s out there as I managed to find out, and my 70 is definitely out there. I was surprised that the scores were so high in the morning because I thought there were a lot of opportunities to gain a lot of ground for a lot of people.

Coming off of nine, my last hole of the day, I was really emotional. As I went through my round I thought that eight over par would be the cut line, and I had an eight-footer on the ninth hole for birdie and missed it, didn’t give it enough steam.  I was emotionally drained after that because I only got seven hours of sleep the night before and for something like the Open you need as much rest as you can get, you need everything, you need to practice well, eat well, put yourself in a good mind frame and I wasn’t in a good frame of mind. I was just grinding out there all day long and it’s astounding to think or realize that doing that four days in a row is what it takes to win an Open.   But I really wanted to make that last putt and when I didn’t I was in tears.  I think that the worst feeling, coming up short on the putt, not lipping out, not blowing it past the hole, but not giving yourself a chance to make it.  

I’m a very visual person, I’m a very vocal person and there were so many things I kept inside of me for the last 48 hours. And now that the round is finished and I had time to visit my friends, I took advantage of it and knew I would have to wait it out to see if I made the cut at nine over par.

Now I’m on the bubble and have to wait.  I am proud that I never once gave up in either round.  Nancy Lopez once told me she only gave up once in her career and I kept that thought with me ever since she told me that, so I didn’t give up. But knowing there are so many shots out there I could have saved, that are just countless shots right off the top of my head which I would rather not recall, but they’re there.

Obviously making the cut would mean a whole lot to me because I have never missed the cut in a Women’s Open.  This is my fourth Open and this is one of the few events that I work for all year to perform well in.  The last three weeks I’ve been grinding and working so hard on my game to prepare myself for this.  So I’m proud of that, but it would mean so much to me, it would be indescribable if I make it, because I did shoot 70 today and I could have easily shot a whole lot better than that.  Hopefully I can make a move over the next couple days if I get the opportunity to play.