Ouch!
I.K. Kim was twelve inches away from a major championship yesterday. A one-foot putt on the 18th green and she would win the Kraft Nabisco Championship, the LPGA’s most venerable tournament.
She missed the putt.
After that, Kim couldn’t come back in a playoff (no surprise) and lost to Sun Young Yoo.
Besides costing herself a major championship, Kim also cost herself $117,462 — the difference between the winner’s share of $300,000 and the runner-up payout of $182,538. (That’s $9788.50 per missed inch, if you’re counting.)
Kim was extremely game after her loss, talking at length to reporters. She tried but failed to make sense of a very rough moment.
“I felt like on 18 I was a little rushing. I didn’t really read the putt. It was short, I was… you know what I mean, how to say it? Like, you have to take care of everything, but it felt like I just let it go. Next time I think, I’ll just… I think I’ll just remember to… I think it’s just good learning experience. Just… You just gotta… read the putt, no matter what, no matter, whatever.”
That commentary, plus the missed putt, starts at about the 2:05 mark here:
Ouch, ouch, ouch.