A star-spangled success
Kim elevated by Ryder Cup performance
ATLANTA - It had the effect not of the deft touch of a flop shot, but the ferocity of a drive from the tee of a 590-yard par 5. Of course, Anthony Kim wasn't trying to jolt the senses, but merely answering a question.
"I never really got to watch Jack Nicklaus play golf," said Kim, and while he meant nothing by the words, he revealed so much. His words provided an indication that golf has moved on from an era that seemingly was with us forever, a time when golfers everywhere appeared connected if not personally, then emotionally, to icons from yesteryear. Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer were your father's PGA Tour, not Kim's - and don't even bother asking about Walter Hagen or Bobby Jones, either.
"I don't know really too much about them," said Kim. "That's no disrespect to anybody."
None taken, but it does reinforce the notion that the landscape in pro golf is changing when its rising star was born 12 years after the last of Palmer's 62 PGA Tour wins and a year before Nicklaus's historic 1986 Masters triumph. There is no attachment to the King and the Bear, because there's no visual reference like there is to "the guys I grew up watching, the guys I'm playing with right now - they're Tiger [Woods], Phil [Mickelson], Ernie Els, Vijay Singh."
The thing with Kim is this, the time between when he "grew up watching" and "playing with right now" can be measured in weeks and months, because his ascension not just onto the PGA Tour, but into its upper echelon of talent has been startlingly swift.
For example, Sept. 24, 2006, is a day some of the PGA Tour's best players - Woods, Mickelson, Jim Furyk - would love to forget, for in the damp and dreary Irish countryside, the American Ryder Cup team finished on the short end of a drubbing, their third loss in a row and second by an 18 1/2-9 1/2 score. Hardly could they have known it at the time, but help was on the way, because at the
Fast forward to last weekend's Ryder Cup where pride once again was on the line. Only this time, Kim was part of the show, at 23 easily the youngest player on either team. That did not preclude captain Paul Azinger from putting the youngster out in the first match of the competition, a foursome alongside Mickelson, and head-to-head against Padraig Harrington and Robert Karlsson.
Pretty heady stuff?
Not according to those who wore the same red, white, and blue uniform as Kim.
"Anthony is very polished for his age," said Furyk, who was playing in his sixth Ryder Cup. "[But] as far as his game, he's got a lot of tools, and he doesn't have any fear. None."
A new attitude
What Kim does have, however, are some misgivings as to how he conducted himself in his PGA Tour rookie season of 2007.
"Obviously, last year I wanted to be here, [but] I wasn't ready to be here," said Kim. There were too few days practicing and too many nights out, transgressions that didn't seem too bad in light of the fact that he had $1,545,195 on his side of the ledger.
But when a veteran like Mark O'Meara pulls you aside and says you are wasting talent, well, you can either listen or ignore. Kim chose to listen and the results have been staggering. Two victories, $4,246,765 to rank sixth, and a berth in this week's $7 million Tour Championship - where millions more in
"This year, I came in with a new attitude and definitely I've been playing some better golf," said Kim, whose two victories earned great respect because of the stages involved: The
Still, what attracts veteran players to Kim is the way he handles himself. True, it could be said he calls attention to himself with flashy belt buckles and an attitude that some interpret as cocky, but more and more players are seeing a side to Kim that they have embraced. Extremely polite, he melted into a Ryder Cup team in which only three members were under the age of 30, but it's his killer instinct on the golf course that made the veterans take note.
Was it Woods-like?
"Tiger gives the appearance of [being] more driven and Anthony gives the appearance of more happy-go-lucky, floating around, [as if] it's not a big deal," said Furyk. "But in his heart, it is [a big deal]. If you see the way he plays, it's important to him."
Ignited a spark
Having gone 1-1-1 in his matches alongside Mickelson, Kim more than embraced the challenge of going first in singles, up against Garcia. What transpired on the first hole set the stage for a competition that says a lot about Kim's nature. Each player was inside of 3 feet with their approaches, Garcia figured it was a "good, good" situation, but Kim shot him a blank stare.
"Putt them," he said.
And so it went for the remainder of the 14 holes their match went - Garcia refusing to give Kim a thing, Kim returning the favor. When Garcia drove off the fairway and into trouble at the par-4 sixth, Kim watched the consultation with the rules official, just to make sure nothing happened that would make him have second thoughts. "The rules are there to help you," said Kim, showing an awareness well beyond his 23 years. "I understood what he was doing."
The 5-and-4 beating was the worst Garcia has suffered in five Ryder Cup appearances and Kim had helped ignite a spark that ran through most of the 11 other team members. Surely, it endeared him even further to colleagues, some because they are less than enamored with Garcia, some because it helped end the US skid in the Ryder Cup. What it also did was spur along even more comparisons to Woods, whose absence from the PGA Tour has stretched more than three months.
Statistically, there is no comparison - Kim has two wins in his first 49 PGA Tour starts; Woods had seven, including a major, in his first 49. "It's kind of a little bit of an unfair comparison, to be honest with you," said Furyk.
Then he paused and considered the similarities, besides the obvious - that they hail from Southern California and are of some degree of Asian descent. Then Furyk offers that each has a fierce competitive nature that comes through on the course. "Both of them definitely want to tear your heart out, there's no doubt," he said.
When the subject turns to a gentler topic - his life off the course - it is uncanny how similar Kim sounds to Woods, too. He credits his mother for his focus to the world around him. "She always wanted me to inspire other people like she did for me," said Kim. "At the end of the day, I'm not out here to just put on a show for everybody, I really do want to help people." 