Book excerpt

[Blue]

Christina Kim's new book, "Swinging From My Heels: Confessions of an LPGA Star" is coming out soon.

Amazon.com: Swinging from My Heels: Confessions of an LPGA Star (9781608190881): Christina Kim, Alan Shipnuck: Books



An excerpt was posted on line:

Kim defends her heritage - Golf - Yahoo! Sports

Kim defends her heritage

By Christina Kim and Alan Shipnuck Mar 30, 4:57 pm EDT


I’m not sure what it is about being in Korea that inspires self-improvement.

It must be something cultural – everyone over there works so hard and takes such pride in their craft, whether it’s a shoe shiner or manicurist or bellhop. I wish American golf fans and sportswriters could spend some time in Korea to get a better understanding of the country that continues to change the face of the LPGA. There are so many misconceptions and misunderstandings, and it’s been that way for far too long.

By the time I reached the LPGA Tour, the stereotype of the emotionless Korean golfer with an overbearing father was already an enduring cliche. Like pretty much all things concerning Korean golf, it can be traced to Se Ri Pak. When she won the 1998 U.S. Women’s Open and LPGA Championship as a steely twenty year-old rookie, she sparked a golf boom in her homeland that is still being felt. During Pak’s rookie year she was one of only two Koreans on tour. Now there are four dozen, and this immigration is going to continue inexorably given the infrastructure in Korea: a vast number of golf academies and junior programs and playing opportunities on the KLPGA.

Virtually every story about Pak’s breakthrough focused on her overzealous father, Joon Chul, who famously made Se Ri spend a night alone in a graveyard when she was a teenager because he thought it would make her tougher mentally. He also bragged about never allowing Se Ri to use the elevator in their apartment building so as to strengthen her legs, which doesn’t sound like a big deal but for the fact that they lived on the fifteenth floor.

The next great player to come out of Korea, Mi Hyun Kim, had her own tale of woe: Her dad vowed not to let her get married until she won a major championship. Super Peanut, as we all call Mi Hyun because she’s only five foot one, won eight LPGA events from 1999 to 2007 but could never break through in the majors, and no wonder, given the pressure. She was finally allowed to get married in December 2008, when she was pushing thirty- two, her dad having had a change of heart when Peanut was courted by Won Hee Lee, a national hero in Korea for having won a gold medal in judo at the 2004 Athens Olympics. (Se Ri caught the bouquet at the wedding, though she remains unmarried, like the vast majority of her countrywomen on tour.)

As more Koreans arrived every year on the LPGA, the culture clash began to produce some strained feelings. Jan Stephenson, the veteran from Australia, created a media firestorm in 2003 when she was quoted as saying, “The Asians are killing our tour. Absolutely killing it [because of] their lack of emotion, their refusal to speak English …” Since virtually every Asian on the LPGA was in fact Korean, it was quite clear whom Stephenson was talking about.

In the aftermath of those imprudent remarks, there were more efforts by the tour and individual players to foster communication and cultural understanding. There was some halting progress on those fronts, but in the summer of 2008 another media controversy raged when word leaked out that the LPGA was on the verge of enacting a policy mandating that all players – Korean or not – be conversant in English, with suspensions to be doled out for those who failed the tour’s oral exams.

The LPGA is always dying for mainstream exposure, but charges of xenophobia are not the reason we want to land on A1 of the New York Times. In defending the LPGA’s thinking, commissioner Carolyn Bivens said, “The language is part of the control the parents have over their young daughters. If they don’t even know survival English, they’re totally dependent on the dad.”

Because of the public outcry the LPGA eventually modified its stance, making fluency an aspirational goal but not mandatory while also dropping the threat of punitive suspensions. No doubt the whole thing could have been handled more delicately, but I don’t think it’s outrageous to ask that the players on tour be able to speak some English.

The LPGA is based in the U.S. and the majority of our tournaments are still conducted in America. We’re in the entertainment business, and it’s important to be able to communicate with our fans and the media. It’s also vital to be able to properly understand tournament and rules officials, which is why at the Japan LPGA Qualifying tournament players who don’t speak the language are mandated to pay for a translator (at upward of five hundred dollars a day).

