Jimin Kang started playing golf at the age of 13 (this seems the common age for the Seoul Sisters to take it up!). When she was 15, her parents decided to move to the U.S. to get Jimin a better education. Jimin was glad to come in order to further her golf education. They first moved to California, but then relocated to the Seattle area suburb of Edmonds. The father's reasoning was that she would be able to golf in the summer and concentrate on her studies in the winter. Jimin enrolled in a private Catholic school and promptly became the standout player on their golf team.

Within no time she was racking up awards as a top junior and amateur player. Among the highlights were winning the Washington Women's Amateur Championship and finishing second in the U.S. Women's Amateur Championship, both as a 19 year old in 1999. Still in high school at the time, Jimin no longer met the age qualifications to play at the high school level, but still practiced with the team while she prepared for college.

In 1999, she also played at the final Safeco Classic, the local LPGA event, where she got to know Se Ri Pak among others. Jimin made a lot of friends by making the cut on the number. In so doing, she allowed about a dozen other players to also make the cut, earning paychecks for that week. Of course, as an amateur, Jimin did not make any money, but she did impress those who saw her play, including me!

Jimin then did something few golf prodigies do. She put away her clubs and for five months pursued other interests. When she picked them up again, she was ready to move to the next level.

Jimin enrolled at Arizona State University in 2000, where she made more noise. Perhaps her most notable accomplishment was winning the 2002 PAC-10 Championship, handing Lorena Ochoa her first defeat in eight consecutive tournaments.

Right after the U.S. Women's Open in 2002, Jimin announced her intention to turn pro. She went to the Futures Tour to play a few warmup tournaments in preparation for LPGA Q-School. Imagine her surprise when she won the first Futures Tour event she entered, the M & T Bank Loretto Futures Golf Classic, again beating Ochoa by a stroke! She was leading her second Futures Tour event going into the final round, but had some problems in the last round and had to settle for fourth to Ochoa. Still, a pretty good average for only two events played!

Jimin had high hopes entering Q-School, and indeed, going into the final round she was comfortably in the range of an exempt card. Alas, things went wrong, and after a final round 78, she missed getting her exempt card by one stroke. Thus she went into the 2003 season as a non-exempt player. It proved challenging for her. She had a couple of good finishes, but never contended, and finished well down the money list. Fortunately, she was able to maintain her non-exempt status at Q-School the following October, but it was more of a struggle than it had been in 2002.

Thus, in 2004, Jimin decided to focus on the Futures Tour. It proved to be a wise decision. She managed 8 top tens on the year, including two victories, to top the Futures Tour money list in 2004 and thus earn her LPGA exempt card for the 2005 season. This marked the first time that Jimin had been exempt for the year, a golden opportunity for her to see how she stacked up in the big leagues.

And she took advantage of it! In 2005, Jimin was having a decent season early on, even notching her first ever top 20 with a 19th place finish at the Michelob Ultra. But nothing prepared the LPGA for what happened at the Corning Classic. Despite the presence of Annika Sorenstam in the field at a time when she had only lost one event all year, it was Jimin who came out on top. And she did it in spectacular fashion, by making a hole in one to take the lead with just a few holes to go. Her thrilled reaction was one of the best in the history of the league. She went on to just hold off rookie Meena Lee for her first top ten AND first LPGA win. The next week, she set her best ever score by shooting a 62 in the final round of the ShopRite Classic. She also set an LPGA record by shooting a 27 on the back nine in that round, the first LPGA golfer to ever do so.

The rest of her season did not live up to the heights of that two week stretch, but she still finished the year in the top forty on the money list with a two year exemption. She has plenty of time to see where her talents will take her in the future.

Jimin's 2006 season was decent, but was severely truncated due to a foot injury she suffered during the LPGA Championship midyear. She missed most of the rest of the year after that. Fortunately, her 2007 season was injury free and a return to form. Although she did not claim a win, she had good finishes in all four Majors, highlighted by a tie for 16th at the US Women's Open, and finished the year with a top ten at the Tournament of Champions. She just missed out on finishing in the top forty on the money list.