C. Kim relishing being back at a major

Christina Kim
EVIAN LES-BAINS, France – Majors may be tough, but it is tougher being left out.

Just ask Christina Kim.

She is relishing being back in the major championship mix this week at the Evian Championship. She opened with a 67 Friday and followed with a 73 on Saturday, leaving her 2-under for the championship.

After qualifying for every major championship the first nine years of her career, Kim failed to qualify for the Ricoh Women’s British Open at the end of last year. She also failed to qualify for the Kraft Nabisco in the first major this year.

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What did she do the week of Kraft?

“I burrowed myself in a hole in my bedroom,” Kim, 29, cracked. “I wept for two days.”

Through injury and a battle with depression that she has openly discussed, Kim’s game slumped. A two-time LPGA winner, she missed the cut in all four majors in 2011. She slipped to 109th on the LPGA money list last year and found herself at LPGA Q-School looking to regain her status. Her climb back hasn’t been easy. She missed five consecutive cuts before teeing it up at Evian, but there’s something about this place that inspires her.

“I have some incredible memories at this golf course,” Kim said. “I’ve almost won it a couple times, came relatively close, within a couple shots.”

Kim tied for sixth at Evian in ’07 and tied for fifth in ’05.

With those missed majors behind her now, Kim is looking to build some new major memories.

“I’m back here, and that’s all that really matters,” Kim said. “Everything I went through just really helps me relish where I am now.”