	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

AT&T NATIONAL

July 6, 2008

Anthony Kim

BETHESDA, MARYLAND

JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Congratulations, Anthony Kim, 2008 AT&T National Champion.
Great round today. No bogeys today. You're just telling me how proud you were of that, and you moved to fifth on the FedExCup Points list and on the Money List for this year. Talk about how excited you are to come out here and win after winning at the Wachovia a couple of months ago.
ANTHONY KIM: Winning out here is so tough that any time you get an opportunity to be in the hunt, it feels great, and to capitalize on the two chances I've had of late feels wonderful.

Q. Have you heard a lot of the buzz surrounding you about being one of the rising stars in the game and what's your reaction to that at this point?
ANTHONY KIM: Well, I think any time there's a younger guy that plays good, there's always a little bit of buzz that's created and people are looking and hoping to find the guy that's going to challenge Tiger.
You know, right now, he's obviously injured and not going to be out here, but it's a time for the young guys to step up and make a statement. Hopefully other people will get to know golf besides Tiger. He's done so much for the game. But at the same time, we need to step up and I think it's going to be an around time for all the young guys.

Q. Speaking of stepping up, the shot you hit, your third shot on 17, that looked to be pretty tough, really bad lie, how did you pull that off?
ANTHONY KIM: It was tough, but I just -- every time I'm in those positions, I try to just imagine being out with my friends or being out when I was ten years old at the muni golf courses where you get some of the bad lies, and you don't think about, I wish it could have been a better lie. But how am I going to get this ball up-and-down, and maybe or hopefully hole out.
So open the clubface and swung like I usually do when I'm playing golf with my friends, so it was pretty routine.

Q. What does it add to this aside from pretty much clinching a spot on The Ryder Cup team and getting yourself a FedExCup position; what does it add that this is Tiger's event?
ANTHONY KIM: It's huge for me. I grew up watching one video, and it was called Tiger's Triple when he won three U.S. Juniors and three U.S. Amateurs. To win his golf tournament is amazing.
Because I idolized him growing up, it's so surreal for me to be in this position right now.

Q. Where did you get the brisk, aggressive pace of play that you have? You don't seem to have the nerves the way a lot of the other guys do; you take five seconds to hit a 10-foot par putt.
ANTHONY KIM: I grew up playing fast and I think when my ADD kicks in, I play a lot worse.
When I'm ready to hit, I hit and if I have to back off, I will, but most of the time I'm pretty focused and ready to go.

Q. You played pretty well actually all week. Wonder if you could talk about the importance of finally just eliminating all the mistakes today, and is that almost a theme for your career?
ANTHONY KIM: I think that's the biggest thing is staying away from double-bogeys out here, and from college golf and amateur golf that's the biggest difference I've seen it you hit one shot squirrely and you are going to make a double-bogey because the rough is very penal and they put pins in a lot tougher positions, so I'm firing at a lot less flags and trying to eliminate those mistakes.
At the same time, you have to try to stay aggressive. It's tough trying to find that happy medium but I think I'm doing it pretty well.

Q. Could you talk a little bit about your rededication to the game after last year's night life?
ANTHONY KIM: Well, I guess the way I could look at it is, my preparation and work ethic couldn't have gotten any worse. So it had to get better.
And I don't know what tournament it was, but I realized that this isn't way want to do. If I'm going to finish 35th, 25th, every single week, I don't want to play golf. The reason I play is because I love the game, I love the feeling of competing and being in the hunt. I love the little butterflies you get in your stomach, and that's why I play the game.
So I don't know what changed, but I realized that if I didn't work hard and put in the hours, that I wasn't going to reap the benefits.

Q. I know you took a call from Tiger off the side on the 18th. Can you tell us what he told you and what you told him?
ANTHONY KIM: I just asked him how his knee was doing and he said he's doing fine. He congratulated me, of course, and told me to just keep working hard and keep it up and the sky's the limit and there's no reason to stop now.

Q. What does that mean to you?
ANTHONY KIM: That means the world to me. I get chills down my back when I think about it, because like I said, I grew up idolizing him. He is the Michael Jordan of golf, and to come out ten years after him and have this opportunity to play in his golf tournament, and be on the PGA TOUR and live my dream is truly a wonderful feeling.

