Chatty Scott McCarron called out Anthony Kim, Kim talks back
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Last week during the Farmers Insurance Classic golf tournament at Torrey Pines, relatively anonymous golfer Scott McCarron got big notice for suggesting that what Phil Mickelson did by using a golf club called the Ping Eye 2 that is considered ‘non-conforming’ under new equipment rules was cheating.
Two weeks ago, at the Bob Hope Classic, McCarron did some calling out of young Anthony Kim, a 24-year-old from Los Angeles and also a graduate of La Quinta High, just a few miles from the four courses used for the Hope tournament, who is trying to recapture the form of 2008 when he had eight top-10 finishes (last year it was three and his earnings fell over $3 million from 2008).
Kim chose to skip the Hope and play instead at an event in Abu Dhabi that offered guarantee money along with prize money. McCarron said Kim, being a local guy and an American, owed it to the PGA Tour to have stayed in the desert and beefed up the Hope field.
Kim, who is making his stateside debut at the Northern Trust Open that begins Thursday at Riviera Country Club, responded Tuesday to McCarron’s comments.
‘I would like to be an international player,’ Kim said. ‘I would like to play European Tour events and help grow the game of golf because, really, that’s what we’re trying to do on the PGA Tour anyway ...
‘I know that a lot of people think I made the wrong decision, but my team and I made that decision a couple of months ago to go in that direction. I stand by that decision and feel like it was the right one for me.’
-- Diane Pucin