 The final day of the Lexus Cup 2008 may have been scheduled as Annika’s farewell to the golf world, but it belonged to Christina Kim, in terms of showmanship with high entertainment value accompanying content solid game performance. That feisty ball of fury, fire and fun was clearly used to being a performer, as she yelled instructions to her ball to do her bidding around the SICC Bukit course. On the approach to the 16th hole, greenside spectators could hear her hollering from the fairway to her ball in mid flight to “SIT, SIT, SIIIITTT” on the green, which it promptly did.
Then on the 17th par-3, she bellowed, “GO, GO, GOOOO” to her tee shot, willing it to get to the green (where quite a few other players had driven short), and it dutifully ran up the slope in frantic fear. The crowd was highly amused, by this rollicking pig tailed golf pro, with her ambling gait and muscleman poses. On the 9th green, after sinking her putt, she pumped her arms in weightlifter glee, looking more like a rapper with her baseball cap on backwards, than glamorous lady golfer, all in sharp contrast to her petite, pretty, playing partner Namika Omata.
Initially, it seemed hardly fair to pit a 38th ranked player in the world against the 118th, but actually I was surprised that Kim had to work that hard to stave off the “anime cute” Namika, who herself was on fire, sinking some very worthy putts, and pulling in an appreciative crowd, many of whom were men smitten with the Japanese player’s looks.
That it had to actually go all the way down to the wire, to the 18th, was a credit to Namika, who was calm and smiling all the way to the end, while the crowds around her were buzzing with the talk of her match being crucial towards the final outcome of the contest. A win would have led to a sudden death play-off in order to give Team Asia a chance to retain their title.
In that sense, Namika was high on the showmanship polls too. The organizers couldn’t have asked for a better finale performance to the event, with the final pairing duo giving the spectators glimpses of beauty under pressure, comedic routines, nail-biting drama, and sportsmanship. They were fun to watch, and looked like they were having fun too. In a game where tournaments can look and get very tense, they made us laugh and smile, and the crowd always appreciates that in a performance. Well done ladies!
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