Q. Did you tell him not to rush back too soon?
ANTHONY KIM: No, I didn't say anything. I'm sure I'll give him a little jabbing when I see him, though.

Q. Did the early tee time affect you at all good or bad?
ANTHONY KIM: You know, it did because I wanted to watch the UFC fight last night, and if I got a late tee time, I figured I could watch it and not worry about sleep.
But anyway, when I found out, I wasn't sure if I was going to watch it and stayed up until about one watching the fights, and had to get up a little bit earlier than I wanted, but you know, that's the cost of watching that pay per view, I guess.

Q. What time did you get up?
ANTHONY KIM: I got up about 6 o'clock.

Q. What fights were these?
ANTHONY KIM: The UFC fights.

Q. Second career for you maybe?
ANTHONY KIM: I don't think so. (Laughter).

Q. You could, though, if you wanted to, right?
ANTHONY KIM: Probably, not. I mean, I would go in there with a bat. (Laughter) If I didn't have a weapon, I wouldn't do in there.

Q. Not to make too much light of this, but do you have part of that mentality?
ANTHONY KIM: I guess I want to beat everybody I play against, and whether I'm friends with somebody or not, it doesn't really matter. When we're inside the ropes, I don't mind hammering on somebody. I love beating up on my friends at home. If they wanted -- a lot of them like to talk and say they are going to beat me that day, and I just love hammering them. So you know, I love the competition and I love winning, so I guess that attitude is what you need to be in the UFC, but I'm not going to speak for what they feel.

Q. Sorry to get hung up on that, but my recollection is a little Fuzzy here, first time Tiger came up to you, you were on the range some where, I think maybe Torrey this year or Buick and said, "What took you so long" or something like that, do you remember that and can you retell that?
ANTHONY KIM: The first time he came up to me was a couple years ago at Torrey. It was my third event, and he just -- at that point I had not played very many events, but he introduced himself and really took his time out to get to know me and see what I was about and what I was doing.
Being a 21-year-old rookie on TOUR, you don't want to bother that guy, so I kind of stayed away and he actually came over to talk to me. You know, obviously my respect for him is through the rough, but for him to do something like that, meant a lot to me.

Q. You've won twice now on old, traditional golf courses; in fact, courses that Tiger speaks highly of. Is there any significance to the type golf courses that you've won on?
ANTHONY KIM: I don't know if there is. I know I'm playing quite well right now, and I'm thinking well. And it seems like Wachovia and the AT&T here, you had to think your way around the golf course instead of just bomb it and gouge and try to wedge it up there and make a lot of birdies. It was more of a strategic golf course and I seem to do pretty well at those.

Q. Tell us a little bit about your early years, why golf, and when did you start, like Tiger in diapers?
ANTHONY KIM: I did start in diapers. I played every sport in diapers. I told my parent I was going to be a pro basketball player, football player and golfer and do it all in the same season. (Laughter).
They looked at me like I was crazy. Till ninth or 10th grade, I really thought I would be able to do it, and I realize I'm not going to grow anymore. I'm not going to get any faster, I'm not going to get any bigger. So I guess this is what I was meant to do, and I just rolled with it and obviously I'm doing a pretty good job if I'm sitting in front of you guys.

Q. Just to follow up on that, how much does your parents influence your game or your mentality and stuff like that?
ANTHONY KIM: Well, definitely my parents are the reason I'm here right now. They gave me the opportunity to be out here.
I think I get my will to win from my dad, because he does not like losing. And he doesn't -- you know, for the most part, when I was a little bit younger, it wasn't okay to lose, whether it was thumb wrestling or whether it was golf.
So I definitely get that from my dad, and what I'm using right now to my advantage and to my benefit out here is my mom's -- I don't want to say that she's the most level-headed person I know, but she's pretty close, and her calmness and her demeanor definitely are coming through in my golf game.

