Good read here..
Q. What was the message that you tried to impart to Anthony Kim? You've obviously been a mentor to Tiger. What was your message to him? He had a successful year and was in a funk after the season, but what is it about him that you like?
MARK O'MEARA: I would say -- I met him that week. I had never seen Anthony before, never met Anthony. I didn't play that much on the regular TOUR last year, as you know. I don't know what tournament it was this last year where he was playing, and I just remember -- I thought I saw an interview, I could be totally off base, but I thought I saw where he was maybe tied for the lead or was going to be in the last group on Sunday, Colonial or somewhere. And the golf reporter, whoever it was, they were interviewing him, and they said, Anthony, you've been really playing well this year, you're in the final group, and how do you feel about going into tomorrow? He said, I just don't understand why I haven't won yet. I thought that was pretty -- I'm not sure that's an exact quote, don't get me. But it was something in that manner.
But yet when I met him, he came up, and he said, Mark, I'm so excited to be playing with you as your partner and I've grown up watching you play and know what you've accomplished on the regular TOUR and winning the majors, how many tournaments you've won and I know you're obviously very close with Tiger. But I know I've made some comments and I've made some mistakes, and I was very young and I was very na?ve. I've got to tell you, I've learned from those, and I want to change.
So I went to dinner with him a couple nights, and I told him for him to come up and say that to me, somebody who he really didn't know that well, was already a step in the right direction. He knows he's made some mistakes. He's willing to change and become a better person and a better player, and I think he just -- we played with Nick Price and Charles Howell, and we grew up in a little different era than a lot of young players today.
I just conveyed to Anthony, I've been around the game a long time. I'm not an expert but I've watched a lot and I've seen a lot. But you've got as much talent or more than any other player I've ever seen besides Tiger, and I believe that.
I'm not trying to put pressure on him, and I told him that. Here's I think what you need to do, and I laid it out for him. Unless you don't like money and you don't want to win tournaments, then maybe you continue down that other road. But if you really want to win tournaments -- he could win multiple tournaments a year easily and win major championships. That's how talented he is in my opinion.
I'll tell you what, I've never been more excited about playing with a young player and watching how he played -- granted, it was pretty cool, too, that he was my partner. I know we didn't win, but I think I'm a pretty good judge of what I see in somebody's bag and what they've got in talent, and that kid has got it.
I played with him a little this winter. He was out in the desert practicing pretty hard. I saw him yesterday, and he was like, I missed ten putts inside of five feet. I said, listen, I don't know how you played. But I watched you make a big putt for two-putt on 17 and I watched how you finished 18. I know it's tied for third and I know you want to win badly. But you've got to knock at the door, keep knocking at the door and sooner or later they're going to open the door. It's going to happen.
You're not going to win every week. If you try and force it too hard you're always going to get in your own way. So you've got to let it come to you and be patient. Then when you win, it will build on itself. You'll learn from that. Life is all about learning experiences. This kid very much impresses me a lot, a real lot.
Q. How does his talent compare to Tiger at 21?
MARK O'MEARA: Well, 21, 22 Tiger already won six tournaments. I think Tiger's mental game was probably stronger. I think actual technique-wise, swing-wise, I reckon Anthony's swing is better at 21 or 22 than what Tiger's was. But just because you have a good swing and just because you might hit the ball well doesn't mean that you're going to win tournaments. We've seen that. We've seen players that don't have very good swings that -- this guy if you watched him on the range you wouldn't think he had a chance. But yet the guy goes out and has got the heart and the mind and the short game.
I see a little bit of immaturity, younger, kind of aggressive, kind of gets a little hot under the collar, but all those things are things that we've kind of talked about. You know, hopefully he'll take that to heart. I imagine he's going to play well this week, too, because he's coming off a good week last week and he's confident. There's no way he shouldn't play well every week. He's way too skilled not to.
CHRIS REIMER: Let's hope you play good this week, and good luck.
