There is no doubt whose name is mentioned most in golf circles in the United States at present. It is not Tiger Woods. He is sidelined while he recovers from an operation to his left knee. In the absence of the world No 1, step forward Anthony Kim, 22, who was born in Los Angeles of Korean parents. Kim is four under par at the halfway stage of The Players Championship, the early leader in the clubhouse, and this after he spreadeagled a world-class field to win the Wachovia Championship by five strokes last Sunday.

That victory was greeted with acclaim because Kim is ten years younger than Woods and his victory was the fifth in the past six events this year by golfers in their twenties. “In Kim, have we found Tiger’s heir?” one golf magazine asked. Butch Harmon, the coach, thinks we might. “The 20-year-olds are stepping up but Kim is the real deal,” he said. “In all honesty I am surprised it took him this long to win. He’s not afraid of anybody and being cocky is one of the reasons why this kid is good. Tiger wasn’t in Charlotte but Kim made it look easy.”

Players are supposed to be worn out after a victory, inundated with requests and tired physically and mentally. Not Kim. The young man who started playing golf at 2 seems to be riding a wave and although he does say that he is tired, there were only occasional signs of it in his 70.

“I think today was the best ball-striking round I’ve had in the past six tournament days but my putter was a little cold,” Kim said. “I love anything good that is attached to my game right now because I feel like I’m doing the right things and making good decisions and doing my best to perform my best out here.”

It is also not expected that a man who is of advanced years should have the chance to play nine holes at this difficult course in 29. Yet there was Bernhard Langer, three months short of his 51st birthday, standing on the 9th tee with a chance of doing something, incidentally, that has never been done.

Langer has always been excellent in difficult conditions. His mental strength is such that he simply will not let the sort of things that worry many of his peers get him down. He failed to set a record for the outward nine holes, however, tugging his approach into a bunker and taking three more strokes to hole out, but his effort showed up Europe’s younger guns in Justin Rose, 27, and Paul Casey, 30, both of whom failed to reach the last two rounds. Casey was nine over par, Rose seven over.

Casey’s putting had been troubling him and he was practising on the putting green earlier in the week with his right foot drawn well back and most of his weight on his left foot. It was a tip taught him by Pete Kostis, his coach, and having got his putting back into line, Casey was full of optimism. Turned out it was misplaced. He had the weekend off for the second week in a row.

For some weeks Rose has been suffering from a recurrence of his back problem. You see him twisting and stretching and fidgeting at times. After looking out of sorts in his first round, a 78, he was better in his second, going round in 73.

Rose, who was the only man in the field not to have a birdie in his first round, had four in 12 holes in his second. “I drove better today than yesterday and I am nearly comfortable with the putter,” Rose said.

He and Kate, his wife, drove two hours south to their home in Orlando to practise and prepare for a two-week visit to England. Rose will play a couple of rounds at Royal Birkdale next week in preparation for the Open there in July before returning to the south of England to compete in the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth the next week.