A little platelet spinning and a “caveman diet” are doing wonders for Christina Kim.
Kim, who turned 30 this year, continues to make strides in a return to form after injury and depression set her back in the worst slump of her career.
With a 7-under-par 64 Friday at the ShopRite LPGA Classic, Kim posted her lowest score on tour in six years. She enters the weekend in third place, two shots behind Jennifer Johnson.
Kim went public with her bouts with depression in December of 2012. She also has battled a back injury and nagging pain in her right elbow and forearm that turned out to be a slight tear in a tendon.
“It took me a long time to realize golf is just a game,” Kim told reporters after her round Friday at the Stockton Seaview Hotel and Golf Club’s Bay Course. “Golf doesn’t define who I am as a person.”
Kim underwent platelet spinning to treat her elbow this off season. She went more than four months without playing a tour event before making her return this year at the JTBC Founders Cup in March. She says she is pain free and feeling strong again. She believes a platelet spinning treatment of her injury and a new way of eating have helped her tremendously.
“I’m eating like a caveman,” Kim cracked. “It’s not exactly a diet, it’s more a lifestyle.”
Kim says she has been eating a paleo diet, modern foods that “mimic the food groups of our pre-agricultural, hunter-gatherer ancestors,” according to the paleo-diet website.
“Even if five years down the road, I don’t lose an ounce of weight, if I’m always meant to be a big girl, I’m going to be a big girl,” Kim said. “I know I can feel the inflammation has gone down tremendously in my body, and so I’m more happy. I’m more aware of what my body is doing, and I just live life with a lot more clarity now.
“And I still babble.”
Kim tied for sixth at the North Texas Shootout at the start of May, her first top-10 finish since late in 2010. She tied for 16th at the Kraft Nabisco in April and has made nine of 10 cuts this year.
A two-time LPGA winner and three-time U.S. Solheim Cup team member, Kim sunk to 110th on the LPGA money list in 2012 and had to return to Q-School.
“I’m thankful to have the tee times,” Kim said. “I’m just thankful for all the support and love I get from my family and my friends. You know, it’s just golf.”
