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VALERO TEXAS OPEN


September 24, 2006


Anthony Kim


SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS

JOAN vt ALEXANDER: Well congratulations Anthony, on your great finish and your first PGA Tour event. I guess about a month ago you turned pro and now you're finishing second and then next week.

ANTHONY KIM: Right.

JOAN vt ALEXANDER: Feeling pretty good?

ANTHONY KIM: I am. It was just. I was just excited to get the opportunity to play here and Tony Piazzi, thankfully, gave me a spot and I did pretty well with it.

JOAN vt ALEXANDER: Must be pretty comfortable out here?

ANTHONY KIM: I am comfortable. I feel if I play well, I can play with anybody but my problem was maybe my course management wasn't where it needed to be and with the experienced guy like "Bambi" on the bag, it was a lot easier to play golf.

JOAN vt ALEXANDER: Questions, please.

Q. Just your decision to skip your senior year at OU, what went into that?

ANTHONY KIM: I've never been that great at school, to be perfectly honest, but I felt like my game was ready and I had been moving towards that goal for a long time and the right opportunities fell in my lap and so I just went with it.

Q. On 18 obviously you probably knew you were in position to do some really remarkable things out here.

Wailed away with a driver, out drove everybody else by 40 yards on that hole. Lot of guys were playing kind of safe. Can you talk about just going for gusto there at the end?

ANTHONY KIM: I feel like I'm going to go for everything at anytime. I think that's where I'm a little bit different and it hurts me and helps me at the same time, but I felt as if I made a birdie on the last hole that I could make it more interesting and obviously it would have fell short but no matter what, I'm going to try to make a birdie and see where that leaves me.

Q. Are you familiar with this course? Have you played it much?

ANTHONY KIM: No. This is the first time I've been out to San Antonio.

Q. Did you play in three Nationwide event Tours?

ANTHONY KIM: Just two.

Q. Two events and this one, this is it?

ANTHONY KIM: Right.

Q. Where do you go from here, win?

ANTHONY KIM: I hope so. That's what I've been working towards. I've actually started playing a new ball that has helped me a lot. I had been using one kind of ball my whole life and I switched to a new Nike Platinum and it's been working out great.

Q. Course management was an issue. Is there something you learned today that will help you the next time you go out there?

ANTHONY KIM: I learned so much from my caddie this week. He usually caddies for Todd Hamilton and Todd was taking the week off so I obviously got lucky to get paired with him but I learned a ton just where to go at pins and where not to.

Even if you have a lob wedge in your hand doesn't mean it's a green light pin and it was a great learning experience this week.

Q. How important is a caddie when you're on a course that your not familiar with? He's been here before, obviously?

ANTHONY KIM: Right. Whether he had been here or not he would have made a huge difference in my game, just because of the fact that he knows how to play. Doesn't mean that he has to shoot 70 every time he tees it up but he knows how to think his way around the course and that helped me a ton.

Q. How difficult was it making the adjustment with the new guy this week?

ANTHONY KIM: Wasn't hard at all because he's a lot smarter than me.

JOAN vt ALEXANDER: Anthony, let's go through your birdies and your bogies. We're going to do the club to the green and then how long your putt was. You made a birdie on 1.

ANTHONY KIM: I did. Yes, I did. I hit a hybrid to the bunker and hit it to about three feet and made birdie.

JOAN vt ALEXANDER: Birdie on 4.

ANTHONY KIM: Birdie on 4. I hit 7 iron to about 15 feet and made that.

JOAN vt ALEXANDER: Bogey on 6.

ANTHONY KIM: 6. I don't even remember. Was it

JOAN vt ALEXANDER: Par 3. About 162 yards.

ANTHONY KIM: Yeah. I hit it over the green, then hit my chip back over the green and two putted.

JOAN vt ALEXANDER: 7?

ANTHONY KIM: 7, I hit sand wedge to about 18 feet, made that.

JOAN vt ALEXANDER: 8?

ANTHONY KIM: Hit sand wedge to about nine feet.

JOAN vt ALEXANDER: 9, bogey.

ANTHONY KIM: I hit 9 iron out of the rough and 3 putted from just off the front of the green.

JOAN vt ALEXANDER: 10, bogey.

ANTHONY KIM: 10, hit a 4 iron long left and didn't get up and down.

JOAN vt ALEXANDER: Birdie on 12.

ANTHONY KIM: 12, I hit it I hit lob wedge to ten feet and made that.

JOAN vt ALEXANDER: Birdie on 13.

ANTHONY KIM: Hit sand wedge to five feet.

JOAN vt ALEXANDER: Birdie on 16.

ANTHONY KIM: I drove it on the green and 2 putted from 25 feet.

JOAN vt ALEXANDER: Birdie on 17.

ANTHONY KIM: I chipped in from 20 yards.

JOAN vt ALEXANDER: Couple more questions, guys.

Q. Now going forward from here, you know, really obviously your expectations coming in, may or may not have been this high, I don't know on your first PGA Tour event.

How do you feel about something like this going to next week's event?

ANTHONY KIM: It gives me a lot of confidence, to be honest with you. This whole week it's been a great experience. Everyone has been so helpful, and I'm going to try to build on it next week.

Just using everything I gain this week, whether it means I shoot 65s across the board, that to me doesn't matter because I'm trying to learn and play every week with these guys.

Q. Is it, in the back of your mind, to take advantage of every sponsor exemption so maybe you don't have to worry about Q School because others have followed in those footsteps?

ANTHONY KIM: It is. It's hard to get sponsor exemptions these days but my agent, Blake Smith and with "Hambrick" Sports is doing all he can and he's helped me out tremendously and we're trying to move forward and make every opportunity count.

JOAN vt ALEXANDER: Everybody all set?

End of FastScripts.

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