ASSOCIATED PRESS Kimberly Kim finished with seven bogeys and just one birdie after the opening round of the Kraft Nabisco Championship at the Mission Hills Country Club yesterday.

Kim struggles

The Hilo native opens with a 6-over 78 in the LPGA's first major

PALM SPRINGS, Calif. » It takes a lot to wipe the perpetual smile off Kimberly Kim's face, but by day's end, the 15-year-old originally from Hilo looked like she was ready to cry.

Struggling from the opening hole through the last, Kim shot a 6-over 78 yesterday in the first round of the Kraft Nabisco Championship and is in danger of missing the cut at the year's first major event on the LPGA Tour. Not that the amateur was alone in the black. She had plenty of company.

Led by Shi Hyun Ahn's 4-under 68, only nine women managed red numbers on this picture-perfect day at the Mission Hills Country Club. Another dozen players shot even-par 72, leaving 70 of the very best on the plus side of the scorecard, including world No. 1 Annika Sorenstam, who only managed a 3-over 75.

That wasn't much consolation for Kim. Playing in the next-to-last pairing with Angela Stafford, who lost in a playoff two weeks ago at the MasterCard Classic, Kim began her day at the 10th with a routine two-putt par. From there it got a lot worse.

She hit two good shots at the par-5 11th, but chunked her third from only 70 yards away and had to settle for a par when a birdie was in order. It was a portent of things to come, as Kim bogeyed four of the next five holes, including three in a row at Nos. 14, 15 and 16 to soar to 4 over on the front side.

Kim bogeyed the first hole, her 10th, but bounced back with her only birdie of the day at the par-5 second. Stafford, who finished at even-par 72 and is tied for 10th, parred that hole. It was the first time Kim had honors all day and that would last for only a couple of holes, as Stafford birdied the par-4 fourth after nearly holing her approach from 150 yards out.

From there, it was all Stafford, as she finished strong on these hard, but relatively slow greens, while Kim seemed to lose her way down the stretch. She bogeyed the par-3 eighth when her shot into the green rolled into the rough above the hole. Opting to putt out of the scruffy lie, Kim left her birdie try woefully short, then hit her par putt 3 feet by for her sixth bogey of the day.

Kim was poised to bounce back with a birdie at the par-5 ninth after hitting two good shots within 40 yards of the green. But she hit her approach over the green and then chunked her fourth to the fringe, where she two-putted for bogey to complete a tough, 4-hour-plus round of golf.

"I just want to go home and forget about what happened today," Kim said after signing her scorecard and grabbing some Nutter Butter cookies provided by the sponsor. "I'm so hungry right now. I just want to eat. I'm very disappointed with how I played. I was a chunky monkey out there. I didn't hit the ball very well on the front and I didn't putt very well on the back. I don't even want to think about making the cut."

The top 70 and ties will live to play on through the weekend. Kim is currently on the cut line, tied for 73rd. She was fourth of the five amateurs in the field, but it could have been a lot better had she finished stronger. After the birdie at the par-5, Kim seemed to find herself for several holes, giving herself birdie opportunities at Nos. 4 through 7.

Twice she just missed at Nos. 6 and 7, prompting her caddie to tell her at the eighth tee, "Don't ask me to read the greens anymore."

After her round, when asked what happened during that stretch of holes, she blamed her caddie for giving her the wrong reads, then laughed halfheartedly, knowing her stroke was a little faulty down the stretch as well.

"I just couldn't make anything today," said Kim, who recently moved to Arizona. "This is still a good experience for me. Angela played really well to shoot even par. I can learn a lot from how she handled herself. For me, I was hitting the ball really well in Hawaii a month ago, but I couldn't make any putts on those greens.

"Now, I'm putting better, even though it didn't show today, but I did have some big putts on the front side just to save bogey. And I'm not hitting it consistently at all. I'm very disappointed. I'm just going to go home, eat and study. Hopefully, I'll play better tomorrow."