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SYBASE CLASSIC

May 21, 2005

Christina Kim

NEW ROCHELLE, NEW YORK

MODERATOR: Great playing. Let's go over your score card first. Bogey on 4.

CHRISTINA KIM: No. 4, the par 4, I was 198 yards to the hole. I tried using my 5 wood, ended up 40 feet from the hole, failed to make like a five foot putt coming back for par, so made bogey there.

Rallied back with a birdie on 5, from 139 yards I hit a little 8 iron to about a foot, made that.

And then No. 8, I had 59 yards to the hole, used my 60 degree wedge and pitched it to about 10 feet and made the putt. And that was it.

MODERATOR: Any close calls on the back?

CHRISTINA KIM: I had a close call on 9. I hit my second shot I was 103 yards from the hole, tried using my pitching wedge because it was playing uphill and pushed it to the right. So I was probably about a foot in the rough, a little more than pin high. The ball was nestled all the way down in the rough and I had to whack out a lob wedge. It hit the flag luckily and landed eight feet from the hole and made the putt.

I didn't really give myself a lot of really good opportunities. I messed up on holes 15 and 17 or 15 and 18. I should have made birdies on both of those holes. I had 150 yards to the hole on No. 15 and walked off with par when I was actually thinking eagle.

MODERATOR: You're still in control, though. Do you feel good about your position going into tomorrow?

CHRISTINA KIM: Yes. I'm three quarters of the way done. I'm very excited about that. I have been doing a lot of thinking lately, which is something I'm not used to doing. It's good, though. I'm very happy with where I am. I feel like I could be playing better, but everyone can say that.

Q. Can you elaborate on what you've been thinking about?

CHRISTINA KIM: You know, I've been thinking a lot about how I can improve myself out there on the course, you know. If I could hit a few more fairways it would make things a little easier, or position myself where I can hit the ball short of the hole so that I could have an uphill putt coming in, things like that.

I'm not really big it's not that I'm not big on thinking when it comes to golf, I'm more about action. I've just been trying to figure out what I could do to just maybe scrape away another stroke per round or something like that.

Q. Kind of managing your game more?

CHRISTINA KIM: Yes, course management, managing my game, definitely. It's not something I'm used to. I'm not used to that at all. I'm used to hit the ball, try to find it, doing it over and over. I'm trying to progress to a new level or something, I don't know.

Q. You talked about Annika Sorenstam, the way she was annihilating the field. Is that what spurred this thought change?

CHRISTINA KIM: I'm sure that did have a part in it. But at the same time, just seeing where I am right now, how I ended up being 6 under, where my score is, how I managed to make certain shots work, certain shots not work. It's just normally I would have been like, oh, I missed a couple of fairways. Now I'm like, what can I do to not do that.

Obviously Annika Sorenstam's influence has been an influence on me, but I think that just because I want to progress myself to a higher level, I think, that also has to do with it.

Q. Do you have a score in mind of what it might take tomorrow to win?

CHRISTINA KIM: 54. I'm pretty sure I could walk off with it. But honestly, you don't know what tomorrow is going to bring. Yesterday I thought today was going to be cold and rainy so I dressed warmly and had to take off a couple of layers here and there. You never know what tomorrow is going to bring. All I know is if I can go out there and right now work a little bit on my game, hit a couple of key shots out on the range, hone in a little on my skills, then whatever I end up with tomorrow is what I end up with. 54 is not a bad number to shoot for. It's possible.

Q. The way the course has played the last couple of days, it seems par is not a bad score. 6 under is still leading the tournament.

CHRISTINA KIM: Yes. The greens are faster than they have been. This is only my third year here so I'm not a veteran or anything. Other times I've been here the greens are as fast as they've ever been and the pin placements are always very interesting out here. So it sort of stresses a little bit on if you make a par, you know, that's fine; if you make a birdie, great; but if a make a bogey, that's going to happen. The rough is really thick out here. The course is very, very lush. Par is not a bad score, by any means, out here.

Q. Have you had a chance to get to know Paula since she's been out here at all? Have you been paired with her at all?

CHRISTINA KIM: I was paired with her last year in Rochester when she was still an amateur, one round then. We grew up together, actually, in northern California. Mind you, I'm a couple of years older than her. And we had different lifestyles and different kinds of friends back then, just as we do now, but I've seen her name out there a lot, just as everyone has. I've seen her play. I've played with her a couple of times. I think I know her better than a lot of other tour players out here do because I grew up with here. We have that Northern Cal connection.

Q. Are you impressed by her game? Is that safe to say?

CHRISTINA KIM: The way I see it, if you're out here, period, if you can make it out here, I don't care how old you are, if you're a rookie or 48 years old, 18, 17 years old, if you can come out here, I'm impressed, period. I don't want to say, wow, she, you know, fill in name here. But everyone has the skill to win out here, is the way I see it. But yes, her talent cannot be denied, just like anyone else' out here can't.

