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WGC BRIDGESTONE INVITATIONAL

August 3, 2010

Anthony Kim

AKRON, OHIO

COLIN MURRAY: Anthony, thanks for joining us here in the media center at the Bridgestone Invitational. You've had a two-month break so I'm sure you're anxious to get back out there and start playing. Give us some thoughts on returning to competition this week and how the thumb is doing, and we'll go from there.
ANTHONY KIM: I'm very excited to be back. I actually had a little bit of adrenaline hitting balls yesterday on the driving range and hadn't felt that in a long time. So I am excited to be back. I'm not sure how I'm going to play, but I'm going to come in with a good attitude, try to stay as patient as I can. I know that's going to be tough not having played for three months and probably will be a little rusty.
But I came here with the attitude of I'm here to prepare for next week. I have four days of golf guaranteed, even if I shoot 110. I haven't played much golf, but I'm excited to be here.

Q. What's the first 18 holes you played?
ANTHONY KIM: I haven't played 18 holes. I haven't played a hole yet.

Q. Not here, anywhere, home?
ANTHONY KIM: I haven't played anywhere. I've hit balls for 12 days. I've been putting one-handed for the last month, and I feel good.

Q. You look terrible.
ANTHONY KIM: Thank you (smiling).

Q. Can you just elaborate on being away for this long? Did you get antsy? Was it hard to -- I'm sure you could not physically swing a golf club, but was it mentally difficult to be away for that long a time?
ANTHONY KIM: It was tough knowing that a lot of the things I had worked for were starting to pass me by. I had worked towards getting my short game a lot better. It's a commitment I made to my game last year for the majors because you miss more greens at majors. It's a lot tougher off the tee and the rough is a lot longer, so I made sure my short game was in good shape and felt like I let a couple slide by. But I didn't want more -- a year or two of majors to go by me because I wanted to play, too. That was disappointing.
And to even fall to No. 5, which I saw on the Ryder Cup, isn't a great feeling, but I know I can take care of that with some good play and not worry about that. I just feel like more and more that everything happens for a reason, and it was nice to spend time with my mom, and it was nice to spend time with my dog and be at home and just be a normal 25 year old kid who just gets to hang out at the house and do some rehab and just hang out.
It's been very nice for me to be at home and not worry about what's going on in the Golf World and just relax and now come out here with a fresh attitude.

Q. What concerns you the most about playing a competitive round now?
ANTHONY KIM: I think just making poor decisions more than anything. I think my swing is simple enough where it'll come to me pretty easily. No, I just worry that in the heat of the moment I'll make a bad decision. But that happens when I'm playing a lot of tournaments anyway (laughter), so I guess I really don't have to worry about too much.
You know, everything to me golf-wise seems like it'll be there. I know I'm not going to be quite as sharp and game-tested, but at the same time I'm so happy to be out there. When you have a good attitude and you're excited to be on the golf course, you start playing a little bit better, and I'm excited about that.

Q. I know you don't watch much golf, but did you see any of the shots that were hit in either of the 59s that were shot, and were you surprised that two 59s were shot within three weeks of each other out here?
ANTHONY KIM: No, I didn't see any of that, but that's pretty incredible. I don't even know if it was par-72 or 70 or 71. Regardless, 59 is unbelievable, and I heard somebody shot 58, a high schooler shot 58 or something. I guess everyone has gotten a lot better since I've been away. (Laughter.)

Q. But seriously, since there had only been three prior to July 8th and we've had two since then, what do you think that says? Does it speak more to golf course preparation or to the quality of play, or what do you think?
ANTHONY KIM: Well, I think it has everything to do with the average guy on tour is getting a lot better. I mean, most -- I guess when you first came out here, you'd say there was only a handful of guys that could shoot that, but Tiger and Phil have pushed people so hard that everyone on TOUR is getting better, just to be 30th on the Money List is a lot harder than it was I think three or four years ago when I got out here.
It's pretty incredible the scores they're shooting. I guess I just have to work on my game and not be too concerned about their 59s and 58s.

