Quieter Kim managing just fine on his own

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- If it was written up and posted on Craig's List, the newspaper want-ads or even a supermarket bulletin board, it might read something like this:

WANTED -- Sports agent sought for rising PGA Tour phenom with plenty of upside and a rapidly thickening résumé. Applications now being accepted. Contact Anthony Kim. Please leave a message. We'll get back to you eventually. Maybe.

Just days after his first career PGA Tour victory, Anthony Kim is in the hunt at the Players Championship. (Getty Images)

It's borderline absurd, but true. The hottest player on the planet at the moment, a confident 22-year-old who won in commanding fashion last week at one of the tour's best venues, is a free agent on the sports-management front. As a result, there has been a full-court press for his services, since according to even the most jaded players, his potential is seemingly limitless.

For example, a junior manager from a powerhouse agency was waiting to shake his hand after the round Friday. Yes, his phone is ringing off the hook, sort of.

"I've pretty much turned it off," Kim said, laughing. "It feels nice to be loved, but I want to be loved when I'm not playing so well, too."

Note to the Jerry Maguire wannabes out there: Don't hold your breath on that last part.

Showing no signs of an emotional hangover from last week's emphatic victory in Charlotte, Kim fought off the testy winds at the Players Championship to finish the second round with his second consecutive 2-under 70, again leaving him squarely in the mix heading into the weekend.

In two of his past three starts, Kim has played in the final group on Sunday, finishing second at Hilton Head and winning a record-setting rout last weekend at the Wachovia Championship. Marked for success right out of college in mid-2006, Kim already had the swagger and ego of a guy with a proven pro track record. Some of the cockiness was pounded out of him over the past year and the Los Angeles native has become downright understated by comparison lately. On and off the course.

"He's definitely starting to figure it out," said caddie Eric Larson, who is on loan from Mark Calcavecchia but might not be going back. "He's very comfortable where he's at."

That includes embracing his new persona, too. The kid's rep as a squeaky wheel notwithstanding, he hasn't said anything remotely controversial over the past two weeks -- we have heard nearly every word he has uttered -- so in honor of his SoCal roots and mellow mood of late, we've christened him Sub-dude.

"It's not suddenly," Kim said, laughing. "I'm just not mouthing off. A lot of lessons learned."

Some of them the hard way. Being repeatedly characterized in print as a loose cannon stings a bit.

"I'd say that I'm a hard-working person, and I think the people that know me the closest know I'm a humble person," he said. "Sometimes I have been known to mouth off, and I'm learning how to control what I want to say, even if I think it's right. Sometimes I just need to know when not to say it."