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AT&T NATIONAL

July 2, 2009

Anthony Kim

BETHESDA, MARYLAND

NELSON SILVERIO: Welcome, Anthony Kim, to the media center here at the AT&T National. Becoming old hat, huh, just picked up where you finished off last year. Give us some thoughts on your round.
ANTHONY KIM: It was a little bit better than last year. I got off to a great start. Whenever you can make a bunch of birdies and not bogeys to follow it up, it's going to be a good day, and fortunately I kept the ball in play for most of the day and finally got some putts to fall this year.

Q. You kind of threw down the gauntlet before Tiger got out there, shooting the course record.
ANTHONY KIM: I did play very well, but that man can go out there and shoot 60, so I'm not really worried about what he's doing. All I can do is focus on myself.
I think that was the difference today is I focused on the shot I was hitting at the time and not the next shot, or man, I need to birdie that short par-4. I just stepped up to the tee and said, this is what I've got to do with this shot, and I moved on from there.

Q. What is it about this place? Does it just fit your eye perfectly?
ANTHONY KIM: It does. This golf course fits my eye, and when I hit it wide I seem to get lucky out here. This is one of the very few courses I feel like I get lucky at.
I love coming back to a course I have good feelings about, and obviously playing well last year helped. But this course does fit my eye, and I'm starting to see the break on these greens pretty well.

Q. Tuesday afternoon you were out there pretty late on the range, and it looked like you were still working on some things and weren't too happy with what was going on. What were you going through at that point, and have you solved that?
ANTHONY KIM: I haven't solved it completely. I'm still -- I'm going to go have some lunch and go work on it. I'm not working on it for this week, I'm working on it for the rest of the year, and I'm building right now for the rest of the year, and it would be great to knock one off and play four great rounds.
But my goals are to win major golf tournaments and be prepared to play in those. Right now I'm going about it the right way. I'm starting to focus on my course management because I know at majors that's what's important. This is a major championship type of golf course obviously, because in two years we'll be here for the Open.
I just know that if I'm working on the right things, it's going to pay off, whether it's tomorrow, Saturday, Sunday or next week.

Q. Specifically what are those right things you're going to work on?
ANTHONY KIM: Well, I was having trouble -- I was regripping the club on my backswing because I couldn't hold onto it with my thumb the way it was. I tried to blanket the problem by taping it as hard as I could so it wouldn't move. But now that I'm actually getting some strength back in the thumb and able to hold onto that golf club, I have to readjust not regripping the club and holding onto it and cocking my wrist the way I used to. Before I couldn't get the right set with my hands.

Q. You were in here the other day and you were saying that you're not going to be as aggressive; all the birdies that you made at Augusta and you're not going to be firing at pins, but can you just not help yourself? You obviously fired at a few pins today.
ANTHONY KIM: I guess I can't help myself (laughing). To be perfectly honest, I hit quality golf shots and made putts from 10 to 15 feet today or 8 to 15 feet and just really hit quality golf shots. I didn't hit it two feet on every hole and tap it in. And sometimes that's how you make 11 birdies.
But today I played more to the middle of greens, and if I missed it, I missed it to the fat side and had a putt at it, which is a lot easier than hitting bunker shots or flop shots out of the rough.
A part of me still went at a couple flags, but when you're behind the tree, you have to fire at it. Might as well, because you're going to make bogey anyway.

Q. Do you use your thumb as a checkpoint or a trigger at the very top like some players do? Is that part of the problem?
ANTHONY KIM: I don't.

Q. Could you kind of show us where the problem is, where it hits you?
ANTHONY KIM: It's just halfway back, and I'm not able -- I wasn't able to set the club, and that just means hinge my wrists. It wasn't so much anything at the top of the golf swing. But I wasn't able to do that, and that would just make me regrip it at the top.

Q. You talked about having lucky things happen to you. Can you give us some examples of that today, any great bounces?
ANTHONY KIM: Well, two holes in a row. I actually made birdie off of I think it was No. 3. I hit a drive that wasn't really sure about the wind, and I didn't hit a full, solid driver and hit it a little bit to the right probably 10, 15 yards right of the fairway, and the ball actually kicked left and was five, ten yards off the fairway, and it could have been behind the tree.
And on the next hole I did pretty much the same thing, but it covered the trees, and it was so far right that I had a shot at the green. I hit a great shot to about seven feet and made that.

Q. You're aware this was the course record. How many of them do you hold, and that last putt looked like you hit a good putt, just didn't go in?
ANTHONY KIM: Well, I heard it was a course record after I got off the golf course. But I don't know how many. I think I have a couple, but I don't really turn in my scorecard after a round if I'm not playing in a tournament.
I'm not sure, but it was a putt that was left edge. I saw Jim, he was on a similar line, and I wanted to trust that break, and I really thought I was going to be able to hit it to the left because the whole green looks like it's going from right to left. So everything was telling me that it was not going to move to the right. I hit a good putt and just didn't pick the right line.

