Playing in one of the last groups on Sunday, Christina quickly made a pair of birdies to move to 9 under. But by this time a new threat had emerged: fellow rookie Suzann Pettersen, who had an unbelievable front nine that moved her all the way to 14 under par. Christina suffered another setback with a bogey on 5, but birdies on 7 and 10 moved her to 11 under, while Pettersen fell back to 13 under and Se Ri Pak and Shani Waugh also stood at that score.

Things couldn't have been going much better for her. She was hitting every fairway, and most of her greens. Her putting was pretty good, too. If she could keep her confidence up, she still had a chance to win; but even if she didn't, a top 5 finish seemed in the cards.

On the back nine, Christina struggled a bit. She was still hitting her fairways, but missing the occasional short par putt. She bogeyed the par 5 13th, fought back with a birdie on 14, bogeyed 15, then notched another birdie on 16, one of the tougher holes on the course. Through it all she maintained her smile and positive outlook. It was an impressive performance for the youngest player on tour.

Christina at the Welch's

Christina and her dad

She came into the final hole at 10 under, still looking at a top five if she could birdie it. And this hole had been yielding a lot of birdies, being a shortish par 5. However, it also had an imposing drive, with water all along the left. Put it in the fairway, and no problem. And since Christina had yet to miss a fairway, she was probably pretty confident on the tee. But her swing was miserable, and flew directly into the water. There was no doubt from the minute she struck it. Not the best time to miss your first fairway.

But it was her next decision that truly cost her. Dropping the ball, she decided to go for the green, which meant hitting driver off the deck. Of course, that meant she would have to carry a lot of water, and she had already missed the drive off the tee. Well, this shot, too, ended up in the water, and a merely bad hole suddenly turned into a potentially disastrous one. Her next shot, now her fifth, landed in a greenside bunker. To make things worse, she bladed her out, hurling it over the green, and her chip back did not get her all that close to the hole. So now she was looking at a six footer for triple bogey. Alas, she missed that one, too, and ended up with a quadruple bogey nine that knocked her out of her top 5 position all the way down to a tie for 17th.

Making it even worse, the debacle occurred in front of the crowd waiting for the winners at the 18th green grandstand, AND was shown on national TV. But that's one of the learning processes most rookies have to go through at one time or another. Christina may have cost herself a few thousand dollars, but she still earned an impressive finish, and some experience that will hopefully inform how she plays that situation the next time it comes up.