Kim happy with last 27 holes, tied for first going to Sunday
By Dave Perkins, Special to PGATOUR.COM
OAKVILLE, Ont. -- Anthony Kim was the star of the show early in the morning and late at night at the RBC Canadian Open, climbing into a share of the lead -- at least temporarily -- with some brilliant holes of golf.
Kim played 21 holes yesterday as the weather-scarred Open stopped and started for rain. He was 11 under for those 21 holes and fashioned a score of 60 over one 18-hole stretch -- completing a record-low back nine of 29 to end his second round and beginning his third round with a front nine of 31. He final nine holes weren't too shabby, either -- a three-under 33.
Kim is 15 under par through 54 holes. Chez Reavie got to 16 under on Sunday morning when he birdied the 502-yard 18th. He was on the collar of the 17th green on Saturday evening when darkness ended his day. Reavie's group is the only one that did not finish the third round.
Kim and Reavie will tee off in the final group Sunday at 1:45 p.m. ET.
Next come Scott McCarron and Steve Marino, each at 12-under 201, followed by Billy Mayfair at 202, then a four-way tie at 203, including Mike Weir.
Kim began his day birdie-birdie-eagle to finish the second round, a successful rally by the 23-year-old budding star that prompts one more comparison to the young Tiger Woods.
In the 2000 Canadian Open at Glen Abbey, Woods was hovering near the cut line toward the end of the second round when he produced one of the greatest finishes in the history of golf, going 2-3-3-3 on Nos. 15, 16, 17 and 18, which translated at the time to birdie-eagle-birdie-eagle. Woods went on to win the tournament with his memorable 6-iron out of the fairway bunker at the 72nd hole.
Kim finished 3-3-3-3 on the same four holes, which go down on the scorecard as par, birdie, birdie and eagle. (The 16th hole was a par-five until this year, when it was shortened slightly to a 485-yard par-four). All the red ink saved a round for Kim that had begun with a double-bogey and a bogey and ended 40-29 for two-under-par 69. The round was completed by a 4-iron to 10 feet, a putt he converted for the eagle.
"I wasn't thinking that far ahead after shooting 40 on the front nine,'' Kim said. "I'm just trying to take it a shot at a time and try to chip away at the 40.
"But, obviously, I did a good job. My swing's coming back, and I feel comfortable.
"It's always hard to stop and start, especially when you have momentum, like I did when I finished birdie-birdie-eagle,'' he added. "I felt I had good momentum.''
"I don't know what happened,'' he assessed. "I woke up, I think.
"Every part of my game kicked in that wanted to show up. The driver started going straight again. The irons were going toward the flag or somewhere toward the green, and the ball wanted to disappear. So it was just everything kind of came together. It was a good back nine.''
Kim's second round began Friday with a double bogey at the first hole, caused when his second shot, out of the fairway bunker, flew well out of bounds. He also bogeyed the second, fourth and seventh holes before turning it around. He birdied the 11th hole and eagled the 13th before capping the record nine with the Tiger-esque finish.
"Yesterday, I felt like the front nine, I didn't even feel like I was in my own body. I didn't know what was going on. I felt uncomfortable out there,'' he said of his Friday afternoon start to the second round. "It was nothing with my golf game. My head didn't feel the same. I just wasn't used to the 4:40 tee time that we had, and coming over from England, I didn't even know what time it was. It was just a wild, wild round.''
Get the best deals on the best equipment all at the SHOP.PGATOUR.COM.
TOP 100
PGATOUR.com is part of the Turner Sports and Entertainment Digital Network