|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
MERCEDES-BENZ CHAMPIONSHIPJanuary 6, 2009Anthony KimKAPALUA, HAWAII DOUG MILNE: Anthony, thanks for joining us for a few minutes at the 2009 Mercedes-Benz Championship. Coming off a phenomenal year highlighted by two wins. As we head into the 2009 season, you are a player of considerable interest as to what's going to happen this year. As we head into 2009, just assess the state of your game, playing here for the first time, and the excitement about being at a tournament for winners only. ANTHONY KIM: I've seen this tournament on TV, and it's always nice to get a win and get a nice new Mercedes with it. So I've been looking forward to this tournament for a long time. I feel like I've come a long way with my game and my attitude. And hopefully, if I can just stay on this roll, I feel like I've turned a corner, and if I can just keep my head down and stay focused, I'm going to be in good shape for this year. DOUG MILNE: At Chevron, did you mention that you won a college event in Hawaii. ANTHONY KIM: I won my first college tournament in Hawaii. DOUG MILNE: Where in Hawaii? ANTHONY KIM: I don't even remember. There was water, for some reason, yeah. Q. You mentioned focus; with all of the extracurricular stuff to do out here, is it hard to get focused, especially early in the week? ANTHONY KIM: Yeah, it is. This week I have been taking it very slowly. I'm trying to enjoy being out here. I have not played golf in two weeks, and actually, yesterday was my first day back. So since Tiger's tournament, I've just taken a break and enjoyed Christmas and New Year's with the family and friends. I'm just excited to be out here playing golf. Q. Are you doing some whale watching today? ANTHONY KIM: I'm going to go snorkeling and whale watching today. Q. As long as we are talking extracurricular activities, can you talk about Thursday's game? ANTHONY KIM: Oh, I think I'm going to be thinking more about that game than my round, because I've got three more days to make up ground, but the Sooners need every minute. I think it's going to be very fun playing with Camilo, because I will know what happens during the game, every five minutes (laughter). Q. How are you going to get the updates? ANTHONY KIM: I'll figure a way out. Q. Didn't you tell a story one time about how you went on your first recruiting trip to Oklahoma, and you were not really sure that you wanted to go there until you went to the football game? ANTHONY KIM: That's absolutely true. I was just going for the free football game and hang out at the college and see what that's about. But after the football game, I knew that was the school for me. So I've been a diehard OU sports fan, not just football, but basketball, too. We had probably the best player in college basketball right now, so very excited about watching my teams. Q. Who did you see play on your recruiting trip? ANTHONY KIM: They played -- I think they played Alabama, but that was the game that Jason White tore his ACL for the second time. There's not too many things I remember about that game except it started raining real hard, and everybody stayed and took their shirts off and -- Q. Everybody? ANTHONY KIM: No, males only (laughter). Everybody went wild, and it was such a good time. Q. If it was females, you would have signed a letter of intent that day. ANTHONY KIM: (Laughing). Q. Camilo told us to ask you what the bet was. ANTHONY KIM: (Laughing) You know, it's just slipping my mind right now. Yeah, we have a little bet on this game. Q. What do you think of this golf course? It's a little different from what you guys see week-in, week-out. Do you like the high winds? ANTHONY KIM: Oh, yeah, I love this kind of golf. This is fun for me, especially not having played golf for a couple weeks. And I took five weeks off before Tiger's event, and my first round of golf there was on Tuesday. So I think this type of course and this type of setup will help me get more on an even playing field, as weird as that sounds, because nobody is going to be throwing darts at these flags. You're going to have to roll some balls up to the green. You're going to have to get some good breaks, and the wind is going to have to kick at the right time. That brings me right back into it, and, hopefully, I can make some putts at the end of the week. Q. Until the back nine of Tiger's tournament, you played pretty well after having been off for so long. And then what happened, the doubles? ANTHONY KIM: You know, I don't know. I made two bad golf swings, one of them I missed the green by six inches, hit it in the water and made a double. And another one, I hit a poor drive, and I've been getting away with it all week. It's been landing and plugging, but unfortunately it plugged in a bush, so there was no way of getting around that. Q. We tend to ask you guys about the higher expectations, and you all tend to answer that your expectations are high on their own, and I understand that. But when you see your picture on the front of sports pages and covers of magazines and you're talked about every week, how do you cope with that? Because it's something that didn't happen until probably May. ANTHONY KIM: It's really not -- you know, it's hard not to notice, but at the same time, it doesn't affect me in the least bit. And the reason is, because in my mind, I've always thought that I was able to achieve some pretty high, lofty goals. I never thought it would be any other way. I thought one day it was going to happen, and it happens to be now. And hopefully, if I just stay on the