Q. After his round today, Jim Furyk was speaking about you in glowing terms and saying you're the kind of guy who is never going to back down and who is fearless and would make a great Ryder Cup player; when one of your peers talks about you like that, what did that mean to you?
ANTHONY KIM: It means the world. These guys have been doing it for years and years and have won major championships and multiple tournaments. I just take it as a huge compliment.
Obviously at the same time, I don't want to let them down, so I'm going to keep working hard and hopefully I can be that Ryder Cup player and be the player that some people think I can be.

Q. Can you talk about the last couple of years of high school? I was reading that your parents moved you up to the Palm Springs area, and you were living on your own; how much has that shaped you in terms of Seve reliance and in terms of just being able to make your own decisions on and off the golf course?
ANTHONY KIM: Well, I definitely had to grow up a little bit faster. I had to report to them what I was doing. You know, it gets tough when you're 16 years old and you've got a house to yourself.
I definitely grew up, and when I got to college, I felt like I had already been through college. So when I came out here, I wasn't -- I wasn't worried about if I was going to be out here by myself or if I was where I'm going to stay. I wasn't worried about that. I learned how to take care of myself and that's what my parents wanted me to do ultimately. It just happened earlier than they expected, and obviously it worked out for my benefit.

Q. How did you stay that focused?
ANTHONY KIM: I think I have a tremendous amount of respect for my parents, and I knew that if I screwed around too much, that they would cut me off. (Laughter) I just tried to stay on the straight and narrow, and sometimes, you know, a lot of times I made mistakes, but at the same time, I realized that I had a wonderful opportunity and I shouldn't let it slip away.

Q. Somebody has to be the bad guy and ask about the belt, all the details. It came Wednesday, and what's the inspiration for this, as opposed to another kind of belt? When did you decide to go for something this dramatic?
ANTHONY KIM: I am actually going to do a photo shoot for a company tomorrow, a clothing line, off the golf course. They said they made me a belt, and if somebody's going to send me a belt, I'll wear it.
So I looked at it on Wednesday, and I said, it's pretty special, so I've got to save it for a special day, and today happened to be the day.

Q. Do you know anything about it, how much it weighs?
ANTHONY KIM: It's heavy. It's not as heavy as the trophy, but it's pretty heavy. (Laughter).

Q. Diamonds?
ANTHONY KIM: You know, it looks like diamonds, and they are pretty up scale, so I would be very surprised if it isn't.

Q. Can you give them a plug?
ANTHONY KIM: The company is L of A.

Q. Retail, how much?
ANTHONY KIM: You know, I don't know.

Q. Do you think Tiger wants a serious challenger to come along and push him a little farther as he gets into his career? Would you feel that way if you were him and had had all of the success he had had, that somebody was coming along to threaten possibly his status in the golf world?
ANTHONY KIM: Well, I've got to win about 13 more majors to worry him in any aspect of threatening him and what he's done for the game and what he does every week.
I definitely, I can't speak for a guy that's won, what, 50,60 tournaments and 13 majors. You know, I'm sure he wants people contending and that lights a fire under his belly, too, to be in the hunt and have people step up and see what he's made of.

Q. Tell us a little bit about your favorite courses in the world, including international.
ANTHONY KIM: I haven't played but one golf course, and that was this year at a European Tour event.
My two favorite courses right now would be Quail Hollow and Congressional Country Club. (Laughter).

Q. Do you think you're the guy?
ANTHONY KIM: What's that?

Q. Of all the people who are kind of a revolving door of rivals that Tiger is seeing, are you the next one?
ANTHONY KIM: I can't answer that, because guys like Sergio and Justin Rose, there's upcoming guys right now; Jason Day is a great player, and there's going to be quite a few challengers, and hopefully somebody can step up. I haven't done enough to say I'm the guy. I'd like to think that I can work my way into that position.
But right now, I still have a ways to go.

Q. When you talk about guys who have won twice in one year recently, at this age, you're looking at Tiger and Adam and you and Sergio.
ANTHONY KIM: Well, I mean, if I keep getting better, I don't see why I couldn't challenge him, but I still have a long ways to go.

