Golf Channel Analyst Brandel Chamblee Recalls The Time An 11-Year-Old Anthony Kim Trash Talked Him
AK will talk trash to anyone, anywhere.
You can call it swagger, confidence, moxie, or cockiness, but Anthony Kim has always had that certain something about him. To be a highly successful golfer, you have to have a certain ‘I don’t give a fu-k' about you, and Kim has always worn that personality trait squarely on his sleeve, and Brandel Chamblee got an up close and personal look at it before Kim was ever on anyone's radar.
Chamblee recently joined the ‘Dan on Golf’ show, and as he reflected on Kim's miraculous win at LIV Golf Adelaide from earlier in the year, he recalled when he first met Kim.
Anthony Kim has always had that 'it' factor about him. (Photo by Jason Butler/Getty Images)
While Chamblee is best-known these days as Golf Channel's lead analyst, he was a very successful golfer himself. After being one of the top amateur players in the country and having a strong run in college at Texas, he went on to win a PGA Tour event in his professional career and, at one point, was ranked 58th in the world.
"There's always been a sort of fascination with him because he had a bravado about him," Chamblee began. "He used to work with the same coach that I worked with, Adam Schriber. I remember being on the range once, hitting balls at PGA West on the back of the range with Adam, and Adam said to me, ‘You got to come watch this kid.'
"I think he was 11 at the time, 11 or 12 years old, and I went over, and I stood behind him, and he hit, you know, several tee shots, and he turned around and said, 'Who's going to beat me?'"
Again, you have to have that sort of mindset if you want to have any success at the highest level of any sport, but to express that mindset while talking to Chamblee, who Kim almost certainly didn't know was a Top 100 player in the world at the time, is certainly a different approach to things.
Kim of course went on to have a successful college career at Oklahoma before turning professional, winning three times on the PGA Tour, and making it all the way to No. 6 in the world before injuries piled up and life's struggles gave him his fair share of doses.
After more than a decade-long break from golf and the public eye, Kim won LIV Golf's signature event in Australia earlier this year in what is undoubtedly one of the greatest comeback stories the sports world has seen this century.