Tiger's next target?

BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP, MICH. - Six tournaments make up Tiger Woods' 2008 summary on the PGA Tour. He won four. He also played in the Dubai Desert Classic in early February and won that.

Seven starts, five victories.

The only defeats were a second-place finish to Trevor Immelman at the Masters and a fifth-place finish to Geoff Ogilvy in a World Golf Championship event at Doral.

Woods outlasted Rocco Mediate to win the U.S. Open in mid-June and then limped away to undergo knee surgery. He wasn't around when Padraig Harrington repeated as champion of the British Open last month.

Now, another major title will be decided without Tiger -- the PGA Championship that starts today at Oakland Hills. Is too much made of his absence?

"Absolutely," veteran Woody Austin said. "It was said best during the British Open telecast. The guy is the best player in the world, he does win a lot, but he doesn't win them all."

Woody's right, of course. Tiger only won 71.4 percent of the tournaments in which he played this season. And, he's only won half of the previous eight PGA Championships, including the past two.

Apparently, it takes the younger generation to understand the real impact of not having Woods at Oakland Hills this week.

Anthony Kim, 23, and a two-time winner this season, said earlier in the week: "When Tiger isn't playing, obviously the TV ratings are going to take a hit."

On Wednesday, Kim was brought to the media center for a pre-tournament interview and was asked again about a Tiger-free tournament.

"When Tiger is in the field, it's a lot harder to win," he said.

Kim was 22 when he won his first tournament -- the Wachovia -- in early May. He turned 23 in mid-June, and then won again in the AT&T National at Congressional in early July. That's a tournament billed as being "presented by Tiger Woods."

Kim has shown so much talent in such a short time that this now is a popular theory in the golf world: When Tiger returns next year, this latest phenom from southern California might be ready as a legitimate challenger as the PGA Tour's (and the world's) No. 1 player.

As with Tiger, Kim showed off talent at a young age and was driven by his father to take full advantage. The difference was Tiger and Earl Woods were partners in the effort, and Anthony and Paul Kim collided regularly.

There's the story about Anthony winning a youth tournament with an over-par score. Paul's response was to seize the trophy, shatter it on the ground and tell his son, "Over par is no good."

Kim grew up in a three-bedroom house in Studio City, overlooking downtown Los Angeles. To him, downtown L.A. was paradise.

Then, in 2001, Paul sold the house to buy a condo at PGA West, so his son could get away from the L.A. municipal courses and get daily instruction at his game.

Asked Wednesday about the "issues" he faced trying to mature as a person and a golfer, Kim smiled widely and said:

"I had a lot of issues. Maybe I thought I was too good. I didn't feel like I needed to practice. I didn't think anyone else was good."

Kim left Oklahoma after his junior year. He made it through the tour qualifying school for the 2007 season. He had four top 10s as a rookie and finished 60th with $1,545,195.

"I realized how hard these guys work," he said. "The respect I have for them has grown. Now, I work to get respect for my golf game. Putting in the time obviously makes you feel like you earned something."

In 2008, he's already earned $3,647,365 (sixth on the money list) and is locked for a spot on the Ryder Cup team next month. And, his game has earned enough respect for him to be mentioned with Mickelson and Vijay Singh as favorites for this year's second Tiger-less major.

"Ricky Bobby said it best," Kim has said. " 'If you're not first, you're last."'