Q. I know you talked a little bit early in the week about it, but the injuries aside, how difficult was it this year after you had that flurry last year with a couple wins to not have that taste?
ANTHONY KIM: It's still hard. Just because I shot 62 doesn't take away that bitter taste in my mouth when I'm not contending for tournaments, and that's what everyone out here works for. It's awful when you come out here and finish 20th and 30th and 50th. I mean, I've been lucky to finish 50th a couple times this year.
I'm finally getting to that point where I feel like I'm going to be able to win every time I tee it up. It's not going to take anything crazy, it's just going to take solid golf.
It's easy to get down on yourself, and I just tried to stay positive. But I've got great people around me and great sponsors in Nike and RBC, and they've kept my head on the straight and narrow. I've been working hard towards a goal, and it's to be ready for those major championships.

Q. How long was the putt on the last hole, about eight or nine feet?
ANTHONY KIM: About eight or nine feet.

Q. And your putting routine, you don't stand over it long after you're squared up; is that correct? It looked like you were only over it maybe three or four seconds.
ANTHONY KIM: Bad thoughts are going to creep in. I mean, there's nothing good going to come out of standing over that ball very long. Jim Furyk stands over the ball for a minute. I don't know what he thinks about, but everything goes in, so obviously he's doing something right. Maybe I should try that.

Q. People have been looking at Congressional here for an eternity. Do your low scores show that equipment and other things have kind of caught up with this course a little, or is your 62 going to be unique this week?
ANTHONY KIM: Well, I hope it's unique for my sake. But the golf course is very soft. I know it rained. I took the afternoon off and was in bed all day. But I know the golf course is playing extremely soft because of the rain.
As the course firms up, this golf course is going to start to show its teeth, and when that happens, we'll see how much the equipment really matters.

Q. Kind of jumping off that question, you're a guy who likes a course to play around par. Obviously you went a lot lower than that today. How much of that was how great you played and how much of that was the course conditions being soft and that sort of thing?
ANTHONY KIM: Well, the golf course being soft was huge. I actually just put a new Nike driver in the bag this week, and I've been driving the ball from right to left, and now that I'm starting to get a little healthier, I'm starting to -- I can use a stiffer shaft and move the ball from left to right. And that's what I did all last year. I think that was the key to my success last year was driving it in the fairway. Especially with the fade that I'm hitting, I can use more of the fairway when it's wet, so it's not going to roll as much, and I keep the ball in play.
I'd like to say it was just me playing fantastic golf, but I got a couple good breaks along the way and drove it pretty well overall.

Q. Was that the only change, the shaft in the driver?
ANTHONY KIM: No, it's a completely new head. It's a little bit lower loft. It's 8 degrees, and I was using 81/2 or just a little bit above that. I lowered the loft on it and stiffened the shaft up, and ready to go.

Q. How long have you had the thumb, and did you get treatment on it? Did you think about sitting out for a while with it?
ANTHONY KIM: I did, but like firing at pins, I can't help myself. I've got to come out here. This has been a dream of mine to play on the PGA TOUR, and I wasn't going to sit. It was definitely an observation a couple doctors made that I should just rest it for four to six weeks and not play. But I didn't want to do that. I'm out here to get better.
There's something that I can get better at every time I step out onto the golf course. I'm playing with some of the best players in the world. Watching Jim Furyk get through golf courses the way he does and watching some of the guys that are shorter hitters that just work the golf course, I'm learning how to manage my game when I'm not on. So even today I used that and hit more 3-woods.
On number, I think, 12, 13, maybe 14, that par-4, it's 430 yards, 440 yards up the hill. Last year I hit driver every single day and played that hole, I think, 1- or 2-over par.
Today it was into the wind and I pulled out 3-wood, and I was never comfortable doing that. So I did learn something from these last two or three months of struggling.

Q. So you've had it for about two or three months?
ANTHONY KIM: I'd say just a little bit longer.

Q. Is it a stinging thing or --
ANTHONY KIM: It doesn't hurt anymore. It's fine.

Q. How do you roll that through your mind, the idea of playing through an injury with some of the hazards that might present versus doing what some of the doctors were suggesting and maybe giving yourself some time to rest? Was there a point during that period where you might be begun to wonder whether being more conservative with it might have been a better idea?
ANTHONY KIM: It may have, and I'm sure those doctors are a lot smarter than I am. But Nike Golf -- when I signed with Nike, they said they want athletes. Athletes and pros play through pain and play through injuries. There was no doubt in my mind I was going to come out here, learn something along the way and keep grinding away.
NELSON SILVERIO: Anthony, thank you. Keep it up.

End of FastScripts

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