Westhampton - Christina Kim is a breath of fresh air - exactly what the doctor ordered for the ailing LPGA. Kim has been one of the LPGA's most popular stars since 2003, when she was a 19-year-old rookie. And now she is the voice of an honest inside look at the LPGA: "Swinging from My Heels: Confessions of an LPGA Star," as told by Christina Kim to author Alan Shipnuck, who has been covering professional golf for Sports Illustrated since 1994.

Kim's new book. (survivalistbooks.com)

Kim is in town to play in the Sybase Match Play Championship at Hamilton Farm Golf Club in Gladstone, New Jersey.

Last evening at a book party at Chelsea Piers, Kim dazzled the crowd with her friendly, warm personality and enthusiasm for golf and life. Kim, in a black dress and sparkling high heeled, open toed booties, showed off her golf swing at the driving range (there was easy access to the Chelsea Piers range from the cocktail party in the Ryder Cup room) and then spoke about her book with Shipnuck.

When she was told that Shipnuck himself would conduct the interview at the reception, Kim laughed and said "I thought I was supposed to just come here and drink!" Kim said she really enjoyed the process of opening up and disclosing her inner most thoughts for the book. "I like being an author. It means getting up and staying in your pajamas every morning - it was a very liberating experience – talking about drunken nights, dancing on tables. It has helped me think about my shots (many of the shots she played in tournaments were detailed in the book). I am fearless. I put my life on paper so I don't care what anybody thinks."

Kim added "My game is coming along nicely. My scores are not there. I am a happier person with Brandon (her boyfriend who plays on the mini tour), the new person in my life. I'm living the dream. I have an incredible life."

Kim could really help the LPGA, the most under covered sports organization out there, if she won some tournaments. She has had two tournament victories in the eight years she has played professionally. She's had near misses at two Majors - last year the Kraft Nabisco Championship - and the Women's British Open. Kim went 3-1 for the victorious U.S. Team at the 2009 Solheim Cup. She partnered with Michelle Wie and they won a four-ball match. Wie birdied six of the first 11 holes that day. Kim's friendship with Wie has helped Wie acclimate to the LPGA Tour. After the U.S. won the Solheim Cup at Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove, Illinois in August, Wie went on to win her first LPGA tournament, the Lorena Ochoa Invitational, in Mexico, in November.

At the 2005 Solheim Cup, Kim partnered with Natalie Gulbis and won a key foursomes match. (insidesocal.com)

It's easy to see that Kim has a lot of friends on the LPGA Tour and that with her easy going and fun style, she helps her teammates relax and play well. At the 2005 Solheim Cup, Kim partnered with Natalie Gulbis and won a key foursomes match.

As personable and charismatic as Kim is, the LPGA needs an American personality like Kim who can put a number of wins together. New LPGA Commissioner Michael Whan is faced with a number of challenges as the LPGA attempts to 'sell' the LPGA Tour to an American audience:

Jiyai Shin is the top ranked female player in the world. (mycaddy.com)

Three of the top five players in the current LPGA Rankings are Asian: Jiyai Shin from Korea is the top ranked female player in the world at the moment. Ai Miyazato of Japan is number two and Yani Tseng of TPE is ranked fourth. (Suzann Pettersen of Norway is third). The highest ranked American is Christie Kerr at five. And you have seven other Asian players in the top 20.

The LPGA's top-ranked player the last several years, the gracious and personable Lorena Ochoa, recently retired to focus on having a family. The number of official money events dropped from 34 in 2008 to 28 in 2009 to 24 this year. Eleven of those 24 tournaments are outside of the United States. In fact, five months into this year the Sybase Match Play Championships is only the fourth LPGA Tournament played in this country.

Whan was brought in last fall to rebuild the relationship with sponsors after the Tour ousted the only female commissioner in its history, Carolyn Bivens. The LPGA's biggest revenue stream is from Korean TV Networks. And the Tour grieves over the mysterious death of one of its own, 25-year-old Tour player Erica Blasberg, found dead in her Nevada home last week.

