But only now that the Los Angeles-born, Oklahoma graduate has done an about turn on the unhealthy direction his career was taking less than a year ago.

O'Meara, a two-time major winner and friend and confidant of Tiger Woods, told Associated Press this week. "When I first saw him, I believed he could win multiple tournaments in a year, easily, and win major championships too. That's how talented he is."

But O'Meara also saw a major flaw in a prospect believed by many to be the USA's most exciting young gun right now.

He had come out of his rookie year with an ugly reputation for having a bad attitude, for blowing his top too easily and for making statements without any thought about their repercussions.

And it certainly didn't help his golf that he seemed to spend more time and energy on his night life than he did on his game.

O'Meara had taken Tiger under his wing when the hugely talented teen first arrived to pursue a professional career on the PGA Tour and the pair have been good buddies ever since.

O'Meara saw similar rich talents in Kim's game, but lamented the rookie's initial approach to a tough profession that comes easy to no man unwilling to pursue it with passion, focus and even sacrifice.

When he was teamed with Kim at the Merrill Lynch Shootout last December, O'Meara was given a great opportunity to express his feelings when Kim admitted, almost before they had shaken hands, that he had made mistakes in his first year on tour and wanted some good advise.

O'Meara obliged without a moment's hesitation.

"I just conveyed to Anthony," he recalled this week, "That 'you've got as much talent or more than any other player I've ever seen besides Tiger.' And I truly believe that. I don't want to pressurise you, but unless you don't like money and you don't want to win tournaments, then maybe you continue down that other road,'"

Kim responded quickly and O'Meara says he first saw signs of change for the better seven months ago.

Then, in early May, Kim had eyebrows shooting up all over the golf world when he won the Washovia Championship on the Major-calbre course at Quail Hollow from a near full strength field that excluded only Woods.

Last week at Congressional in Maryland where the US Open is scheduled to be played in 2011, Kim made it clear that his first victory was no fluke when he won again.

The world No 1 was missing once more following his second knee operation this year, and the field was a lot weaker than it was at Quail Hollow, but Kim's victory, built on a closing, bogey-free 65 of great excellence, did make him one of the few to achieve multiple wins this year.

Only Tiger, World No 2 Phil Mickelson and Kenny Perry had won more than once before Sunday.

Kim can also take heart from the fact that he is one of an elite handful of under-25s who have won more than once in a season on the PGA Tour.

Woods was the last to do it in 2000 and in the 14 years before that only Mickelson, Aussie Adam Scott and precocious Spaniard Sergio Garcia had achieved the feat.

The Golf Channel's Brian Hewitt spoke for many when he wrote this week that in his eyes Kim is the best of all the 20-something prospects in the game, including those, who unlike Scott, now back to World No 3, and Garcia, once more Europe's highest ranked golf professional at No 7, have already won a major.

He says in his latest opinion piece: "With all due respect to (major winners Trevor Immelman and Geoff Ogilvy, and to other top prospects like Justin Rose and Hunter Mahan, I believe Kim will be the one who will eventually succeed Tiger Woods atop the world rankings.

It may be five, or even 10, years from now. But Woods can't be No. 1 forever."

The arrogant Kim of say 15 months ago, might have heartily agreed with Hewitt - and may have even suggested he would get to the top sooner - while Tiger was still around and strong.

But not the new Kim of today.

When asked by AP on the telephone yesterday if he is the man to challenge Woods for World supremacy in the same way as tennis young gun Raphael Nadal had just done to long-time world No 1 Roger Federer at Wimbledon, Kim said:"I can't answer that.

"Guys like Sergio and Justin Rose, are upcoming guys right now. Jason Day is a great player. There's going to be quite a few challengers and hopefully, somebody can step up.

"I haven't done enough to say I'm the guy, but I'd like to think that I can work my way into that position."

To which O'Mearer, had he been around, might have replied, "Now you're learnin son."

He certainly is. It takes maturity to be both modest and confident at the same time - and to realise that it seldom pays to be immodest in the presence of the media.