“Korean Killer” Overtakes Christina Kim on the Green

In golf, scores are relative. No matter how well you do, there’s always bound to be someone who does even better.

This was certainly true at the LPGA State Farm Classic (total winnings $1.2 million), which ended on September 6 at the Rail Golf Club (par-72) in Springfield, Illinois. Although Korean-American golfer Christina Kim (Korean name: Kim Cho-rong. 20) whipped up an impressive 23-under-par 265, she had to settle for second place by the difference of a single stroke.

Twenty-three-under par is only one stroke over Brit Karen Stupples’s winning score at the Welch’s/Fry’s Championship, which also happens to be the current season record for most-under par in the LPGA tour. At the time, Lee Jung-yeon (Hankook Tire) had put up a great fight, firing a 10-under par in the first round and a 17-under par overall, but was ultimately defeated by Stupples, who had scored in the 60s for four consecutive days.

At the State Farm Classic, Christina Kim suffered the same fate. She led the race throughout the first round with a course record-tying 10-under-par 62, but American Christie Kerr, whose 9-under-par 63 in both the second and third rounds topped off an amazing performance that remained firmly in the 60s for four days in a row, edged her out by a mere stroke in the end.

Kim stumbled in the third round, scoring a 1-under-par 71 and allowing Kerr to overtake her by four strokes. But the eventual loss was even bitterer because it happened as a come-from-behind win, after Kim had managed to regain the lead for a while during the final round.

Kim made five birdies over 14 holes and putted for an eagle on the 15th hole (par-5) to push into a one-stroke lead over Kerr.

But her score of 24-under par overall was again bested by Kerr, who first tied for the lead on the 16th hole (par-3) thanks to a tee shot error by Kim, and then caught a game-overturning birdie on the 17th hole (par-4).

Even when Kim got one last chance to pull ahead on the 18th and final hole (par-4), the goddess of victory turned her back on the Korean-American. Kerr’s driver tee shot veered right of the fairway and fell under the trees, making a two-on virtually impossible. By contrast, Kim made a two-on at a distance of 1.2m from the hole, and the match seemed to be heading for a tie-breaker at the least.

As fortune would have it, Kim’s birdie putt swerved right of the hole, and Kerr calmly putted her way to an even par and her third champion’s title for the season.

This marks the third time Kerr has been able to relegate a Korean competitor to the first-runner-up spot in her four career victories.

She got her first champion’s title at the 2002 Longs Drugs Challenge, when she finished one stroke under Han Hee-won (FILA Korea). She scored her first victory this season in April at the Takefuji Classic by defeating Jeon Seol-an (23) in a long and arduous playoff.

Young-Sik Ahn ysahn@donga.com