Many of the Korean players and parents who were most outraged by the LPGA’s proposed policy were unable to convey their thoughts to American reporters and thus couldn’t be part of the public dialogue, which in a weird way validated the LPGA’s whole point. English remains a defining factor for the Koreans on tour. I’d estimate that only 10 percent of them are comfortable enough with their English to interact with all of the other players.

The other 90 percent of Koreans break down into two distinct groups. About half of them lead very solitary lives. They are usually the youngest girls – around twenty years old or even younger, having left school in their mid teens to turn pro – and they travel with one or both parents. If they’re not on the golf course they are on the range or putting green or in their hotel room resting so they can practice even more the next day.

The other Koreans move in small, insular groups of four or five or six girls, and they’re as self- contained and dependent upon each other as a bobsled team. They play practice rounds together, hit balls next to each other, and eat every meal together. Some of the cliques even have nicknames. One is the self- styled GMG, for Golf Maniac Girls. Some of these little gaggles are known to enjoy a series of wagers at every tournament, paying each other up to a hundred dollars per birdie and assigning cash values to statistics like fewest number of putts per round.

Naturally, the Koreans speak their native tongue when they are together, and I can understand why non- Koreans might hesitate to try to insinuate themselves. I’ve had to work hard to develop friendships with many of the Koreans because they’ve never known quite what to make of me. I look like them – well, I do have the same dark hair, slanted eyes, and cute button nose – but I definitely don’t sound like them or act like them or dress like them. Spending just a little time among the tour’s many Koreans makes it very obvious that this group is not nearly as monolithic and homogenous as people think.

Angela Park was born in Brazil; she is a committed Christian who is also well- known for shaking her thing on the dance floor. Jane Park is a brainy California girl with a UCLA education, and she’s as apple- pie American as any of the blonde- haired, blue- eyed chicks on tour. She also has an edgy, sexy side that has melted many hearts. Grace Park projects an image of beauty and glamour, but she has an R-rated sense of humor and is one of the LPGA’s original divas, having single- handedly introduced Prada and Gucci to the tour.

The fans and reporters who grouse, “Oh, those Koreans are all the same” are just too lazy or narrowminded to make the effort to get to know the individuals. It also bugs me that the Koreans are collectively demonized as “robotic” because they spend so much time trying to improve as players. This is America – don’t we celebrate hard work and initiative?

The Korean work ethic is certainly respected by the other players. At the 2009 Kraft Nabisco, where five of the top seven finishers were from the U.S., Texas’s own Angela Stanford was quoted as saying, “The negativity you sometimes hear about the Asian players is so sad, because by working so hard they have made everybody better. They’ve forced all of the rest of us to keep up with them, and you’re seeing the results now.”

No doubt there are still some over-the-top Korean fathers who exploit their daughters’ cultural deference by pushing them too hard. There is an infamous story from a couple years ago when one of the overzealous dads was caddying for his girl in a practice round at the Dinah Shore.

Unhappy with her play, he simply dropped the bag and walked off the course, forcing her to enlist a gallery member to carry her clubs. But there are plenty of American girls with big, round eyes whose parents are a little too pushy or claustrophobic and I’ve seen their ranks increase in recent years as the money has gotten bigger and bigger.

Oh, and here’s one thing that every player is very aware of but most fans don’t know: The LPGA’s biggest revenue stream is from Korean TV networks paying for the rights to broadcast our tournaments in Korea. So the next time someone grouses that the Koreans are killing the LPGA, I hope it will be pointed out that, in this economy, it is Korean money that is keeping the tour afloat.

[greentee]

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I like her style.... in more ways then one. I well go look for her book, and buy it. :-)

And here is a little video with Xtina and writer.... you may have seen this already.... but if not, its worth the look. :-)

http://www.amazon.com/Swinging-My-He.../dp/1608190889

[MarinePaul]

That last paragraph kind of makes Jan Stephenson lool like an ass, doesn't it?

[DJGOLFER59]

What a great excerpt. Can't wait to read the whole thing.

[Ricearoni]

Thanks for posting this Blue.

[dangerbob]

Having spent many years in Asian countries and having an Asian grandmother myself, I can say that what Christina Kim wrote is very accurate!

Good job Christina!

