TOUR Insider: It's Florida (Villegas) vs. OU (Kim)
By Helen Ross, PGATOUR.com Chief of Correspondents
UPDATE: OU's Anthony Kim (2-under 71) might have gotten the better of UF's Camilo Villegas (1-over 74) in the first round of the Mercedes-Benz Championship, but Villegas' Gators got the better of Kim's Sooners on Thursday evening, winning college football's BCS title game 24-14.
KAPALUA, Hawaii -- The score escapes him.
Anthony Kim does remember that it was pouring rain, though. And none of the 75,000 drenched fans even thought about leaving Memorial Stadium in Norman, Okla.
"Everybody stayed and took their shirts off," said Kim, who was 17 when he took that recruiting trip. "(People) went wild, and it was such a good time."
That's when Kim knew he wanted to play golf at the University of Oklahoma, which, for the record, beat Alabama 37-27 that day.
"I was just going for the free football game and to hang out at the college and see what that's about," Kim said. "But after the football game, I knew that was the school for me.
"I've been a diehard OU sports fan (ever since)."
So Kim will be a tad conflicted on Thursday afternoon as he plays in his first round in the Mercedes-Benz Championship. His tee time in the season-opening event that brings together the previous year's PGA TOUR winners is 1:10 p.m.
That's Hawaii time, of course, which makes it 6:10 p.m. on the East Coast where his beloved Sooners play the University of Florida in the FedEx BCS National Championship game. Kickoff for that game in Miami is 8 p.m.
If he's lucky, the 23-year-old Kim will get to see most of the second half. Heightening the anticipation is the fact that his playing partner on Thursday is Camilo Villegas, another two-time TOUR winner in 2008 like Kim who just happened to play at Florida.
"I think I'm going to be thinking more about that game than my round, because I've got three more days to make up ground, but the Sooners need every minute," Kim acknowledged. "I think it's going to be very fun playing with Camilo because I will know what happens during the game, every five minutes."
How he's getting those updates, Kim has yet to figure out. But don't be surprised to hear some yelps of glee echo across Kapalua's Plantation course whenever the Sooners cross the goal line.
Villegas isn't quite the die-hard football fan Kim is. After all, Villegas, who celebrates his 27th birthday on Wednesday, grew up in Colombia where "football" means soccer, at least in the American vernacular.
"Football was something totally new for me when I came to the States," said Villegas, who also had to learn to speak English when he went to UF, where he was a four-time athletic All-American and earned academic honors twice.
"I'm not a Chris DiMarco that knows the name of every player and knows the stats up and down, but I would love watching the game. ... Whenever I have a chance to be in town, I'll go there and watch the game."
Villegas, who celebrated his birthday Tuesday evening with 10 high school friends, knows his first-round tee time "is not ideal." But he expects regular updates, too, and while he's not "100 percent over just everything, the stats, the players," Villegas says "I'll be pulling hard."
And as for any bets between the two rivals, who are ranked Nos. 7 (Kim) and 12 (Villegas) in the world, Villegas deferred to his playing partner. This time, the garrulous OU product was coy.
"You know, it's just slipping my mind right now," Kim said, grinning broadly. "Yeah, we have a little bet on this game."
| Tale of the Tape: Oklahoma vs. Florida | |||||||||||||||||||||
| The Sooners and Gators square off for the national title. Here's our golf-related showdown: | |||||||||||||||||||||
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INSIDER NOTES
| 7 | Number of top-five finishes Vijay Singh has in nine starts at the Mercedes-Benz Championship |
| 5 | Rounds that Anthony Kim and Camilo Villegas were paired together in 2008 |
| 12 | Playoffs at the Mercedes-Benz, including last year's four-hole playoff won by Daniel Chopra |
| 7 | Players who were at this event last year (Chopra, Singh, Scott, Choi, Leonard, Weekley, Zach Johnson) |
Don't be surprised if Geoff Ogilvy uses Cobra's newest Speed driver, the one that was just approved in September, at the Plantation course this week. He gets less spin with the driver and more length. "If it makes it in the bag this week, which I think it will, it will be the first week it's been out," he said ...
Ogilvy plays the Titleist Pro V1, which has been at the center of a patent dispute with Callaway. He plans to play with the new version of the 2007 ball that doesn't breach the patent and then test the newest model when he returns to the mainland. "There's good reports about the new-new one, Ogilvy said, adding that Titleist designers "never make a bad ball." ...
Globe-trotting Adam Scott, bothered by recurring tonsillitis last year, plans to spend a little more time in the U.S. this year to eliminate some of the wear and tear on his body. He'll probably rent a house in Florida from March to June when he might normally return to his native Australia or his home in Switzerland. "I heard there might be some bargains," he said. ...
Anthony Kim said he hasn't finalized his 2009 schedule yet. He wants to be sure he's ready for the majors and he also wants to become a global player. Regardless of where he plays, though, "my primary role is to win on the PGA TOUR," Kim said. ...
Count Ogilvy among the players who will chase both the FedExCup and the Race to Dubai. He'll probably add the European Tour events he needs to bring his total to 12 after THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola, though. He is considering leaving Hawaii to head for Abu Dhabi and Qatar, but noted the Middle East is a long way from the islands. "The travel agents so far could not tell us which way around the world we should go. Do we go east or west? They are like, 'it could be either.' " ...
Ogilvy won the Australian PGA last month. It was his first pro victory in the country of his birth and helped get a monkey off his back. "I've been close quite a lot obviously, but we only get one or two chances a year, so they get on us pretty hard for not having won down there," he said. ...
Kim loves football and basketball, but his lack of size steered him to golf. Asked whether he did more trash talking on golf course or on the basketball court, he said, "I don't know where I talked more, but I talked to anybody. I talked trash every minute I was awake, even sleeping."
QUICK QUOTE
Adam Scott, when asked whether he would rather play golf against Greg Norman or tennis against Norman's wife, Chris Evert:
"I would potentially beat Greg at golf, so play golf with Greg, because I know Chrissy would probably kick my ass at tennis."
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