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Hailing from Pahoa, Hawaii, freshman golfer Kimberly Kim has been posting sub-par scores and leading the budding Pioneer women’s golf team through a batch of fall season tournaments like it’s her job.
Well, it’s not technically her job—she’s still an amateur collegiate golfer—but it very could well be. Kim can hang with the best when it comes to swinging the clubs and has played alongside some of the best female golfers in the country.
Last fall, Kim led the young and promising women’s golf team through a batch of competitive tournaments.
In her first collegiate tournament, Kim led DU, floating eagles and birdies and bombing drives all over the course, and posted a four-under par 68.
She followed her opening tournament score by swinging a two-over par score at the Ron Moore 2009 Intercollegiate, a two-under score of 70 at the 46th Stanford Intercollegiate, and a three-day score of 11-over par 227 at NCAA Fall Preview this.
Kim’s success throughout this season traces back to her upbringing in Hawaii and Arizona, where, at age 12, she gave up her interests in soccer and softball to pursue success on the links.
Spending much of her teenage years on the course with her older sister, now a senior golfer for the University of Colorado, Kim always had some familial competition growing up.
After her sophomore year of high school, when her innate talent and promise of success were evident, Kim and her father moved to Arizona, enabling her to play golf year round and enter amateur tournaments across the country.
Kim logged some impressive rounds in her first collegiate tournaments this past fall and she says she’s ready for the team’s upcoming spring tournaments, especially after gaining some valuable team experience.
“I think the fall season was great for adjusting to playing in college. The seniors helped the other freshman and me with scheduling and learning to balance class with workouts and practice,” said Kim.
And while the women’s team did not perform as well as they had hoped this past fall, they still competed strongly with the top teams and players in the nation.
“At times we didn’t play too well ourselves, but we were adjusting to playing together and as a team,” Kim said of the team’s performance.
For Kim, who has golfed as an amateur beside some of the biggest names in women’s golf—Michelle Wie, Annika Sorenstam to name two—this competition against some of the nation’s best collegiate golfers, was exactly what she expected.
As the Lady Pioneer’s first tournament of the spring nears, the Northrupp Grumman Regional Challenge Feb. 8-10 in Palos Verdes, Calif., Kim will continue to assist in leading this sprightly team that consists of three other freshmen, three sophomores and only two upperclassmen, junior Ellie Givens and senior Stephanie Sherlock.
There are still five other tournaments for the Pioneers to compete in before the NCAA Regional and National Championships in May, but regardless, Kim still voiced her hopes for coming season.
“We hope to qualify as a team in the NCAA championship,” she said.
While the Pioneer women’s golf team has shown great promise and their chances of qualifying for the NCAA championships this upcoming spring, Kim’s career won’t end there. She has four more years of college and hopes to play golf professionally after she graduates.
