BETHESDA, Md. -- Tiger Woods was asked earlier this week to name the contenders among the current 20-something crowd of golfers with the potential to challenge him as the game's No. 1 player.
He hardly hesitated, immediately mentioning fellow Southern Californian Anthony Kim, the defending champion in this week's AT&T National, Woods' signature event on the PGA Tour.
Despite what has been a mostly dispiriting season for the 24-year-old former high school point guard, Kim clearly lived up to that flattering billing Thursday in the first round of the same event at Congressional. Going off in the morning portion of the draw, Kim merely ran off birdies on six of the first eight holes he played on his back nine 29 and signed for an 8-under 62, a career best on tour and the lowest score ever posted in tournament play on a classic though rain-softened venue that will host the U.S. Open in 2011.
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| Anthony Kim says a sore left thumb hasn't allowed him to play shots he prefers. (AP) |
The Los Angeles native with a flair for oversized belt buckles and making birdies in bunches also soared as high as No. 6 in the world rankings last year and seemed headed even higher when he tied for second in the season-opening Mercedes Championship at Kapalua. Still, over the past six months, he hasn't had a top 10 finish since Hawaii, though clearly his game showed far more flashes of brilliance just a week ago when he had four rounds in the 60s, ended at 14 under and tied for 11th in the Travelers Championship in Connecticut.
Now No. 15 in the world, Kim can easily finger his main problem for most of the current season -- a sore left thumb doctors told him he'd be wise to rest from four to six weeks. But Kim decided to soldier on and play in pain, with even more hurtful results and a troubling change in his swing.
"I'm sure those doctors are a lot smarter than I am, but when I signed with Nike, they said they wanted athletes," Kim said after a first round in which he hit 17 of 18 greens in regulation and 10 of 14 fairways, with only 27 putts. It would have been 26, and a round of 61, but he missed an eight-footer for birdie on his final hole, the 602-yard ninth.
"Athletes and pros play through pain and play through injuries," he continued. "There was no doubt in my mind I was going to learn something along the way and keep grinding away."
Kim said his thumb began to bother him about three months ago and eventually had a debilitating affect on his ability to properly grip the club.
"Something just felt wrong in my thumb and I have not really been able to put pressure on the golf club with my left thumb," he said. "That sounds like not a big deal, but it was a huge deal because I couldn't get through the ball and I couldn't hit a fade. So I was playing a draw, and that's not what my game is about.
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"My game is about working the ball from left to right, so I wasn't seeing the shots I wanted to and I was losing a little bit of confidence as I was going along. But I've been getting treatment, getting stronger and getting in better shape, so it's starting to come around. My thumb feels as good as it has in probably three months. It may have been just a strain that I didn't let heal, and it kept lingering and bothering me. But I'm back now."
Still, in the midst of what looked like a dreadful swoon over the first half of the season, Kim admitted there were times he was terribly frustrated and had to fight the urge to go into a deeper tailspin. He also said that posting 62 in the opening round here "doesn't take away from the 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, 30th and 50th," he said. "I mean I've been lucky to finish 50th a couple of times this year. It's easy to get down on yourself, and I just tried to stay positive. I've got great people around me ... and they've kept my head on the straight and narrow. I've been working hard toward a goal, and it's to be ready for these major championships."
Kim said a significant turning point may well have occurred at the water-logged U.S. Open two weeks ago at the bog known as Bethpage Black. Considering the rain-soaked conditions, the stops and starts in play, the brutally difficult course, he shot even par in the last round, was at three-over 283 for the week and tied for 16th, seven shots off champion Lucas Glover's 4-under 276.
"It showed me that even without my best, I was going to have a chance to win that tournament," Kim said. "I was a shot off 10th, a couple of shots off third. So I have nothing but positive feelings from the last two weeks.
"Even though I didn't finish the way I wanted to [at the Open], but from the weeks before that, I was hitting it so bad, I wasn't physically able to make the move on the ball like I wanted to," he said. "We had to hit more 3-woods and hybrids off the tee, and I was comfortable doing that at the Open. Last year, I wasn't comfortable doing that. But to be able to get the ball in play was important for me."
Kim said he still doesn't have his swing exactly where he'd like it and is spending an inordinate amount of time on the practice range this week trying to get back his normal left-to-right ball flight. It also helps that he's probably in the best shape of his life after working this season with Darby Rich, the strength coach for the Oklahoma basketball team, who is here at Congressional this week. Kim played college golf for three years at Oklahoma, and occasionally practiced with the Sooners team.
He also would like to believe that dealing with his injury in what he described as "my toughest year on tour," might actually work to his benefit the rest of the season and well beyond.
"I'm learning more about myself when I'm not playing well," he said two days before the start of the tournament. "I'm learning how to play this game. I'm learning how to approach different situations when you're not playing your best, and it's going to help me when I do start hitting the ball well and do start putting well when my game comes together."
Just the way it did Thursday at Congressional, at least for a memorable record opening round.
Leonard Shapiro can be reached at Badgerlen@aol.com.
