Anthony Kim became the youngest winner on the PGA tour in six years at the tender age of 22.  He certainly played with the style and substance of someone far older.

Beginning the day with a four shot lead, Mr. Kim gave nothing back, rather adding a stroke to his margin of victory.  “I’m a little bit numb right now, but that walk up 18 was the best feeling of my entire life,” Kim said. “I’ll never forget that feeling. I had chills going up and down my spine. I want to recreate that as many times as possible now, so I’m really going to work hard.”  He’ll work really hard hauling the $1,134,000 winners share of the purse off to the bank.  Tough job, but somebody has to do it, eh.

Mr. Kim birdied the first and fifth holes, certainly not overcome by nerves.  “I was actually pretty comfortable. I thought I’d have a couple more butterflies in my stomach at the first tee,” Kim said. “I felt pretty calm and confident about my game.” Hard not to be confident when you hole putts from 25 and 20 feet on the seventh and eighth holes for two more birdies.  In the funny game that is golf talent allows a player to develop confidence in their ability.  At the same time results should have no affect on that confidence, in theory, yet when those putts start dropping it gets easier and easier to trust to ability.  As I said, funny game. Mr Kim finished at 18 under par, three shots lower than the record previously held by one Tiger Woods.

 None of the names of the game made a charge of any kind on the final day.  Ben Curtis used a day’s best 65 to vault himself into second place.  In fact that 65 was the lowest final day round in six years.  36 hole leader Jason Bohn shot 71 to finish in third at 10 under par.  He also summed up the feelings of those chasing Mr. Kim quite succinctly; “I looked over and said, ‘He’s 18-under par? Holy cow!”’ Bohn said.  Sums up a day of playing for second quite nicely.

Congratulations to a young man who played two marvelous days of golf on a deserving victory.  Oh, in case you wondered who the last youngster to win was, Sergio Garcia won his third event at the 2002 Mercedes Championship.