Swinging from My Heels: Confessions of an LPGA Star »

Alan Shipnuck has been covering professional golf for Sports Illustrated since 1994. He is the author of the national bestseller Bud, Sweat, & Tees: A Walk on the Wild Side of the PGA Tour. He lives in Northern California with his wife and children.

Christina Kim is the brashest, bawdiest, funniest player on the Ladies Professional Golf Association tour. Golf fans know her for her colorful wardrobe, even more colorful on-course antics, and an explosive game. But in this rollicking account of the 2009 season, Kim invites readers deep into her life, providing an intimate diary of a young woman's struggles on and off the golf course, and revealing the glory and heartbreak of life on the tour.

Once known as a prodigy who shot a 62 in her first LPGA event some six years ago, Kim has newly rededicated herself to realizing her potential, and she takes readers between the ropes for all the action, including her nail-biting near misses at two major championships. She also goes inside the team room at the Solheim Cup, revealing the hijinks and late-night gab sessions that bonded the victorious U.S. team. Along the way we get intimate portraits of her close friends on tour, including tour leaders such as Michelle Wie, Lorena Ochoa, Paula Creamer, Morgan Pressel, and Natalie Gulbis.

In this courageous telling, no topic is out-of-bounds, as Kim dishes about the LPGA's sexual mores, the culture clash of an American-based tour increasingly dominated by Koreans, the tumultuous economic forces squeezing the players, and her own battles with body image and her traditional upbringing. Winsome and good-natured, but never afraid of a laugh line or choice profanity, Christina Kim provides a must-read for anyone who loves golf or has wondered about the inner self of a professional athlete.

Publishers Weekly

In this diary-style memoir written with Shipnuck (Bud, Sweat & Tees), golf pro Kim declares she is always happy to be the person at a party “who makes an ass of herself.” The outspoken 25-year-old from San Jose, Calif., also ponders many questions, ranging from “Does my butt look big in this skirt?” to issues of lesbianism, anti-Asian sentiment, and the effect of a down economy on the women's game. Interwoven with a blow-by-blow account of her 2009 tournaments, including details about her frequent changes of equipment and caddies, she tells of her rise as a player and of her sometimes contentious relationship with her father, who initially coached, managed, and caddied for her when she turned pro at 18. Readers learn much about her boyfriends, including a long-term love affair with a caddie that ended as her 2009 season began, and she reveals that “it's not easy to get laid on the LPGA tour.” She also shares her love for Twitter, shopping (she has 75 pairs of shoes), singer Jason Mraz (who autographed her prodigious cleavage), and the environment. She also tells her story about posing nude for ESPN magazine. The promised “confessions,” however, are far from surprising, and the accounts of her golf rounds will interest only the most obsessed of fans. (May)