PHIL STAMBAUGH: Final round 67, and second place finish, your best since the ‘09 Mercedes-Benz Championship. Very nice tournament. You shoot 67 today and rallied back from yesterday. Maybe a few thoughts about your round and how you played overall.

ANTHONY KIM: It was a good week. I’m excited with the progress going into next week, and I think I’m just trying to peak for the majors this year, and obviously I want to play well every week. But the Masters is the tournament I’m looking forward to.

So I’m playing well, I’m thinking well, I have a good attitude and hopefully I can keep practicing hard and keep improving.

Q. What are you most happy with, the progress you’ve made from last year?

ANTHONY KIM: My attitude’s a lot better. I really want to — yesterday I wanted to break every club in the bag, but then I wouldn’t have had a set to play with today, so I’m glad that I didn’t. Just try to keep a positive attitude, and once that happens, I’m going to play good golf.

Q. When you wanted to break every club in the set yesterday, what was different about your reaction now, as opposed to other times?

ANTHONY KIM: When they did break? No, I just laughed it off. You’ve got to putt things in perspective and unfortunately last year I was injured and had to deal with some bad golf, a bad attitude and lack of practice.

So I know I’m putting in the time, and good golf will come, because I know it that I have the ability to do it. It’s just a matter of going out and doing it now.

PHIL STAMBAUGH: Can you take us through the day? What was your mind-set starting out?

ANTHONY KIM: Well, I got off to a quick start today. First hole, ten, 15 feet, made it.

3, I 2-putted from a good ways away, and 4, hit it to about a foot. So got off to a quick start.

13 and 14 were a couple good birdies to put myself back in there. I made a long one on 14, and just let one slide by on 15, which was unfortunate.

You know, the Bear Trap, I guess 17 got me again this year, and played that 4-over it looks like. I guess next year I’ll try to do a better job on that hole.

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Make way for flashing belt buckles, DayGlo pants, painters caps and the dude who reads putts like a gecko.

The young guns of the PGA Tour were trying to turn the Waste Management Phoenix Open into their own private celebration – until 36-year-old Mark Wilson decided to crash the party.

Wilson birdied his final four holes on the way to a 5-under-par 66 that vaulted him into a share the lead with 28-year-old Camilo Villegas at 11-under going into the weekend.

“I’m obviously not the star player up there,” Wilson said. “There are some young guys that are at the top that are close to me that everybody is going to be watching, so I’ll just stick to my own game and do the best I can.”

Among those packed just behind Villegas and Wilson is a who’s who of up-and-coming stars, including:

• Anthony Kim, the 24-year-old who already has two Tour victories and a Ryder Cup on his resumé. He posted a 6-under-par 65 that left him at 10-under.
• Tour rookie Rickie Fowler, the 22-year-old sensation. He is 10-under after a second-round 67 – despite driving the green at the short 17th hole and then four-putting it.
• Ryan Moore, 27, who finished tied for sixth here last year and then went on to win his first Tour event at the Wyndham Championship. He is at 10-under after his second straight 66.

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Playing the Northern Trust Open at Riviera Country Club as his first PGA Tour event this year, Kim is tied for seventh after shooting a five-under-par 66 Friday.

“What I did last year was so disappointing,” Kim said. “It really affected my confidence. I need to get out here and work as hard as I can.”

Kim’s Friday round had big highs and lows. He had eight birdies and three bogeys, but the final score was his best of eight rounds he has played at this tournament. Kim missed the cut here in 2008 and finished tied for ninth in 2007.

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We know things get kind of hectic during the holiday season. There are all those bowl pools to track. The NFL postseason is heating up and you’re a little bummed that Penn State’s current recruiting class won’t include that stud RB from South Carolina.

Plus, when it’s below 10 degrees with the wind chill, who really wants to watch those short-sleeved few traipse around sunny Maui and Oahu? I don’t, even though a small percentage of my job description says I should.