[Blue]

I'm looking forward to it. Christina has a book signing coming up on May 4 in San Jose I believe Rice, if you want to get a signed copy. Maybe you already have an inside track.

[Ricearoni]

Originally Posted by Blue

I'm looking forward to it. Christina has a book signing coming up on May 4 in San Jose I believe Rice, if you want to get a signed copy. Maybe you already have an inside track.

So kind Blue. Thanks for telling me that. Do you know where it's scheduled to be, or how I can find out?

[Blue]

Originally Posted by Ricearoni

So kind Blue. Thanks for telling me that. Do you know where it's scheduled to be, or how I can find out?

I had the date wrong. It's Thursday, May 6 at Barnes and Noble at the Eastridge Mall in San Jose at 7 p.m.

She's only signing her book, no golf memorabilia.

Barnes & Noble Eastridge Mall - San Jose, CA - San Jose Mercury News

[Blue]

More excerpts from her book:

Christina Kim?s personality powers book on LPGA - SignOnSanDiego.com

A BEHIND THE GREENS LOOK

Some of the highlights from Christina Kim’s recently published book, “Swinging from My Heels: Confessions of an LPGA Star”:


• On her close friend and the world’s No. 1 female golfer, Lorena Ochoa: “I have little doubt she’ll retire after the 2012 season. That will give her ten years on tour, the minimum needed to qualify her for the Hall of Fame. She will be thirty-one then and eager to start popping out cute little Mexican babies. Lorena is like a comet passing by — you better enjoy her now, because she will be gone before you know it.”


• On the sexual orientation of players on tour: “Contrary to what many people think, we are not the Lesbians Playing Golf Association. By my count, there are no more than two dozen gay women playing the tour right now. Considering there are 230 active members, you’re only talking about 10 percent of the players … To every player I know the issue is just not that big a deal. There are no superfreaky homophobes out here or militant man haters … At most, a player’s sexuality may be an occasional practice-round conversation piece: ‘Hey did you hear that so and so likes girls?’ ‘Really? Huh. So did you hit an eight-iron or a nine?’ ”


• About the breakup with her longtime boyfriend and caddie: “Having a serious boyfriend gave me a richer, fuller life, but if I’m honest with myself, there were times when golf wasn’t my priority, and over the last few years I had been surpassed by a bunch of broads who don’t have more talent than I do but were definitely a lot more focused.”


• About her on-course temper tantrums: “I was told (by an LPGA official) I needed to improve my attitude and my language and start being a better role model. When the initial shock subsided, I was grateful for the pep talk. I had been oblivious to the fact that everyone on tour thought I was suffering from a case of permanent PMS.”


• On body image: “I’m a professional athlete, but I suffer from all the same insecurities as any other woman, and it’s magnified by having so many eyeballs on me during a tournament. There have been many days when I don’t like my hair or makeup or the way my clothes fit, and it’s hard to play well when you’re unhappy with how you look.”


• On South Korea’s influence on the tour: “There are so many misconceptions and misunderstandings, and it’s been that way for far too long. By the time I reached the LPGA Tour, the stereotype of the emotionless Korean golfer with an overbearing father was already an enduring cliché. … The fans and reporters who grouse, ‘Oh, those Koreans are all the same’ are just too lazy or narrow-minded to make the effort to get to know the individuals. … The LPGA’s biggest revenue stream is from Korean TV networks paying for the rights to broadcast our tournaments in Korea. So the next time a fan grouses that the Koreans are killing the LPGA, I hope someone will point out that, in this economy, it is Korean money that is keeping the tour afloat.”


• On cutting back on her shopping sprees: “Traditionally, I have celebrated every top-ten tournament finish with a little splurging, but this year I’ve stopped treating Saks Fifth Avenue like it was Costco.”



I think she may get a little flack for her "only ten percent of players are gay" line. Some people are going to say she has underestimated the number. I think it's probably more like 15 percent (still not many more than in the population at large), though a few are still in the closet (even to themselves in some cases) so you can't blame CK for not knowing. Others are going to say, "Why does it matter who's gay or how many are gay? Still others are going to say, "Thank god someone like Christina Kim pointed out that not everyone on the LPGA is gay!" It's almost impossible to discuss sexual orientation and women's sports and not be controversial.