Q. Back to the golf course. Tell us when you first knew you sort of had, No. 1, the lead, and No. 2, any kind of control, and what happened on the tee at 18? Did you know where you stood?
ANTHONY KIM: I knew I had at least a two-shot lead because I saw Fredrik, on 17, I saw him make a 15-footer when we were waiting on him, and so I knew I had a two-shot lead. We had been hitting driver there every day, and I feel like that's the right play if I just hit it hard, it's going to go in the grandstands or behind the grandstands, I'm going to be fine. I'm just looking to make a par.
I turned it loose and hooked it a little bit and it was fine and obviously it was an easy enough second shot that I got the job done.

Q. Line of sight relief, basically?
ANTHONY KIM: Right.

Q. Why did you choose the University of Oklahoma?
ANTHONY KIM: That's a funny story. I went to -- I wanted to go to some football games, so I was using the recruiting trips as tickets to football games for tree. (Laughter).
I went to OU and the first thing I did was I got to go to the stadium, and the game started probably two hours after I got there. So we waited around and hung out, and I wasn't really planning on going to OU because I wanted to go somewhere a little bit closer to home, around Arizona, Arizona State, somewhere in that area.
It started pouring. It started pouring rain, and I thought everyone was going to leave, because that was what I was used to back home. And everyone decided that they were going to take their shirts off and stay. You know, there were people going wild and I just loved the atmosphere. That's why I chose OU, because of OU football.

Q. Did you take your shirt off?
ANTHONY KIM: You know, I didn't. I've got to work out a little bit before I start doing that.

Q. How would you describe your relationship now with Tiger Woods?
ANTHONY KIM: Friendly. I mean, definitely someone that if I had a question, I'd ask. And obviously I have a lot to learn from him, but at the same time, I feel like when we step inside the ropes, we are competitors and I'm out there to beat him as bad as he wants to beat me. But definitely, I feel like he's somebody that's like my older brother that I need to bounce questions off of and learn from, and he's made very few mistakes, but definitely things that I can look into my game and to how I approach things from him.
So definitely someone I look up to.

Q. And was it critical that you stayed out of the sand on 15 and 16, and were you going to be okay with that, because you were laying up on the par 5 anyway.
ANTHONY KIM: Yeah, that was a very -- I was very fortunate to stay out of the sand, because I would have had to hit a 7- or 6-iron, and had about 160, 170 left, but I got to hit a 4-iron out of there and had 106 to the hole, and hit a perfect shot.

Q. When you called the official over, was it just to ask to ground the club?
ANTHONY KIM: Yeah, I didn't want to make any silly mistakes on the last day.

Q. In other sports, it's not all that unusual for somebody young to have some early success and to become a star in his sport. Why do you suppose that isn't so true in golf? Why is it unusual that someone like you has won a couple of tournaments at such an early age?
ANTHONY KIM: The biggest thing is that I feel like golf's a more level playing field than any other sport. The golf ball doesn't know how big you are, how old you are, and the cup definitely doesn't know that, either.
There's definitely a learning curve when you get out here, and playing with veterans and practice rounds and talking to them and learning from what they have done has helped me tremendously. In other sports, it's how beg you are and how fast you are and if you can get the ball in the bucket or if you can catch a football.
So you know, everyone out here starts out at even par and every day they come out, they know that they have as good a shot at winning as anybody else.

Q. You had some contentious years at OU and kind of a bit of a rocky start when you came out here. What turned for you? Was there a specific point where maybe a light came on?
ANTHONY KIM: Well, I think it was the BMW Championship, the third FedExCup event, that was my last FedExCup event. Tiger was playing before me, and he had been out there for a while. He was kind of getting through with his practice session and he was coming back in the clubhouse for some reason, and I had just gotten to the golf course, and just grabbed a breakfast burrito, and he was almost -- he was about 15 minutes from teeing off. And I still had not even seen my locker and I had not even changed my shoes.
So by the time I got out there, I had time to hit about three, four putts and I had to go tee off, and I ended up feeling like I played pretty well and got drummed and finished 50th or 60th, and really that was quite a low point in my golf career, I guess, in my short career.
And to feel like I wasn't doing myself justice to act that way, and prepare that way, I just took a step back and said, if I'm going to do this, I'm going to do it the right way and I've been doing it ever since.

