Bob Harig, ESPN Golf Writer, brought up an interesting point earlier this week pertaining to Tiger Woods' dominance of the PGA Tour.  Since Tiger's last finish outside of the top 10 (2007 British Open), only two players, Phil Mickelson and Jim Furyk, have finished tied or ahead of Woods more than twice.  Mickelson has done so four times, including this year's Masters, U.S. Open and the CA Championship (which Mickelson won).  Furyk has done it three times.  U.S. Open Champion Lucas Glover has done it twice.  

No. 3 Paul Casey never bettered Woods in a stroke play championship during this time, No. 4 Kenny Perry has accomplished the feat one time (2009 Masters).  No. 5 Sergio Garcia hasn't posted a lower number than Woods over 72 holes in this period.  Geoff Ogilvy has done it only once when he won the 2008 CA Championship.  No. 8 Steve Stricker got Woods at the 2008 Masters.  No. 10 Vijay Singh, beat the world's top player only one time during this span at the 2008 CA Championship.   

No. 11 Padraig Harrington hasn't finished ahead of Woods in this stretch, even though he won two major championships.  No. 12 Camilo Villegas has done so once (a tie for fifth at the 2009 CA Championship); No. 13 Sean O'Heair did it one time, winning this year at Quail Hollow; No. 14 Robert Karlsson (zero times) and that brings us to No. 15 Anthony Kim. 

During Anthony Kim's young career, he has never finished better than Tiger Woods in a tournament.  Never.  In winning two premier events in 2008, Wachovia and AT&T National, Kim beat stellar fields but Woods wasn't one of the players he defeated.  While Kim was flying the Red, White and Blue at Valhalla defeating Sergio Garcia in impressive fashion in the Ryder Cup, Woods had his feet up relaxing on his yacht while tossing in some rehab here and there on his surgically repaired knee.  

Tomorrow morning after 74 players that made the cut at this years AT&T National are on the golf course, only two will be hitting their final putts on the practice green.  Anthony Kim, Nike's high profile young gun and Tiger Woods, Nike's franchise player, will be preparing to tee it up for the first time together in a PGA Tour event.  For Tiger, well he's been here before.  Paired with a young player with aspirations of being the greatest player in the world.  Nieve and immature and usually unwilling to put in the work that Tiger has in reaching the level he now enjoys.  We can probably write the tournament summary article now.  Tiger fires a final round 66 and his playing partner posts a smooth 74.  His playing partner learns a lot, but isn't a factor on Sunday.  Playing with Tiger is just too much to handle at this stage in their career.  See Sean O'Hair, Luke Donald, Aaron Baddeley and the list goes on and on.  

But for some reason, tomorrow feels like it could be different.  Anthony Kim may have never beaten Tiger Woods, but there's something about the brash 24 year old that couldn't finish his time at Oklahoma before needing to taste the lights, camera and action of the PGA Tour.  He's openly admitted he needs to practice more and has seemingly rededicated himself to fitness and living better.  He's 24 and has experienced life as most 24 year old's would, if they'd won the lottery and have more money than sense.  That being said, Anthony Kim has "it".  He loves to hit "the shot".  He loves to compete (see his singles match against Sergio Garcia at last year's Ryder Cup) and he loves to win.  And he isn't scared to say he idolized Tiger Woods as a young player in Southern California.  

Tiger Woods never got to play against his idol, Jack Nicklaus, while Nicklaus was in his prime.  Not so much is the case for Anthony Kim as he has an opportunity tomorrow to play with and beat the player that made golf cool.  Instead of getting a congratulatory phone call from Tiger Woods, as he did a year ago, tomorrow it could be a handshake on the 18th green with the entire golf world watching.  Sergio couldn't do it.  Phil realizes it isn't going to happen.  Ryo Ishikawa has a long way to go.  Danny Lee is just getting his taste of golf at tihs level.  Kim wants to be ready and the PGA Tour needs Kim to be ready.  Regardless of the outcome, we'll learn about Anthony Kim and a lot about where Tiger Woods is in his return to dominating the game.