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AK is still very young and has been playing very well of late. He won last week and contening in the players championship. I think he has a lot of potential. On the other hand, I think KJ has peaked and probably won't play any better than the last two years.

Only if we stretch to say that Kim, who was born in California, is actually Asian. In my book, he's American, of Asian descent. Not meaning to split hairs, but that's a fair difference.
As far as golf goes, KJ still has some juice left in the tank, though he didn't show it this week at the Players. He has the ball striking game for majors, especially a US Open type game. And one would have thought he's fare better here this week - obviously he's fighting his swing right now. But Kim seems to be a special talent, and could very easily sneak up and do big things. Majors are a different animal, and unless that other top player of partial Asian descent relents a bit, it will be tough for Kim. Also, majors historically take time and experience. Not always, but usually you have to contest in them once or twice before you win it. He'll be fun to watch though!

The whole question boils down to whether it's based on nationality or genetics/ race. If you're talking about nationality, of course, Kim is an American. But genetics wise, he's 100% Asian / Korean. And yes I think he has the potential and talent to be major winner. I see nothing special from KJ's game. Kim has the ball striking, the distance, the aggressiveness. Only thing is if he can discipline himself.

kim is the flavor of the month, soon he will dim down and start missing cuts again. i still think KJ has the better chance to win a major

Well as one who has been In Anthony's gallery (at the Wachovia), I can say he is definately not Flavor of the Month. The kid can play and at an Early age, I expect him to go through a slump but I also expect him to win more than one major, he is deifnately not a Sergio.

If we are talking genetics here, a player of Asian decent has already won a major or two his name is Tiger Woods.

Mr. Kim is a US citizen, unlike Mr. Choi.

So by your analogy, we can call Obama African and Bush European? Think about it and hope you see the problems in your and OP's statements.

I do agree with your comments about Kim, however.

I thought Kim was an American.
Well he IS an American. Just like Tiger is an Amercan and so is Freddie Couples.

Kim is American...


By the same logic, Tiger is the best Asian player in the world...

Bush is actually middle-Eastern, but has undergone skin bleaching procedures. Just look at the gas prices.

Anthony Kim is a good player, but a typical young gun who needs to focus on consistency. Anthony Kim makes a lot of cuts, so I can surmise he can make a career out of playing golf. Also, he shows great potential in that he generally has one or two very low scores out of four rounds (ie a 64 on a day where the field average is 71.5). That shows he can definately set himself up to win tournaments. He's long. He's a generally streaky player, especially with the putter.

Winning a Major championship can happen to almost anyone in the field. Look at some of the past decade's winners. Rich Beem, Shaun Micheel, Ben Curtis, Todd Hamilton... even Zach Johnson and Trevor Immelman were long shots. Play hot golf for 4 days, get a big check and a lifetime of fame. Is Anthony Kim a better player that Todd Hamilton? In general I would say he's every bit as capable of winning a Major championship.

Actually, Obama is such a big thing as he's potentially the first black US president, isn't it?
Just like electing Cain is a non issue, as he's white (read: European). What about the first Native Indian president, I am sure it'd be a big thing too.

All those aforementioned are Americans by nationality, but we human beings nonetheless associate people with their ethnicity. We can't help ourselves. Not necessarily negatively, but at certain level it is inherent to our brain.

And Asian is not a country, it's not a nation, this is not a discussion of nationality or citizenship, but ethnicity.

Actually the discussion is a little silly....the question being asked inside the question is valid though...

Kim hasn't done enough yet to warrant anything other than a "promising young talent" label...but he is that and is potentially good enough to win again on tour, including a major...

The golf media has done a good job of creating a discussion about Asian players and a lot of other things. I wish those folks would just go back to in-depth reporting about tournaments.

I've got to agree with those that consider Kim an American golfer, at least for the purpose of comparison. There is a big difference between an Asian golfer from Asia doing well on the PGA tour, and an ethnically Asian golfer from America doing well on the PGA tour. In the LPGA, there are many (almost half of the top 50) very successful Japanese and Korean golfers. But there are only 2 men from Asia ranked in the top 50. I started a thread a couple months back about that. My theory is that Asian men probably could fare about as well as the Asian women except for 2 things. One, most probably don't feel the extra money on the PGA tour is worth all the travel and being away from home and are content to play the Japanese tour ... while for the women, there is really no good alternative to the LPGA. The other is that the Japanese tour gets a very low amount of points for the world golf rankings, and IMO, unfairly so.

That is actually a good point. I never thought of it that way.