AMERICA AT LARGE:ALTHOUGH HE celebrated his 23rd birthday a few weeks ago, he looks so much younger that earlier this week he was mistaken for a participant in a clinic for junior golfers taking place on the Southport course. He is American born and bred, but is sufficiently anonymous on this side of the Atlantic that the other day someone took one look at him and wondered whether his exemption for the 137th Open Championship had come via the Asian Tour Order of Merit or for placing in the Mizuno Open Yomiuri Classic.
When he tees it up (with Masters champion Trevor Immelman and Denmark's Soren Hansen) at 1:42 this afternoon in the 39th game of the day, Anthony Kim will be playing in his first British Open. He probably won't win - the nine holes he played in a practice round after arriving at Royal Birkdale last Sunday represented the first nine holes of links golf he'd played in his life - but, in the minds of many, Kim represents not only the future of American golf, but the closest thing to a domestic rival Tiger Woods may have for years to come.
Apart from their Asian genealogies - Tiger is half-Thai, while Kim is of full-blooded Korean stock - the two also share the fact that each was born in California and was a prodigy at a very early age. Television footage exists of two-year-old Tiger demonstrating his swing on the Mike Douglas Show; as a toddler, Kim was by all accounts already swinging a club at a comparable age, though you couldn't prove it by him.
"That's what they tell me," said Kim, "but to be honest, I don't remember anything from when I was two."
On the other hand, most players shy away from comparisons whenever Woods's name is mentioned. Kim fairly welcomes them.
It's not that he's claiming to be the next Tiger Woods, but if you happen to mention his name in the same breath as Eldrick's, he's not likely to discourage you.
Born in Los Angeles, Kim played his collegiate golf at Oklahoma and now resides in Dallas. He is well on his way to becoming the most accomplished tour rookie since Woods, but his swaggering style took some getting used to among certain of his elders.
"He almost appears cocky, but when he talks to you one on one I don't see that side of him," said Jim Furyk. "He's just very confident. Let's just say that he has a lot of belief in his ability."
Kim's win in Charlotte three months ago made a believer of Furyk. "You don't see a lot of young guys like that get in contention on a tough course like Wachovia and then just beat the snot out of everyone," recalled Furyk. "He gets up two, pretty soon it's three, then it's four . . . You have to have a lot of belief in yourself to do that."
When he won the ATT National at Congressional two weeks ago, Kim became the youngest American since Woods to win two PGA Tour events in the same year.
After breezing through Q-school a year ago, the youngster has banked upward of €3 million since January.
Brash, cocky and temperamental by reputation, Kim only recently seems to have harnessed his personal demons. ("I haven't changed," he said. "I'm just not mouthing off as much. I've learned to control what I say.")
When he won the Wachovia Championship in North Carolina back in April, he was comparatively unknown to golf fans, just the most recent first-time winner, but by the time of the Maryland event earlier this month he had become a readily recognisable figure.
For the last round there he was attired in a hot-pink golf shirt, wearing a sparkling, AK-monogrammed belt buckle that threatened to blind the spectators as he strutted his way up the fairways.
"He's got a lot of game," said Furyk of Kim. "He's only what, 23? I haven't seen him do anything poorly. I just don't see a lot of weaknesses."
Although he isn't expected to make much of an impact at Birkdale (he is holding at around 50 to 1 with the British bookies), European golf fans figure to be seeing a lot more of Anthony Kim come September. He now stands sixth on the US Ryder Cup points list - and Woods, who is not expected to play, is one of the five guys ahead of him. He has now mathematically cinched a spot for Valhalla, but US captain Paul Azinger is said to have assured him a place even before this month's win at Congressional.
Moreover, Kim would seem to have an affinity for this team stuff. He rates, for instance, not either of his professional wins, but his performance in the 2005 Walker Cup as his biggest thrill in golf to date. In those matches at the Chicago Golf Club, the 20-year-old Kim won both of his singles matches (routing Gary Lockerbie 6 and 5 and defeating Gary Wolstenholme 1 up) and partnered Brian Harmon for a win and a draw in fourballs as the US edged Britain and Ireland 12½-11½.
And at least one American veteran of the Ryder Wars believes that, given his aggressive, cut-throat approach, Kim will be a significant addition to a US side.
"Anthony will make a lot of birdies in the Ryder Cup," predicts Phil Mickelson. "He should be incredible in the fourballs because he makes so many birdies."