right path, I'll have a pretty bright future. So it's something that my friends and people around me see more than myself. Q. Confidence-wise, do you feel that differently than a year ago at this time? ANTHONY KIM: I think now that I've won, it gives me a little bit more confidence. But I feel like the same person. Just don't talk as much (laughter), but pretty much the same guy. And when I step out on that tee, I'm ready to play golf, whether I haven't played golf in five weeks or whether I've practiced for the last two months. So I'm just ready to get out there and start competing again. Q. What would it have mattered to your game if you had talked as much now as you did then, as long as you were winning and playing as well as you've been playing? ANTHONY KIM: I don't want to be that guy. My mom and dad pretty much stressed me to just play golf, stay out of everyone's way, and just have fun. And you can have your fun off the golf course. You can go hang around with your friends or fly your friends in. When I travel, I bring my friends with me, so I don't need to be that guy that's always outspoken. But at the same time, I still want to say what's on my mind, so I'm still trying to find my balance and learn how to do that every day. Q. Who do you bring with you? I see them, but I'm just not sure who they are. ANTHONY KIM: I bring a number of different people. Just whenever they have a week off work or a week off school, or even if they don't have a week off school (laughter). Q. So you gave a clinic with Tiger toward -- it was December, right, where you hit the shots and he kind of talked? ANTHONY KIM: Right. Q. I was just wondering how often -- have you chatted at all since then or texted at all since then, or do you keep up with each other or have some sense of how you're doing in life? ANTHONY KIM: He's obviously a very busy guy, but when we do have a chance to talk, we sit down for a little bit. We spent some time together at his tournament for a couple hours. You know, even though we are not talking about golf, I still feel like I'm learning a lot from him. Obviously, he was thrown in the limelight, where he was supposed to be better than everybody that has ever come out. And I'm coming out where there's, you know, good, young players, like Sergio and Adam Scott and Camilo, and so I didn't have the same issues as he does. Wherever he goes, he's known. Unless it's people that play golf, you know, not that many people are going to know me if I'm not in Dallas or in L.A. And so I think there's a lot of things I can learn from him. And not being in the spotlight right now, I can take it all in and learn how to deal with those situations at home. And who knows, I'm not going to put any limits on myself. I don't want to say that I can't be great one day, but I still have to put in the work, and when that time comes, I'll be ready to deal with it a little bit better. Q. Do you get any sense from him on how he's doing? ANTHONY KIM: I think he's just trying to get better. I try not to ask him about that. I think that's personal and just trying to get better while he's away. I'll be a little bit better when he comes back. Q. With so much attention this year on Sergio, who had a great year, and Camilo, and yourself, and whatnot, do you think Tiger is paying attention to that? Do you think it motivates him at all when he comes back? ANTHONY KIM: I'm sure he's motivated. He's a funny guy. I'm sure he sees it, but he's not too worried. Obviously, he shouldn't be right now. What he's done is unbelievable. We're just trying to grind, and when the ball gets teed up and you need to make that putt, I think a couple of us will be more prepared than we were when he left. Q. This is kind of a skewed stat here, but do you realize you've never finished ahead of him in any tournament? ANTHONY KIM: I didn't know that. (Laughter). Q. Probably not alone. ANTHONY KIM: (Laughing) No, I didn't know that. But good to know. Hopefully we change that. I actually really did not know that (laughing). As a rookie, I think I played probably two or three of the same tournaments as he did. I had to go Monday-qualify for the U.S. Open. Q. What are you expecting out of him when he gets back? ANTHONY KIM: I guess the same guy. He's obviously played very well. It's like I said at the clinic. I'm not a huge golf fan, so I don't know all the stats. I thought he -- I really thought he had won about eight majors, and he told me he won 14 (laughter). I didn't know that. But he's obviously the best player in the world, and nobody is taking that away from him right now. I'm going to do my best to keep grinding and working towards that goal. Q. You said you wanted to keep working. Is your work more on your game or is it mental? ANTHONY KIM: It's mental. It's being prepared when I get here. It's all the little things that I didn't do when I was a rookie. I'm not that much better at it, but I'm getting closer to where I'm actually thinking about little things that make my life easier out here, like packing up clothes so I don't have to call Nike and tell them I need more shirts. But little things like that really do add up when you're on the road for three weeks or a month, because you're calling every single week for a new shirt. You don't see anybody else doing that. So I'm trying to make things easier, bring enough socks. I actually went to Wal-Mart and bought a bunch of socks and white tee shirts, just so I would be safe for this one week. Q. You're not going next week, right? ANTHONY KIM: No. Q. What do you have in the desert? ANTHONY KIM: I'm not