Kim shows a playful side with his pet dogs at his La Quinta, Calif., home.
One of the public-course characters he ran into, Kevin Scheller, gives lessons at Woodley Lakes. Kim, whose parents moved him to a home off the first green at PGA West when he was 16, goes back to see Scheller every time he visits L.A. Kim was 14 when they met. "He was shorter, rounder, with glasses," Scheller says. "Same attitude, same talent."
Besides the short game and the playground ball attitude, Scheller sees another dimension that Kim developed in the streets. "I think muny guys tend to play with a little chip on their shoulder because things aren't given to them," Scheller says. "If they're smart, they'll use it competitively. I think [Kim] took pleasure out of beating the country-club kids. That's not anything new."
After breakfast at Colonial, before the second round of the Crowne Plaza Invitational, a bit of that chip was revealed when Kim was asked what he thought about the U.S. Open coming to a facility that is open to the public. "The U.S. Open should be at a public golf course," Kim says. "Not every year but there are players out on tour who come from public courses, and this is the one tournament that everybody has a chance to qualify for. That being said, Torrey Pines also has a great history."
No doubt the kid from the L.A. park scene would love to be a part of it.
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