LAKEWOOD, Wash. (Sports Network) -- Among other things, Kimberly Kim was worried about losing her focus.
"I'll be putting for two minutes and I'll be kind of bored," she said.
But there was nothing boring about the 15-year-old Hawaiian's round on Monday, and no reason to believe she lost her focus.
Kim fired a 10-under 62 in the first round of stroke play at the U.S. Girls' Junior Championship to tie a tournament record and give herself a commanding lead over the field.
Beginning with a 25-foot birdie putt at No. 4, she made 10 birdies over her last 15 holes to tie the scoring record set by Christina Kim in 2001 at Indian Hills, a par-70 layout.
Kimberly Kim built her 62 at the par-72 Tacoma Country and Golf Club to set a competitive course record there. It helped the youngster forget the recent disappointment of missing the cut at the U.S. Women's Open three weeks ago.
Not really much of a disappointment for the average 15-year-old girl. But then again, Kim isn't an average 15-year-old anything. Last year, she became the youngest U.S. Women's Amateur champion ever at 14.
Still, she wasn't expecting much in her first round Monday.
"I was telling my dad that I've been hitting really bad and putting really bad, so don't expect anything," Kim said. "But today I played really good. I just played really solid the whole round. I don't know what it was, but everything just seemed to work out."
Kim had a six-shot lead over Evan Jensen, Kristen Park and reigning U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links champion Mina Harigae, who were all at 4-under 68.
"Tomorrow I can shoot like 10 over, but I'd make the cut still, and that would be fine with me," Kim said. "I just want to make the cut first, and then it doesn't matter what you're shooting, because in match play, nothing matters."
The field will be reduced to the low 64 players after the second round of stroke play on Tuesday. Match play begins Wednesday and runs through the final on Saturday.
Copyright 2007 Sports Network. All rights reserved.