Q. I've sure it has been asked before, why do you wear your hat backwards?

CHRISTINA KIM: I don't wear it backwards. For 200 years everyone has just been I don't know. I've worn it forward a couple of times. People are laughing. It seems to fit

Q. Did you wear it like that before this tour?

CHRISTINA KIM: No. My rookie year, I believe the first couple of events I had a couple of hats I wore bill forward. I'm not going to say right side forward bill forward, but wearing it backwards. It's a little edgy, a little more punky, whatever. I just like it, personally. It's more my pace than the traditional what have you.

Q. Has anyone ever encouraged you to turn it the other way? Golf is kind of known as the uptight sport. Along the way, has anyone given you grief about your garb?

CHRISTINA KIM: When I was in Canada, I was wearing whatever I was wearing in the tournament, and I remember one there was this lady who was one of the volunteers there. She said I was walking away, I made par on the hole, I was walking. She said, "Someone tell that girl she has to wear golf clothes; she is on a golf course." She was a little more old fashioned. She was an older woman.

I respect that everyone is entitled to their own opinion. One's opinion may affect how you see things, but I'm not going to say, "Oh, my God, they don't like what I'm wearing. Oh, my God." Because it's like, You don't have to. If you don't like what I'm wearing, look at someone else.

Q. (Jeans)?

CHRISTINA KIM: Isn't there like a fine or something? If I can't wear jeans, you shouldn't be able to.

Q. Have you looked at some of the stuff they are a wearing on the men's tour these days?

CHRISTINA KIM: I don't like men's golf. Just kidding.

They've got like Darren Clark. He's looking really good, just period. He's transformed himself. Aaron Badley, Adam Scott, all the younger guys, Ian Poulter, they're a lot more flashy. Because I know that with the PGA Tour, they still have to wear the long pants. There are certain rules that they have to abide by when it comes to the dress code, but I like seeing that people have their own sense of style and aren't afraid to show it.

Q. There was a chance for somebody to jump out today and nobody did. Do you know why? Was it the conditions?

CHRISTINA KIM: I was very surprised nobody came out guns flailing and everything else. I thought that today, if you go out and there and play smart golf, 64, 65, it really is out there, all you have to do is fairway, green, make the putt. That's why 54 is possible.

The conditions are tough out there, as far as they haven't been cutting the rough. Again, like I keep stressing, the greens are very tricky and the poa annua is coming up a little bit in the afternoons. That's all right, that's how it is. I don't know why nobody did. It just didn't happen. Mind you, after playing I could say, Oh, my God, I so could have shot fill in number here.

With this course there's almost like a sense of you always want to hold back because if I really rip this club, I could be five feet over the hole and have 10 feet coming back for par. I think people aren't attacking as much as they could be. That's my opinion. That's how it is with me anyway.

Q. When you see a leaderboard on Sunday where there's not a lot of experienced winners or dominating players up there, will you take more chances to win?

CHRISTINA KIM: I'll be honest with you, coming in on Thursday, I was like, you know what, if you miss the cut three years in a row in this tournament, you are never coming back. The way I see it, if I'm swinging well, if I'm feeling good about myself, I don't care if I'm at the Open or where we are, I'm taking chances. I'm going after the pin.

The way I see it, I have a one shot lead right now and that can be gone in half a hole, in all honesty. I'm going to come out guns flailing and everything, and hopefully every time I try to play smart, I walk off a hole looking stupid. I'm going to see if I'll tell you tomorrow.

Q. (No microphone.)

CHRISTINA KIM: No, I believe I was two shots back.

Q. (No microphone.)

CHRISTINA KIM: I believe I was in the second to last group. I was playing with Karrie.

Q. (No microphone.)

CHRISTINA KIM: I can't tell you. I don't discuss my wardrobe, especially not with the press.

Q. (No microphone.)

CHRISTINA KIM: It's a superstition of mine. I don't reveal what I'm going to wear.

Q. The LPGA Tour or PGA Tour, a lot of the golfers are tunnel vision focused, but sort a Fuzzy Zoeller way, you don't mind bantering with the crowd a little bit. Explain how that works for you and why you're comfortable with that?

CHRISTINA KIM: The way I see it, that's just the kind of person that I am. I'm loud, I'm outlandish, I'm vivacious, bubbly. I've heard many things said about me, some not so good but I won't repeat those. That's just the person I am. And the way I see it, I don't know why I wouldn't want to live every aspect of my life to that degree. I don't care if I'm clocking in to go to work, except for at like a funeral, I'm not going to be like that then.

Look at my office. This really can't be beat. I'm working on my tan, chasing my ball, every now and then I get paid for it. The way I see it, life it really, really good, regardless of what happens out there tomorrow. And the fact that people are willing to come out, take the time to watch a bunch of women run around the grass, chasing little white balls, the least I can do it smile at them, is the way I feel.

Q. (No microphone.)

CHRISTINA KIM: I think, in all honesty, I think that's how I relieve my anxiety or my stress. I'll talk about cheese for an hour, if you give me the time.

Q. Cheese?

CHRISTINA KIM: Or whatever. Anything. I don't know. Gouda.

End of FastScripts.

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