The reason? Golf is a little boring this time of year. Always has been.

And it has nothing to do with Tiger Woods or Phil Mickelson yet again choosing to skip the SBA Championship, a 2009 winners’-only event, at Kapalua or Sony Open, the first full-field event at Waialae.

It has, however, been interesting to listen to those TV personalities skirt the Woods “situation.”

Speculation on when the world’s No. 1 will resurface seems to be acceptable banter, but most are choosing to “chat-up” the next potential wave of golf superstars who might help generate some buzz in Tiger’s absence, especially early in the season.

Wow, what a genuine idea.

Problem is, during the last few seasons we, the viewing audience, have been introduced to only a handful of up-and-coming personalities who have top-flight games to match.

With golf returning to the mainland this week at the Bob Hope Classic, here are some under-30 guns worthy of attention in the coming weeks. That’s assuming you’re not too busy reading the latest TMZ or National Inquirer reports that have Woods seeking refuge on the Moon.

RORY MCILROY: Has serious game and is already an international phenom at 21, McIlroy made 10 of 11 PGA Tour cuts last season. The Northern Ireland product has become a crowd favorite for his carefree demeanor and shaggy mop. Can the Tour convince him to cross the pond more often?

ANDRES ROMERO: The 2008 Rookie of the Year is approaching 30 and has just one victory. But Romero has a reputation for hanging around at major tournaments. The Argentinean played his best golf late in the 2009 season.

ANTHONY KIM: Despite Robert Allenby’s assessment of the California kid, PGA Tour brass need Kim to have a banner season. They certainly took notice when Kim engaged the President’s Cup crowd and had business types buzzing around the water cooler for weeks. When he’s on, no one racks up birdies like Kim.

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Anthony Kim has won the Kiwi Challenge golf tournament despite making a bogey in a playoff, beating fellow American Sean O’Hair to win the $1 million check at Cape Kidnappers.

Kim shot a 5-under 66 on Thursday and was leading over the back nine until O’Hair made a birdie on the 18th hole for a 3-under 69 to force a playoff in the 36-hole exhibition for players under 30.

O’Hair found trouble left of the 650-yard 15th hole and made a double bogey, allowing Kim to win by taking four shots to reach the green and two-putting for a bogey.

Hunter Mahan of the United States shot 67 to finish three strokes behind, while Colombia’s Camilo Villegas (72) was another shot behind.

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Anthony Kim has decided not to take part in the season-ending Dubai World Championship despite the huge prize money on offer.

The American, one of only three US-based players likely to qualify for the event later this month after, has opted to rest in order to begin preparations for next season.

The Ryder Cup player has already played the 11 tournaments required to qualify for the event, and jumped up to 39th in the Race to Dubai standings after reaching the final of last week’s World Match Play, where he lost to Ross Fisher, assuring of a place in the $7.5m tournament.

Kim admitted he had played too many tournaments in 2009 and will make some changes next year, although he still plans on renewing his European Tour membership.

“I’m not going,” he said. “I need the week off. My parents want to see their boy.

“Next year, I just want to be prepared for our season. The PGA Tour is my home tour, and it’s where I need to play well. I’ve made it my priority to play well in the States.

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Ross Fisher completed one of English golf’s finer days on the links today, the rising star following up Ian Poulter’s one-shot victory at the Singapore Open by beating the American Anthony Kim 4&3 in the final of the World Match Play Championship in Spain.

Fisher, who is €750,000 (£671,000) richer after negotiating 126 hilly holes at the mountainous Finca Cortesin layout over four gruelling days, moves into fourth place on the European Tour’s Race to Dubai and has already gone a long way towards assuring himself of a Ryder Cup debut at Celtic Manor next October.

