Game On

By Tim Rosaforte
Photos by J.D. Cuban December 26, 2008

Camilo Villegas was in the lobby of the Four Seasons Hotel in Westlake Village, Calif., two nights before the opening round of the Chevron World Challenge. He was there for a photo shoot with Anthony Kim, the PGA Tour's other young, charismatic golfer who even had Tiger Woods taking notice during his recovery from knee surgery. "You knew that was coming, [with] their talent," Woods said. "It was just a matter of time before they broke through and won events."

But Kim was late, and Villegas, ever the perfectionist, was getting impatient with his friend. Woods said it was a matter of time, but time takes on a different meaning for Kim, wild and free at 23 years old, than it does for Villegas, who is more mature and under control at age 26. A.K. was fashionably late. That's what rock stars such as A.K. do. Kim's day-to-day guy, Chris Armstrong of IMG, checked his BlackBerry. "He has been working out," said Armstrong.

That drew a light, semi-sarcastic, semi-uncomfortable laugh as everyone checked their watches or the clocks on their cell phones.

A.K. is a gym rat only if there's a basketball court, a ball and somebody to trash talk. Swing coach Adam Schriber says Kim has range 10 feet outside the three-point line: "He's so efficient at transferring energy," Schriber says. The problem is Anthony has been displaying too much nocturnal energy and has been limping around on a bad ankle since the Oklahoma-Texas football game. The story is that Kim injured himself walking down a stairway at a friend's home. "I thought there were four steps, and there were only three," Kim says with a grin.

While denying that he was hanging from the chandeliers in Louisville during the post-Ryder Cup victory party, he did admit to nearly breaking his jaw riding a horse in New Zealand while there for the Kiwi Challenge and temporarily throwing off his golf swing while taking batting practice at Fenway Park the week of the Deutsche Bank Championship. Kim's jumper, like his golf game, hasn't been getting much work in the off-season.

It's not that Kim spent 2008 running his mouth more than his legs; his game did plenty of talking, with wins at the high-profile Wachovia Championship and Tiger's tournament, the AT&T National, plus a slam-dunk singles victory against his new pal Sergio Garcia in the Ryder Cup, where he questioned a ruling by saying, "You gotta do what you gotta do." What's more, the kid who the media once labeled "brash" had become a pressroom idol. The understated Villegas spoke loudly, too, more with his clubs than his tongue, winning the BMW Championship and Tour Championship in back-to-back tournaments. Kim played in the final group with Villegas both weeks.

They not only won events, they did it with endearing smiles and, as with Woods, a total lack of fear. Whether it was Kim saying to his caddie, "I'm not playing for second," at the BMW Championship, or Villegas making birdie on the 71st hole of the Tour Championship at East Lake, it was clear that Kim and Villegas were not only friends but fiery competitors who tore at each other in competition and broke bread at night.

"You know what, I see some of the guys up there at Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 4 in the world, and it seems like they don't get along too good," says Villegas. "Is it the golfing competitiveness? I don't know, but I'd love to get up there and get along with the guys I'm playing. If you're up there, you're going to be competing against them a lot. You're going to have your chances. You're going to have your wins, your losses. At the end of the day, you can walk off the golf course, shake hands and congratulate the other guy. That sets a great example. It's so nice to hear that from a guy you're trying hard to beat that day.

"Why make it uncomfortable?' he asks. "Why make it unfriendly? That's our deal."

Kim said the same thing while at his home in La Quinta during Thanksgiving week. "First of all, I consider all of them my friends," he said. "We're all just twentysomething years old, trying to find our way in life. I'm not too worried about the golf."

With Woods out they gained the confidence necessary to take aim at the top 10 in the World Ranking, all the while maintaining an Odd Couple-esque friendship. Villegas is a meticulous, dedicated hard worker, Kim, simply put, enjoys his celebrity status. Their next step is to win majors or World Golf Championship events while playing globally as affiliate members of the European Tour.