By Laury Livsey, PGA TOUR Staff  (http://together.pgatour.com/stories/kids-question-kim-and.html )

JACKSONVILLE, Fla.-- As Anthony Kim stood on the Brentwood Golf Course practice range Monday addressing a group of First Tee participants, he saw a lot of himself in the young faces staring back at him.

"I was sitting there in your shoes not that long ago," said the 24-year-old Kim, in Northeast Florida this week for THE PLAYERS Championship in nearby Ponte Vedra Beach. Kim took time out of his tournament preparation to attend the ribbon-cutting at The First Tee of Jacksonville's Learning Center at Brentwood located, appropriately enough, on Golfair Boulevard. He then answered the kids' questions.

Given the opportunity, as Kim said, to "ask me anything you want," the youngsters didn't hold back.
"What kind of car did I come here in today?" he said, repeating the question from one of the kids.

A European sports car perhaps? A limousine? A big, luxury sedan like the one he drives in his adopted home of Dallas.

"I came in a minivan," Kim said. When the laughter started dying down, he pointed to the adjacent parking lot and said, "No, I really did."

"What should I do to improve my driving?" asked another.

"Get a driver's license," Kim quickly quipped.

In rapid-fire fashion, the questions kept coming. The kids knew they were in the presence of a PGA TOUR star, so they were making the most of their opportunity. After all, he was the one who said they could ask him anything.

"When was the first time you broke 70?"

"I broke 70 every time I played because I grew up on a nine-hole, par-3 course," Kim said, making the kids do a little math in the process.

No wonder this guy is The First Tee Youth Ambassador. He certainly knows how to work a . . . driving range.

Kim had planned to give a clinic, as well, but an ongoing thumb injury prohibited him from hitting balls for The First Tee participants. He made up for the lack of a clinic by answering all - and we do mean all - their questions. Kim then stuck around and signed autographs, doing it in the shadow of the new center that will serve 1,200 children between the ages of 7 and 17 in the 41 Jacksonville zip codes. The center features a golf shop and merchandising area, as well as an administrative wing featuring two classrooms.

"Our new Learning Center is a tremendous step in us having the ability to provide effective training and direction for even more youth in the Jacksonville area, thanks to the tremendous and very generous support from our donors," said Pepper Peete, The First Tee of Jacksonville's executive director and wife of former PGA TOUR star and PLAYERS Championship winner Calvin Peete.

Fund-raising efforts for the facility totaled $634,000, with additional money coming from THE PLAYERS Championship's Birdies for Charity program. That money will be used to purchase computers, golf-teaching aids, educational games and other learning materials.

Even before his visit, Kim, the winner of three PGA TOUR events, including this year's Shell Houston Open, was totally sold on The First Tee, and he told his audience as much.

"I grew up in Los Angeles, and I didn't really have a course to play when I was your age. So each day I would go to this driving range by my house. I know if I would have had a place like this when I was young, I would have been here every day," he said. "The First Tee program is set up so you can succeed. The program was developed to help you grow. The First Tee has so many values you can use even outside of golf."

Prior to Kim's Q-and-A session, Sara Young, a graduate of Florida State University who went through The First Tee of Jacksonville's program and later attended college on a First Tee scholarship, spoke. She provided perspective as a former participant now back as an employee working at the place where she first learned the game.

"Our young golfers will have a brand-new facility where they can learn the nine core values of The First Tee program, and this building here will be the hub of activity at The First Tee of Jacksonville," she said.

"It's young people like Sara who we are so proud to have in our program, someone who goes onto college and becomes a college graduate and then comes back and gives back to our community," said Peete. "We want to offer more than golf skills. We want to offer after-school programs and also mentor kids and provide a safe place [for them] to go."

The kids felt plenty safe as Kim addressed them. Besides the laughs, they heard good advice from the fourth-year pro who attended the University of Oklahoma.

"The most-important thing you can do is enjoy the moments you're on the golf course," Kim explained. "My mom tells me all the time I am so lucky to be doing what I'm doing. Well, you're lucky to have this practice facility and to have these people who are here to help you."

When he finished signing his last autograph and it was time to go, Kim shook a few hands and waved at his new-found friends as he walked back to the parking lot where a minivan awaited him.