Kim's sights set on Tiger
Playing at the former home of Grand Slam champion Bobby Jones this week, Anthony Kim says he has set his sights on a more contemporary golfer: Tiger Woods.
"I'm trying to get my game ready," said Kim, who defeated Sergio Garcia in a singles match on Sept. 21 to help the U.S. win the Ryder Cup for the first time in nine years. "When he comes back, I'd love to give him more of a challenge."
Kim and 29 of golf's other top players are competing this week in the PGA Tour's season-ending Tour Championship at Atlanta's East Lake Golf Club, which Jones once called home.
While the 23-year-old Kim could win the tournament, Vijay Singh has clinched the season-ending points title and the $10 million FedEx Cup bonus that goes with it. The only way Singh can lose is if he withdraws from the event that starts tomorrow.
As much as Kim wants to challenge Woods and his records, he said he's not a big student of golf history. When asked what the names of Jones, the only player to win all of golf's major titles in one season back in 1930, and Walter Hagen meant to him, Kim sat back with a puzzled look.
"I don't really know too much about them," he said during a news conference at East Lake, where the clubhouse is filled with mementos of Jones's career. "I know they have some golf clubs."
A two-time winner on tour this season, Kim is the latest player on a long list to be touted as golf's next star.
His win over Garcia on the final day of the Ryder Cup went a long way to validating the hype and may help propel his popularity among casual golf fans. That hardly means Kim expects others to tune in to watch him play. After all, he said, golf on television is boring.
"I mean, if I'm going to take a nap, that is probably what I am going to turn on," he said. "I like watching basketball, football and comedies."
Kim doesn't have any nap plans this week.
He's one of 10 members of the U.S. Ryder Cup team competing for the $1.26 million Tour Championship winner's check. The field includes Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els and Jim Furyk, players Kim said he more easily associates with than names from the past.
"The guys I grew up watching, I'm playing with right now," he said. "They're Tiger, they're Phil, Ernie, Vijay. I never really got to watch Jack Nicklaus play golf."
While Woods grew up with Nicklaus's records posted on his bedroom wall, Kim spent his younger days pretending to be Woods in a video game.
Now, with the world's top-ranked golfer recovering from knee surgery, Kim said he plans to keep raising his level of play.
Kim won the Wachovia Championship at Charlotte's Quail Hollow Club in May by 5 shots and set a tournament record at 16 under par for his first PGA Tour win. He then captured the AT&T National, which is hosted by Woods, at Congressional Country Club outside Washington in July.
Both events are highly regarded on tour and contested on courses that players describe as worthy of hosting a U.S. Open.
Kim's confidence level is so high these days he says he's no longer worried about his scores. Instead, he's focusing on "little parts" of his game that will give him a better chance of knocking Woods from his pedestal.
"He's staying there until somebody starts giving him more of a challenge on a week-to-week basis," Kim said. "And that's my goal."