quite sure what I'm doing, my schedule. That's something that we are going to have to talk about after this week. Q. You and me, or -- ANTHONY KIM: Yeah, you and I. We can talk about it. I can talk about it with everybody in here. No, IMG and I are going to sit down and talk about it. I'm not sure what we are doing. We are looking at a couple different options, thinking about how I'm going to be able to be more prepared for the majors and bigger tournaments. So I don't know exactly what I'm doing yet. Q. Do you like to play the week before a major or do you like that week off, or have you figured out what you like? ANTHONY KIM: I have not figured that out. I've played, like, five majors, I think, in my entire life, or six or four. I don't even know. I know I haven't played the Masters. But I don't know what I like to do. So we are going to try to have different scenarios and see which one works, and then we'll, hopefully, by next year, have figured it out. Q. A month and a half ago, there was a lot of talk about you and Camilo and The Race to Dubai. Is that still in your mind, trying to get there, and play enough European Tour events? You don't have to play that many obviously, but is that a primary role? ANTHONY KIM: My primary role is to win on the PGA TOUR. Although I am an affiliate member of The European Tour, I'm more concerned about what I'm doing here, obviously. My goal is to become a global player. And being that my parents are from Korea, it's important for me to go back. But at the same time, I don't know what I'm doing. This is more of a trial and error. If I play enough European Tour events, I do; and if I don't, I don't. That's stuff we are going to have to talk about. Until next week, I'm not -- I wasn't prepared to talk about it with my own agent. I just wanted to take some time, think about it, and relax with my friends. Q. When you say "global player," first of all, how would you define that? And secondly, I know you went overseas some after The Ryder Cup. Does it give you an appreciation when you go to these foreign lands of guys who hopscotch the globe, Ernie Els and Daniel Chopra, these guys that play everywhere? ANTHONY KIM: It's unbelievable. I'm tired driving to the golf course sometimes, and these guys are going 16, 17 hours every other week. I can't imagine what it feels like to do what they do, and I'm not trying to do that. But at the same time, I'd like to go to different places and visit different parts of the world. So hopefully, one day, I'll be able to influence other people to play golf, but it is a fun game. I think that it can only benefit kids growing up if they have a younger guy to look up to and see as the guy's having fun, the guy's doing what he wants to do with his life. So one day, I would like to be like that. Tiger was that for me, and hopefully if I can do it for one kid, that's successful for me. Q. When you were growing up, did you grow up speaking English and Korean simultaneously? ANTHONY KIM: Korean first. Q. Until how old, do you think? ANTHONY KIM: I don't know. Probably six or seven. And then English, and then it was all English pretty much. I went to school a little bit -- I did a couple months of schooling every year for three years in Korea. For a couple months, I went to live with my aunt. Q. How old were you when you did that? ANTHONY KIM: Nine, ten years old. But I don't really know what changed. But my parents wanted me to just pretty much speak only English and know how to speak Korean, but I've forgotten it. There wasn't that many Korean people to talk to in Oklahoma. Q. Didn't you play with K.J. one round? ANTHONY KIM: Yeah. Q. What did you guys do there? ANTHONY KIM: Just high-five a whole lot. We spoke Korean. Q. Easy for you? ANTHONY KIM: It's more difficult than it was when I was 15 years old, but I would say I haven't spoken Korean in five, six years. So it's a little bit tougher, but I pretty much got the hang of it. Q. And secondly, this confidence you have, where did it come from? ANTHONY KIM: I don't really know. I just always thought I was good at sports. You put me in a classroom and I disappear real fast (laughter). I've always been good with people, and I've always been good at sports. That's what I have. Some people are different, but this is what I can do. Q. As a kid, did you talk more on the basketball court or on the golf course? ANTHONY KIM: I talked in my sleep. I don't know where I talked more, but I talked to anybody. I talked trash every minute I was awake, even sleeping. Q. Did you ever get taken the wrong way, even as a kid? ANTHONY KIM: Yeah, but the bigger kids will shut you down every once in awhile, and you learn. But that's just how -- I'm very competitive, and I like to have fun. So if somebody is not enjoying it, get off the court. Q. Keep going. ANTHONY KIM: Leave it right there. Get off the court (laughter). Q. So you would trade this life to be a star in what other sports, NBA? ANTHONY KIM: I told my mom, I said, I'll be a pro basketball player and football season rolls around, I'll probably do that for a couple of weeks, and then I'll play golf on the side. She said, Yeah, you can do whatever you want to do. And my dad looked at me and he said, No, you can't. You can't play basketball or football, because you're not growing. You can't jump. That only works if you're tall. Q. So baseball? ANTHONY KIM: No baseball. Obviously ruin my swing for the rest of the year (laughter). DOUG MILNE: Thank you very much. We appreciate your time. End of FastScripts |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|