Q. What day was that; do you remember?
ANTHONY KIM: Well, it wasn't the third or fourth day because he was playing good. I think it was the second day.

Q. And you showed up -- just to clarify, you were going off before him?
ANTHONY KIM: No, I was going off after him. I mean, he had just gotten through his practice session and I had just gotten to the course.

Q. In the last, say, year or so, have you matured more as a golfer or as a person? Which has matured at a faster rate, do you think?
ANTHONY KIM: I think it's easier to mature faster as a golfer, but definitely as a person, I feel like I've come a long way. I'm making a lot better decisions off the course. I'm staying away from bad people and staying away from bad places.

Q. What are you doing in here?
ANTHONY KIM: Yeah, I know. (Laughter).
I feel like it's time to grow up and it's time to make the right decisions, and I feel like I'm in a great position the right now; that I get to affect young kids and I feel like a lot of them look up to me. So I have to put myself out there like Tiger did for me, and many others, and be an example and be somebody that my parents will be proud of.

Q. This tournament honors not only the U.S. military but also Tiger's father's military service. Did either of your parents have military service?
ANTHONY KIM: You know, I don't think so. My dad may have been in the military for maybe a year, but I don't know for sure.

Q. When you look at examples of people to follow, do you also look at guys who had a lot of talent and may have not used it, like John Daly or somebody like that?
ANTHONY KIM: Do I look at.

Q. Do you look at those guys as examples when you were going through your stretch of maybe not being as dedicated and saying, I may end up that way, also.
ANTHONY KIM: I definitely looked at examples of how not to be, and that's not to say at that time people I looked at were doing things the wrong way. It just wasn't the way that I was brought up to act and behave. I just tried to look at it as what would my parents be proud of and what would other parents that have little kids want their little kid to be following. I get like the getting angry, the throwing a fit on the golf course, all that stuff had to go, and even what 3-putt bogey or a bogey on my second day, the last hole, I didn't carry it over to Saturday. I didn't go crazy, and I feel like all that's helping me out very much.

Q. You talked about influencing kids. Do you feel any special responsibility particularly to the Asian-American community that may not have a professional athlete they can look up to?
ANTHONY KIM: I do. That's very important to me and that's very important to my mother and my father. I want to be -- I guess when K.J. came out, he came from Korea and to be a second generation out here, I feel very lucky to be in this position. I think kids are looking for somebody to look up to, and hopefully I can be that guy; if I keep working hard and making the right decisions, I don't see why I wouldn't be that guy.
JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Anthony, can we go through your birdies.
ANTHONY KIM: 1, I actually pulled my drive and got a pretty lucky break. I think we had 126 and made about a 10-footer for birdie there.
On No. 7, I hit a 6-iron from 185 to six feet right of the Cup and made that.
And No. 9, I hit sand wedge from 105 to about eight feet and made that one.
And No. 10, hit a 5-iron to 18 feet and made that.
And No. 16, most importantly, hit a wedge from about 106 to five feet and made that one.

Q. What was the lucky break on the drive at 1?
ANTHONY KIM: Well, I feel like it's lucky if it doesn't stymie me next to the tree. It hit off the tree and ended up in the rough.

Q. How short were the misses on 2 and 3?
ANTHONY KIM: 2 was 12, 13 feet ask 3 was 2 1/2, three feet I would say.

Q. Any significance birdieing 1 all four days here and in Charlotte?
ANTHONY KIM: Absolutely. I told Eric yesterday, I said I was really nervous on that 3 1/2 footer, because I birdied the first hole of Wachovia all four days, and in the back of my mind, I said, it's an omen. If you miss this, you're not supposed to win; you can still win, but you're not supposed to win, and when I made that, I felt like that's when the floodgates opened and I felt very comfortable.
Obviously to start out that way today was tremendous.

Q. The 3 1/2 footer was yesterday?
ANTHONY KIM: Right.
JOAN vT ALEXANDER: Congratulations.

End of FastScripts

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297