Q. Had you heard of Louis Oosthuizen before the British Open? Did you know who he was?
ANTHONY KIM: No, I didn't. When I turned it on, it said somebody had a five-shot lead, and I didn't know that he had won on the European Tour before, and it's just not something I follow. I follow this TOUR, the PGA TOUR, and not much else. So I hadn't heard of him. But he played an incredible British Open.
It just shows how good golf is getting around the world. It's a credit to guys like Tiger and Phil for making everybody else better.

Q. You talked about falling to No. 5 in the standings, but if not for a boat load of international winners in the two months you've been gone, you probably could have fallen a lot lower. Is anybody happier to see so many foreign guys winning than you?
ANTHONY KIM: I didn't even know foreign guys were winning. I haven't been paying attention to all that. I know if I was looking at where my standings were and who was winning I would get more antsy. I don't need that. My ADD is wild enough where I get thrown off by anything. I wanted to make sure I didn't read anything about how many points I was losing or my World Ranking was dropping, and just tried to make sure that I worried about everything I could control, and there wasn't too much that I could do sitting at home on the sofa.

Q. What were you doing? It sounds like you were under a rock for three months.
ANTHONY KIM: I definitely wasn't under a rock. It felt like it sometimes, but I just got to enjoy hanging out with my friends again. I got a new dog, so pretty excited about that.
I spent quite a bit of time with my mom. I think that's the thing I miss the most about being on TOUR is I don't get to see my mom enough and nearly as much as I want to.
For the last four years I've probably seen her 15 times, and I spent maybe almost a month with her the whole time I was off. So that was very nice.
Like I said, when things like that happen, golf becomes a little less important, and I get to enjoy the things that my parents and I have worked so hard for together, and that's very rewarding for me. It gives me a mindset to come back out here so we can do it again and I can take some time off and spend time with my mom again.

Q. Did you take her on vacation or did you guys just stay home and --
ANTHONY KIM: No, we spent a lot of time in San Diego, and I let my mom yell as me as much as she could just so we can get that out of the way and our conversations on the phone from a little bit easier. But we just enjoyed having lunch together, having dinner together and sharing a bottle of wine together. It was nice to be able to share that with my mom.

Q. Are you not going to play 18 holes until Thursday?
ANTHONY KIM: No, I'm going to try to play 18 maybe this afternoon. But probably nine and then nine in the morning. I actually was a little bit late here because I had to go see my doctor, and we spent about the last two and a half, three hours together getting an MRI done on my thumb and taking some more x-rays just to make sure it was stable because I was having a little bit of pain there. But structurally everything is fine and now I just need to go out there and put the ball in the hole.

Q. Do you have any limitations or can you go full bore?
ANTHONY KIM: I'm going to go full speed. It doesn't feel like I'm hitting it as hard as I would if I had a couple more weeks in me. But I hit about ten drivers yesterday and it doesn't feel like I have the same pop. But it's going straight, which hasn't been the case the whole year. Just to have my thumb attached to my hand has been a plus I'm sure.

Q. What was the first club you hit full and what was your thought before you hit that shot?
ANTHONY KIM: My first club was a lob wedge, and I was chipping a little bit, and I felt like I could go pretty hard at it, so I took it full. I just said, please don't come off, and that was to my thumb. I had a conversation with it. I didn't want to tear it again, but it's been three months, and he said that I should be fine. I take my doc's advice. He's done an amazing job for me, and hopefully we can just keep rehabbing and get to full strength here.

Q. What kind of dog?
ANTHONY KIM: French bulldog.

Q. Name?
ANTHONY KIM: Deebo.

Q. I think you're the only TOUR player to watch the movie "Friday"?
ANTHONY KIM: Could possibly be.

Q. Did you reach a point with the thumb that you couldn't go on anymore? It was too painful, you had to do it then? Or was it calculated to try to, I'm going to get this done now so I can get back for the Ryder Cup or PGA?
ANTHONY KIM: It was a bit of both. At Quail Hollow I started feeling like other parts of my body were breaking down because of my thumb, and I was starting to compensate. And just to prevent any further damage anywhere else, I wanted to get it taken care of.
But 100 percent I wanted to be back for the Ryder Cup and try to do as much as I can to make that team. I think the timing was right. Obviously I would have liked to get back a little bit sooner, but I wanted to make sure that if I took this much time off I didn't come back just a week too early.
COLIN MURRAY: Anthony, thanks for your time, and good luck this week.

End of FastScripts

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