Playing the sort of relentless “fairways and greens” golf that tends to succeed in head-to-head contests – only once did Fisher drop a shot to par – the 28-year-old from Wentworth, the long-time home of this event, eventually wore down his younger opponent. All square at lunch having never been down, Fisher was soon three up. A birdie at the par-five third, an eagle at the 334-yard fourth, where both players found the putting surface with their tee-shots, and another birdie-four at the long fifth all proved too good for Kim.

The most crucial three-hole period of the match, however, had yet to come. Still two up playing the 494-yard seventh, Fisher bunkered his approach with his opponent already aboard the putting surface in regulation. Then, in what was something of a comedy of errors, Kim three-putted and Fisher, after splashing out to no more than three feet, almost did likewise.

One hole later, Kim missed from inside two feet when holing out would have reduced the deficit. Then, with his opponent all but sure of a birdie at the 352-yard ninth, Fisher holed from all of 30 feet to maintain his two-hole advantage.

Having survived unscathed that brief excursion into mild farce, Fisher took the short 10th with a par and five holes later closed out the match, in the process making himself the fourth Englishman to lift one of European golf’s most prestigious titles. Nick Faldo (1989 and 1992) was first, followed by Lee Westwood (2000) and Paul Casey (2006).

“This is a massive confidence boost for me,” said the new champion, who displayed a promising propensity for head-to-head contests when he made it to the semi-final of the World Golf Championship Accenture Match Play in February.

“I felt like I played well and did a good job of putting the pressure on him,” added Fisher. “I was relieved to get to three up though. At that point I knew I just had to finish the job off.

“I could have won every major this year if things had gone my way – I led all four at some point – so I’ve been very consistent without winning. But this is a big step up for me. Anything with the word ‘world’ in the title has to mean a great deal.”

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Anthony Kim of the United States has beaten Robert Allenby 5 and 4 to reach his first World Match Play Championship final.

Kim rallied from an early two-hole deficit in near perfect conditions at the Finca Cortesin golf course on Saturday, pulling away at the 27th hole.

The American first overcame an errant tee shot at the 26th to save par and halve the hole before holing out from 101 yards for an eagle at 27. He sank a birdie putt at the 28th for a four-hole advantage that deflated Allenby.

Kim will face Masters champion Angel Cabrera or Ross Fisher of England in Sunday’s 36-hole final. Cabrera was 1-up with five holes to play.

Kim also beat Allenby at the Presidents Cup, winning 5 and 3.

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Anthony Kim advanced to the Volvo World Match Play Championship semifinals Friday despite losing to Scott Strange by three holes in his final-round match at Finca Cortesin in Casares, Spain.

Strange needed to beat Kim by at least four holes to advance and was 4-up going to the par-five 18th, but Kim took the hole after hitting his second shot to within four feet. Strange put his third shot into a bunker before conceding the hole.

Kim will face undefeated Robert Allenby in the semifinals. Allenby beat Oliver Wilson by three holes. Angel Cabrera will face Ross Fisher in the other semifinal.

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Robert Allenby recently accused Anthony Kim of coming in sideways at four o’clock in the morning and called him the loosest cannon on the American Presidents Cup team and golf’s current John Daly.

However, Kim was anything but the baddest golfer on the planet on the first day of the Volvo World Matchplay here as he won his matches against Paul Casey and Retief Goosen and then talked about his fear of his mother.

The young American said of his reputation for partying: “There’s a time and a place for everything. My mum has been telling me that since I was four years old. I try to listen to her. She still scares me.

“Sometimes it’s easy to forget and just say I’m 24 years old, I’ll do whatever I want. But for the last year and a half I understand this is my job.”

Asked about Allenby’s comments, Kim cheerfully said: “I’ve no idea what you’re talking about. It’s in the past. We’ve moved on.”

In fact we might be about to get a replay. If Allenby beats Oliver Wilson today, then Kim and Allenby are almost certain to meet in the semi-finals. Asked if there might be a lingering edge, Kim said: “My caddie and me entertain ourselves pretty well out there.” That will be a yes, then.

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