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KRAFT NABISCO CHAMPIONSHIP

April 3, 2009

Christina Kim

RANCHO MIRAGE, CALIFORNIA

MIKE SCANLAN: Let's do your card quick. Birdie on 2, the par 5.
CHRISTINA KIM: I actually hit my tee shot into the bunker, and so I ended up with a 92-yard shot, 56-degree, and I put it to about five feet.
4, I had 98 yards and hit a 56-degree again to about five feet.
5, from 182 yards, I hit a 6-iron to about 22 feet and made that putt.
No. 9, from 103 yards, I hit a 52-degree to about nine feet.
Bogey on 10, from 130 yards, I hit my 9-iron into a green-side bunker. It had plugged; meaning, I had no shot and just hit it out and from 50 feet put it to about a foot and a half and just missed it.
13 from 163 yards, I hit a 7-iron short and chipped it to about eight feet and missed that putt.
14 from 138 yards, I hit a pitching wedge just left of the hole into the rough. It was probably about a 16-foot chip, and I missed like a 4-foot putt for par.
17 from 182 yards, I hit a 6-iron to about 12 feet and made the putt.
18, I hit a pitching wedge from 100 yards, as hard as I can hit it, and had like maybe a four and half, five-foot putt.
MIKE SCANLAN: Nice round. You were 4-under through nine and then you had a few bogeys and then you came back right when the wind started howling and had two more birdies. Just talk about the round, kind of up and down, and how you feel at 6-under par, and tied for the lead.
CHRISTINA KIM: Like you said, I got off to a pretty quick start, I was 4-under through nine and ecstatic about it. The wind started to pick up gradually as the day progressed and just I had been -- throughout the season so far, I know it's only been five events, I seem to get a lot of unlucky bounces.
So things started to turnaround over the last two days, and then reality struck and got a couple of lucky bounces again. But I just stayed focused out there.
I've turned over a new leaf in terms of my attitude. I'm not saying that I'm having fun so much but just thoroughly enjoying myself in every sense of the word when I go out there. I'm trying to be more considerate of spectators, volunteers, camera people, anybody and everybody --
MIKE SCANLAN: No LPGA media representatives?
CHRISTINA KIM: Like I said ... the last couple of events, I seem like I was in more than anything an emotional slump, and I just figured you know what, there's no reason to be. I mean, look at my office, it's kind of breezy now. Other than that, I have the best office in town and I'm just here to enjoy myself and play some great golf and when one happens, the other tends to happen, as well.

Q. You say that you've had bad breaks this season, but seems like you might have gotten a good one today with the tee times.
CHRISTINA KIM: Yes, the last two weeks, I believe I had the better draw in terms of missing out on the entire day of wind.
You know, I was very fortunate when I saw, because I remember, on Tuesday, they said there was going to be some ridiculous winds, like 40-mile-an-hour gusts on Friday and whatnot and I just had my fingers crossed and I said hopefully I would be able to play late/early. I like playing late/early because you have less time to transition and you don't have to stop and think about, gosh, what's it going to be like, I played this morning, tomorrow afternoon. It's completely different.
So you have less time to think, I guess, and so I was very fortunate with that draw.

Q. You've played here quite a few times, but this is the first time in the lead. Anything particularly different or just the attitude change?
CHRISTINA KIM: Obviously a couple of things have clicked in with my golf game. I'm obviously hitting better. But I'm making more putts. I actually -- 8:30 on Monday, I decided to switch putters, yet again. I was 3-putters in three weeks, and so I decided to go for a new putter, something face-balanced, mallet, very clean-lined and simple to look at. I just putted really well the last few days. I missed a few chances here and there but just made some good putts. So I think that definitely attributed to my playing.
But again, I really think the attitude has so much to do with how you are going to end up playing, especially in an event as important and as prestigious as this.

Q. Did you have an epiphany or a moment or incident where you felt you had to chill out? Was there something that happened?
CHRISTINA KIM: There is something that happened that I cannot disclose at this time. (Laughing).
More than anything, you wake up, you go out, you play, you're grumpy out there, people are like, that's not you, that's not what you're normally like. You get off the course, your feet hurts, your back hurts, your head hurts. It really does take a lot more energy to be upset than it is to not.
I remember when I was at the prime of my game a couple of years ago, I was the person that would go to volunteers and say: "Thank you for coming out this week, without you we would not have an event," thanking spectators; instead of: "Get out of my way, you're in my line" or things like that.
Sometimes it just happens. You wake up one day and you realize, what on earth am I doing? This is not right; this is not who I am. That kind of happened on Monday morning probably around the same time I got the new putter actually.

Q. You're still very young, but does part of --
CHRISTINA KIM: Well, thank you.

Q. -- you think that you have to take advantage of these years because of all of the young people coming up behind you? Did that pressure maybe turn you from the happy-go-lucky person that you are?
CHRISTINA KIM: You know, I never thought of it that way. Annika, she never started her as sent into the top echelon of golf until she was 24. Obviously she came on Tour a little later in life than I did.
No, I never really thought of it that way. But perhaps knowing subconsciously, I just turned 25, and this is my seventh year on Tour. Just the numbers, they start adding up. This is my last milestone birthday for a while. License, voting, alcohol, and then renting a car; I've got nothing to look forward to now, I don't know.
I think I just put pressure on myself. Obviously from people like your parents and coaches and whatnot, they do influence as well. But more than anything, I think most players out here are tough enough on themselves that they don't need outside agencies to be adding to it.
But you know, I just had waves like that, the ebb and flow of life, I guess.

Q. You mentioned putting pressure on yourself, and 25 is young. You won a title early in your career but nothing since 2005. How would you evaluate your career has gone?
CHRISTINA KIM: Obviously you want to win every event you come into, but statistically looking at my years, you know, if I think, 2006, that was my skinny year, didn't go so well. 2007 and 2008, I had more Top-10s than I had had the beginning of my career.
So it's all relative. Obviously you want to win every event that you come into. You want to have that Grand Slam. You want to do this. You want to do that. But at the same time, there are a lot of things that I looked at in my game, my statistics, whatnot, and just how I felt personally. I felt that I made a lot of gains and strides.
MIKE SCANLAN: Christina, thanks a lot.

End of FastScripts

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