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WYNDHAM CHAMPIONSHIP

August 18, 2010

Anthony Kim

GREENSBORO, NORTH CAROLINA

MARK STEVENS: Okay. Anthony Kim, just finished your Pro-Am round. Thank you for taking the time to come in.
You're No. 14 on the FedExCup right now with the playoffs starting next week. Want to talk a little bit about your goals this week and how you're playing coming off your injury and then we'll go ahead and take some questions.
ANTHONY KIM: First of all, I'm very excited to be here in Greensboro. I have great thoughts and feelings about coming to North Carolina, being that I won my first tournament an hour and a half down the road.
So, I'm excited to play in front of the fans again and hopefully my game will start turning around with a little luck and if I get a few putts to fall, I should be in good shape for this week.
MARK STEVENS: Questions?

Q. Have you talked to Corey, have you sent him any chocolates or what's the latest on that with the Ryder Cup, has that been added pressure to you a little bit?
ANTHONY KIM: I wouldn't say added pressure. I really didn't have anything to lose when I came back. I just haven't put the ball in the hole and I knew that when I came back I was going to be rusty. I wish I had practiced a little bit more before I played but I just wasn't able to do it.
So I didn't put too much pressure on myself but, at the same time, I was hoping for the best and it didn't turn out that way and just got bumped out and now it's just time for me to get the ball in the hole the next month and prove to him I'm playing well enough to make that team, and I would sure love to be playing for the U.S. in Wales.

Q. Coming off the thumb injury, what did you do when you couldn't play golf? How were you spending your time?
ANTHONY KIM: Just really I did everything a 25 year old kid would do (laughter). I just hung out with my friends, spent a lot of time at the pool. It was good that I was injured in the summer because I got to lay out by the pool and work on my tan, I enjoyed that very much, and just to be able to reconnect with my close friends and my inner circle outside the golf course and to spend time with my mom was very important and I feel very lucky that I got to do that.

Q. Did you miss the game?
ANTHONY KIM: I definitely missed the competition. It was tough to turn on the TV and I watch a lot of Sports Center and so I didn't want to be antsy to play golf so I didn't watch much golf but every time I had seen the leaderboard, I said, "Man, I would like to be up there" especially when the British Open is going on and the U.S. Open is going on at such great venues, I want to be there and want to be competing, but this was the first thing I had to do and taking care of the injury was the No. 1 priority for me.

Q. Anthony, on this subject, the kids, the young people that are coming up on Tour right now, they show up and are so confident. I don't know if cocky is the word. They just show up on the first tee like, "I got a chance to win this thing."
If you would personalize and talk about what it was like when you were -- when you just got on to the scene and did you show up on the first tee, "I'm going to beat you and you. I'm going to win this thing."
Were you that confident as -- you were still a kid.
ANTHONY KIM: I feel like I'm still a kid and when I come out here and I look around now I feel really old. That's a weird feeling.
When I came out on Tour, I expected to win and I thought winning would come a lot easier than it did. My first tournament even before I got my card in 2006 I finished 2nd. I didn't think I played that well in a Fall Series event.
The way I thought about the Tour wasn't what it was. I mean these guys out here all can play and grind. You've seen a couple 59s from the veterans. You haven't see any young guys do it but there's a chance it could happen on any given week.
So, I think the attitude is that we're all here to win, every single one of the guys are out here to win and maybe it's Tiger and Phil that have brought that attitude to us a little bit easier because we get on the tee and we're not scared to hit the flop shot every once in a while. We grew up watching these guys, all they care about it winning. Second place is not good enough.
It's hard to win out here. You got to have a little bit of luck. And I feel fortunate to have won a couple times even though I feel like I let a couple tournaments go by the wayside. I still feel like if I give myself the opportunity, I'm going to have the right mindset and be confident enough to pull it off.

Q. Were the veterans pretty cool with you and are they pretty cool? You're trying to take their paycheck, too.
ANTHONY KIM: That's a tough question to answer. You know, everyone pretty much keeps to themselves out here. When I first got out here I think I was 20 years old and thought I knew everything and wanted to play everyone head to head and that's just not how it is.
You need to play your game, you need to focus on yourself and not worry about everybody else. I think that's the biggest thing I've learned. I've got along a lot better with the guys up top, they were more willing to help and teach me the ropes, so I really just try to listen to a couple guys and keep to myself and I travel around with my friends so I feel very fortunate to do that so I just -- I don't worry about golf unless I'm in the tournament and I'm in the zone.

Q. How do you stay on top of the local rules when you're working with your caddy, when you're working with officials while you're out playing?
ANTHONY KIM: You know, if -- we really play by just the USGA rules so it's tough to answer that question. We don't worry about local rules. We just go ahead and play.
You know, I guess you're talking about Dustin's shot out of the bunker and that's probably what you're talking about, but I don't think that's a local rule.
If you're in the bunker, you can't ground your club. And on the first tee every morning they told us, "Everything is a bunker out there there's no waste area."
On that topic it was very unfortunate it happened to Dustin because he had played so well and probably deserved to be in that playoff. They let us know before we teed off.

Q. Anthony, is this the first time you've been to this course?
ANTHONY KIM: Yes.

Q. What did you think of it? Do you think there's a 59 out there this week?
ANTHONY KIM: Well, it's a shorter golf course so you don't have to drive it very far and what that does is bring more people into the mix, guys that are hitting it a little bit shorter don't have to worry about hitting a 3-wood in. They can hit a 5-iron.
It's not like Whistling Straits or the World Golf Championships. It brings a lot more guys into the mix. The greens are in good shape but they're slower. I think that the weather here, the summer has been brutal.
I've heard a lot of golf courses, the greens being taken over by the heat and not even surviving. So they're not running very fast. So, again, it brings more guys into it. You don't have to read as much break. Just hit it as hard as you can and hope it goes in.

Q. Dovetail into your comment on the greens, what kind of condition, what kind of shape do you think the course is going to be in given the weather over a weekend of play?
ANTHONY KIM: Well, I don't know what it's going to look like at the end. I know there's going to be quite a few ball marks out there. The weather has not been very friendly to these greens. But I know the maintenance crews are doing a great job of keeping them smooth.
You can tell that they've been trying to keep them smooth and it's just unfortunate that it's so hot out here. You got to put water on these greens.
Yesterday I was getting done with my practice round and they were watering the greens at 10:30 in the morning. You figure if the greens are soft you probably don't need to do that but it's just -- you got to keep them alive.

Q. I saw a report this morning on the Internet the Vegas odds are out and they made you the favorite at 9-1 to win this week. Does that make you laugh and should we go out and put some money down on you?
ANTHONY KIM: I don't support gambling (laughter). I don't even know how that's possible. I'm just trying to hit the fairway and trying to find the ball. It's very nice but doesn't really matter to me.
MARK STEVENS: Okay. Thanks a lot Anthony. Good luck this week.
ANTHONY KIM: Thanks.

End of FastScripts

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