Kibitzing with the king

Anthony Kim played a round of golf with the king, though not the king as we would define him, otherwise known as Arnold Palmer. No, Kim played with the king of Malaysia.

Kim, the 11th-ranked player in the world, is in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, for the Maybank Malaysian Open, a European PGA Tour event from which he hopes to extract (dare we say, easy?) points for the Race to Dubai, and one of his pro-am partners was His Royal Highness Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin.

"He was a really funny guy and it was a blast to go out there and play a round of golf with him," Kim said in a story posted on the European PGA Tour website. "There is a good chance that he could have beat me today, so he obviously has a good golf game."

Doubtful that he could beat Kim, but were the king entered in the tournament a top 10 would not be out of the question. The field is rather shallow. Shingo Katayama is the second highest-ranked player in the field at 39th in the world. Next is Thailand's Thongchai Jaidee, who is ranked 87th.

"The Race to Dubai is a big motivation for me and is one of the reasons that I am here," Kim said, explaining his presence in a second-tier European PGA Tour event. "I want to be a global player and it is important for me to go to different countries and experience new venues and the way that tournaments are set up so that I can go to a lot of different places and play well wherever I am in the world."

-- John Strege