FanHouse AnthonyKim

The list of players, both young and old, who would challenge Tiger Woods is a lengthy one. Thirteen years after Woods turned pro, we're still waiting.

Phil Mickelson has always been in the conversation, but names like Charles Howell and David Gossett were gone faster than they came. Sergio Garcia was the clear choice in the late '90s and early '00s, but 10 years after bursting on the scene at the '99 PGA Championship as a 19-year-old phenom, he's still searching for his first major victory. Real life sidetracked David Duval, also a legit threat to Tiger's legacy around the time of Garcia's emergence.

And now, Camilo Villegas, Anthony Kim and Andreas Romero are often mentioned as likely candidates to unseat the world's best player.

Camilo Villegas is currently 4-under, good for second place at the Open Championship, one shot behind 59-year-old Tom Watson. It's early in Round 1 (at least on the East Coast; it's mid-afternoon in Scotland), but Villegas' Thursday 66 is noteworthy because, well, I picked him to win this week.

Actually, Camilo was my non-Tiger choice, but that's only because I'm not contrarian enough to pick against the best player in the galaxy when he's in the field. Whatever, as far as I'm concerned, it counts.

While Tiger Woods struggled his way around Turnberry, Villegas is in the clubhouse after an impressive round that started slowly -- a bogey on No. 1 -- and then got rolling. He went out in even par, but closed with three consecutive birdies, four in his final five holes.

You'll never believe this, I'm sure, but the favorite to win the 2009 British Open at Turnberry (starts Thursday, OMG, so excited!!!) is Tiger Woods. Go figure, right?

But it's not just that Tiger is favored so much as it is that he's getting the "05 Tiger at the Masters Treatment" really. Because, as you can see from our good friends at BoDog, he's the only guy even remotely near single digit numbers when talking about the odds to win; you can tell from the top five favorites:

Anthony Kim was written about several times over the past week; it's because he's a young, talented golfer who happened to be leading (again) Tiger Woods' AT&T tournament for a period of time. They were tied together up top for some point in time, but eventually, Tiger won ... even though Kim certainly held his own. Kim also managed to tag a spectator in the butt with a drive during the tournament, and thanks to Jimmy Traina of Hot Clicks, we have hysterical video.

Anthony Kim has never scored better than Tiger Woods in any tournament in which they were both entered. That didn't change Sunday, when Tiger outlasted Kim, and held off Hunter Mahan, to win the AT&T National.

Kim began the final round tied with Woods atop the leaderboard. Tiger shot 67 and won, Kim signed for a 71, which was good for third place. Despite the outcome, though, Kim fared better than most of the young players slapped with the "next guy to challenge Tiger" label.

Off the top of my head, some (relatively) recent examples:

BETHESDA, Md. (AP) -- Anthony Kim finally gets a crack at Tiger Woods, and when he says he has been practicing for a moment like this all his life, Kim isn't kidding.

As a 10-year-old growing up in Los Angeles, in those final hours of twilight as he waited for his father to pick up from the golf course, Kim imagined he was in the final pairing with Woods and had a 10-foot putt for the victory, with the world's No. 1 player watching.

"Man, they were going in a lot," Kim said, laughing.

He can only hope fantasy meets reality Sunday in the AT&T National.

Tiger Woods struggled with his putting at Bethpage Black two weeks ago, and he cited that as the primary reason he only managed a T6 at the U.S. Open. After two rounds at the AT&T National, the tournament Tiger is hosting at Congressional Country Club, he's 10-under par, one shot clear of Rod Pampling.

Following a Thursday 64 that included a four-birdie, no-bogey front nine, Woods fired 66 on Friday. No idea what 36 nearly flawless holes from the World No. 1 means for media-driven theory that Tiger isn't the player he once was, but he's in great position to win for the third time in nine starts this season. (And the six other events were all top-10 finishes. Yes, clearly Woods is done.)

Anthony Kim, the defending champion at the AT&T National, was off early this morning. And by the time tournament host Tiger Woods was starting his round, Kim had signed for an 8-under 62, a Congressional Country Club course record.

But Woods, who, according to the media, is either winning or in a slump, looked primed to do the former after a near-flawless round. Woods went out in 31, carding four birdies. He added three more on the back. And if not for a bogey on the par-4 11th, he would be alone in second place, one shot behind Kim.

Lucas Glover was born in Greenville, SC, played golf at Clemson, just won his first major -- the 109th U.S. Open at Bethpage Black in Farmingdale, NY -- and more surprising than that, perhaps, he's a Yankees fan.

So even though Glover grew up 750 miles south of the Big Apple, he loves the city and its Bronx-based baseball team. Alex Rodriguez appreciates the support.

On Tuesday, after outlasting the field -- and the weather -- over five days, Lucas was in New York City, making the rounds, and that included a stop at the Ed Sullivan Theatre to rattle off the Top Ten List. Hilarity ensued.

Moving pictures after the jump.

Blame it on youth. Blame it on this stupid, friggin' game. Blame it on what you will, but whatever the cause, the end result is a dreaded "slump," and Anthony Kim is dead in the middle of one.

If Tiger Woods' current "slump" is the equivalent of a decent bottle of Johnny Walker green (not the best, but not all bad), Kim is currently sipping on Early Times Whiskey and not liking it. Coming off 2008, when Kim won two times on the PGA Tour, his play this year after the first event (a t-2 at the Mercedes) has been rather humdrum. One top-10, three top-25s and a missed cut at the Players Championship that included a second-round 82.