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BOB HOPE CHRYSLER CLASSIC

January 19, 2008

Anthony Kim

LA QUINTA, CALIFORNIA

JOHN BUSH: Thanks for joining us, 6-under 66 at La Quinta today, 19-under and four shots back. Just get your opening comments on another great day.
ANTHONY KIM: I played well today. Fortunate with the draw and I am looking forward to tomorrow.

Q. At the start of the week you talked about giving yourself more chances to win, and even your top-10 finishes last year, you didn't feel like you had the chance to win because you had one good day or and one not-so-good day on the weekends. It must be gratifying to come out the very first tournament of the year and feel like you've got a chance to win this thing.
ANTHONY KIM: It is. The hard work is paying off. Whether I win or not, it's great to see how it's playing out. And I'm looking forward to tomorrow. And hopefully I'll have a great round.

Q. How much is four shots out here at the Classic Club? Is four shots too many or is that just a drop in the bucket?
ANTHONY KIM: Four shots is a lot of shots. You never know what can happen though. Hopefully, my game will be sharp and the birdies will come. I need to play well on the front nine and make some birdies on those holes. And if I get off to that kind of start tomorrow, I'll be ready to go.

Q. Do any scoreboard watching much today?
ANTHONY KIM: I really didn't. I think when I start looking at the scoreboard I get ahead of myself. Try and take it shot by shot. It's hard not to look, though. And obviously I'm pretty new to all this, and it was tough not to look at it. But I did a couple times.

Q. What did you see when you looked? Did you notice yourself on top?
ANTHONY KIM: I saw I was one or two back of Justin. And I was one back of D.J. For some reason I couldn't get the putts to fall today.

Q. Were you aware, or are you now aware, of the fact that you did at one point hold the lead all by yourself today?
ANTHONY KIM: Oh, I didn't know that. That's awesome. I wish I had it right now. But what can you say? I had a great day and it was awesome to have a lot of friends out here pulling for me.

Q. Obviously, 30 on the back nine, you made every putt you looked at. Is it just hard to keep that going or do you feel disappointed that you couldn't keep that going on the front nine?
ANTHONY KIM: On my 10th hole, I hit a great putt and it looked like it was in the whole way and it lipped out. I had my first 3-putt bogey of the day on 11, and I was hitting what I felt were pretty good putts. I just wasn't getting them started on lane for some reason. And so today, it was just tough to keep it going. But usually when you're on a roll like that, it's hard to stop a birdie streak. So hopefully tomorrow it will be -- the birdies won't stop.

Q. The one bogey you had there on 2, was it, you were very aggressive on the long putt and it seemed like when you missed today that you were being very aggressive. Were you conscious of that or was that a speed thing with your putting?
ANTHONY KIM: It wasn't. I just wanted to make sure that I gave every putt a chance to go in. And I feel like last year I left too many putts on the lip. But it had a really good chance of going in, but it was not to be.
So this week, I tried to keep my speed up the whole time on every putt, whether it's three feet or 20 feet, and give it a chance to go in. If it goes by three feet, oh well. I'll just make the next one.
So I've been putting great the whole tournament and, obviously, they didn't drop on the back nine today, but they did on the front.

Q. There's obviously a lot of players that still have a shot at it; Justin has won 11 times, including a Major Championship. Does that give him an advantage over somebody like you or do you figure things kind of even out at some point and you'll get your chance, too?
ANTHONY KIM: Well, at the end of the day, it's really just golf and it comes down to who gets the ball in the hole faster. He's a great player, and I've gotten to know him a little bit, and I look forward to chasing him down.

Q. I realize it's tough to think about the answer to this without seeing the conditions, but have you thought about what you might need to shoot tomorrow?
ANTHONY KIM: No, I haven't thought about what I need to shoot. I just have to make a lot of birdies. I don't think Justin's going to come back and whoever is out there, I don't know who is out there, D.J. or Robert, I don't think they're going to come back. So I need to go out there and be aggressive and keep playing the way I'm playing and hopefully good things will happen.

Q. You mentioned all the support you had out there. Who all was following you today?
ANTHONY KIM: A lot of people. I couldn't name them all. There was a lot of people pulling for me.
JOHN BUSH: Anthony, play well tomorrow.
ANTHONY KIM: Thank you.

End of FastScripts

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