Yes, Christina Kim's captivating personality is just what the doctor ordered for a Tour that deserves a lot more attention. And the book is an entertaining, candid look at one of sport's most compelling subcultures - the LPGA.

Erica Blasberg was found dead in her Nevada home last week. (tees2greens.com)

Here Are Some Excerpts From The Book:

 • Because there's never been an honest, open discussion about lesbianism on tour, it has become a source of fascination among many golf fans - and especially male reporters - who have only heard various rumors and innuendo. Contrary to what many people think, we are not the Lesbians Playing Golf Association. By my count there are no more than two dozen gay women playing the tour right now. Considering there are 230 active members, you're only talking about 10 percent of the players, which from everything I've read is in line with the population as a whole.

 • I understand that thanks to Howard Stern and Internet porn many guys are keenly interested in girl-on-girl action, but to every player I know the issue is just not that big a deal. There are no super-freaky homophobes out here or militant man-haters. At most, a player's sexuality may be an occasional practice-round conversation piece:

"Hey, did you hear that so-and-so likes girls?"

"Really? Huh. So, did you hit an 8-iron or a 9?"

 • English remains a defining factor for the Koreans on tour. I'd estimate that only 10 percent of them are comfortable enough with their English to interact with all of the other players. The other 90 percent of Koreans break down into two distinct groups. About half of them lead very solitary lives. They are usually the youngest girls - around 20 years old or even younger, having left school in their mid-teens to turn pro - and they travel with one or both parents. If they're not on the golf course they are on the range or putting green or in their hotel room resting so they can practice even more the next day. The other Koreans move in small, insular groups of four or five or six girls, and they're as self-contained and dependent upon each other as a bobsled team. They play practice rounds together, hit balls next to each other, and eat every meal together. Some of the cliques even have nicknames. One is the self-styled GMG, for Golf Maniac Girls.

The Tour ousted the only female commissioner in its history, Carolyn Bivens. (weblogs.sun-sentinel.com)

 • Lorena Ochoa has a mischievous side that few people see. I got my first taste of it at the 1999 Mexican Women's Amateur. We had repaired to the clubhouse to celebrate her victory when Lorena and a group of other players brought me a michelada. It was so tangy and fizzy and delicious I had two or three more. What I didn't know is that beer is the active ingredient, along with lime juice and salt. So I like to say that when I was 15 Lorena Ochoa got me drunk off my ass.

 • After an emotional closing ceremony the team piled on to a bus for a victory party in a ballroom at a Holiday Inn about 10 miles away. The only people missing were the European players. Win or lose those girls never skip a party and we were all disappointed that they never showed up. By midnight I was exhausted and so were all of my teammates so we caught a bus back to Rich Harvest Farms. Arriving back at the cabins we could hear music and laughing and we realized the Europeans had decided to stay on-site for their party. Even though I was completely knackered I shouted, "I'm going to the Euro party - who's with me?"

No one, as it turned out, but I didn't care. When I rolled in all the European players were so cool and welcoming and a couple of them said, "We knew you were the only one who would show up." It was now about 1 a.m. and the party had gotten very sloppy. One of the team's helpers had passed out drunk and was sprawled on the floor. The players had covered him with a tarp, encircled him with pylons and taken police-style photos of the scene.

The party featured some bumping hip-hop music and sometime around 2:30 a.m. I spotted Tania Elosegui on the dance floor and went out and joined her. Twelve hours earlier we had been locked in a battle for the ages. Now we were dancing and laughing together, bonded forever by the incredible experience of competing in the Solheim Cup.

 • When I was 11, my dad turned up with a funny-looking metal stick with a bulbous end. Marching me to the backyard he threw down a strip of Astroturf and grunted, "Here, swing as hard as you can." I did, and it was kind of fun. Then he told me to do it 499 more times. This was my introduction to a golf club, and the golf swing. Being a dutiful Korean daughter I never thought to question my dad, and every day after school I would spend two hours making the required 500 swings, as would my older brother Mel and older sister Gloria. After a month of this tedium Dad finally took us to a driving range so we could hit actual golf balls and watch them fly. It was like the clouds parted and the angels were singing and I finally understood there was a point to all of this.