After a couple of bad seasons on the LGPA tour, 22-year-old Mindy Kim was back, more mature and ready to take on the competition this year. At the State Farm Classics, Kim held the No.1 spot for the first two days but relinquished her lead to Yani Tseng and tied for 5th.

In an interview after her Friday round, Kim—who has lived in the States since she was six—answered a reporter’s “tough,” and somewhat dubious question of whether she identifies as a “full-blooded American”:

That’s a tough question, because I don’t want to, you know—I don’t really want to, you know, just—I guess I’m Korean-American. I mean, I think more as an American in the culture sense, because my parents always nag on me saying, ‘You’re not Korean enough.’ I try to think what my parents think, but it’s kind of hard. So I think as an American, but I look Korean.

What the reporter meant by “full-blooded American” is up for discussion, but it seems that while Kim didn’t cruise the winner’s circle this weekend, she left her mark and has qualified for the end of the season CME Group Titleholders Event—a season finale event held at Grand Cypress Golf Club in Orlando, FL from November 17-20.

[Photo of Mindy Kim: Stephen Dunn/Getty Images]