Special Place: Kim says he's fond of Quail Hollow

CHARLOTTE -- The days when PGA Tour players regularly returned to cities to help promote tournaments they had won the year before are long gone, victims of tighter schedules.

But Anthony Kim did that last week, making a promotional appearance at Quail Hollow Club -- the site of his first PGA Tour victory.

Kim won the Wachovia Championship at Quail Hollow last year against one of the best fields in a nonmajor. The tournament will be back in late April with a new name, the Quail Hollow Championship, and Kim said he's looking forward to coming back.

"This is a very special place for me," Kim said. "Even though this is somewhere I've won before, I enjoy coming back to this event."

Winning the Wachovia gave Kim, 23, a boost of confidence and sparked him to his best season. He also won the AT&T National -- the tournament that has Tiger Woods as host -- and helped the United States win the Ryder Cup.

"There are not too many events where the top, most of the top guys in the world rankings, are there," said Kim, who has the lowest scoring average at Quail Hollow, with Woods second. "I thought it was very special, and it helped me grow to where I am now. So to be able to come back, it feels like home."

Kim is in his third full season on tour but hasn't yet found his groove this year. He cut a foot while surfing and had to withdraw from the Bob Hope Classic with a shoulder injury. He also withdrew from last week's Arnold Palmer Invitational last week because of the flu, but said he plans on gearing up for the Masters, scheduled April 9-12.

"I'm trying to stay patient," Kim said. "It's hard when you don't see the results, and I had a couple little injuries that have come.… Little things like that have caught up to me."

One key to Kim's success last season was his decision to take practice time more seriously. He watched how Woods spent his time on the range and followed his lead.

Kim is ranked 14th in the world and hasn't been shy about his goal of being No. 1. Getting there will mean passing Woods.

"Tiger has done so much for the game, and I don't want to give you the same spiel as everybody else," Kim said. "Everybody knows how good he is, and he's obviously had quite a bit of success here, and I've only played here two years.

"My goal is to see how good I can be. If one day that means that I get to the top of the world rankings, that's what it means."

Pinehurst and U.S. Kids Golf

Pinehurst Resort and U.S. Kids Golf have extended their relationship through 2013.

Their tournament draws more than 1,000 golfers from more than 40 countries each August.

"Pinehurst is reinforcing its commitment to grow the game of golf internationally through this partnership," said Peter Stilwell, Pinehurst's business-development director.

The U.S. Kids championship, for golfers ages 6-12, has been at Pinehurst Resort and Pine Needles for the past three years. This year's tournament, scheduled Aug. 6-9, will add a teen championship (ages 13-17).

Around the green

Golfweek magazine's list of the top 10 public courses in the state is very impressive. It starts with Pinehurst No. 2, the site of two previous U.S. Opens, and continues with Pine Needles, the host for three U.S. Women Opens. Also on the list are: Linville Golf Club, Leopard's Chase, Tobacco Road, Mid Pines, Pinehurst No. 4, Pinehurst No. 8, Southern Pines Elks and River's Edge….

The Nationwide Tour, now 20 years old, has some statistics that it likes to brag about, but two of the most important have to do with alumni now on the PGA Tour. There are 283 golfers who got their PGA Tour cards after playing on the Nationwide Tour, and former Nationwide golfers had combined for 242 PGA Tour wins….

One of the best things about the Arnold Palmer Invitational is that Palmer is around all week and is willing to be interviewed. Asked what advice he would give to today's golfers, he said: "I would say that they need to understand more about what the tour is all about. How it got to be where it is, and my advice would be to take a good long look and then maybe realize that it didn't just happen; it's taken a lot of years for it to happen.… I think that it would pay for the young people to take a look at that and maybe realize a little more about how valuable what they have is."…

Webb Simpson, a rookie on the PGA Tour and former All-America from Wake Forest, had his first hole-in-one on tour in Friday's second round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill. Simpson aced the 17th hole from 220 yards out by using a 5-iron.

■ John Dell can be reached at 727-4081 or jdell@wsjournal.com.