On the face of it, it was not a match made in heaven. Anthony Kim's introduction to the vagaries of links golf might have left him with the feeling that he could have been playing on the moon and that Neil Armstrong would have taken the money.

After arriving in Britain on Sunday with his long-term girlfriend Lisa Pruett, the first time he had ever set foot in the kingdom, Kim did not let the grass grow under his feet. He ventured onto the cultured links of Royal Birkdale and played nine holes. He might have persevered but for the fact that he kept losing balls.

"The first shot I hit I was two yards off the fairway and there was hay next to the ball," he said. Americans invariably refer to the rough as something we would feed to horses. "Then I hit my next shot and I was in a three-foot pot bunker with my ball buried four inches into the sand."

Kim did not attempt to play the recovery. Instead, he picked up the ball and, like a falling star, put it in his pocket. "I have lost plenty of balls," he said. "I picked up at a lot of places. I was bad. I could have shot a 100."

Things could only get better. After all, Kim is not playing in the Open Championship by a freak of nature or as an impostor. He is here on merit. He may be new to England and the country to him but, believe it or not, according to the rankings he is the 13th best player in the world. That puts him one place ahead of the reigning Open champion, Padraig Harrington.

Even by the standards of professional golf this is an extraordinary state of affairs. The 23-year-old only turned professional in 2006 and so far this season has won more than $3.25m (£1.625m). He is the first American under the age of 25 to win twice in one year on the US PGA Tour since Tiger Woods in 2000.

Both are sponsored by Nike, both have Asian ancestry. When Tiger won the 1997 Masters at the age of 21, the 11-year-old Kim was watching at home. "I remember putting my face on his body," he said. It is a curiously uncomfortable remark but Kim, like so many other youngsters, has been influenced and inspired by the remarkable exploits of Woods.

"Golf wasn't cool before Tiger Woods and he has affected my life so much," Kim said. "When he was starting out on his career I was thinking about becoming a golfer. I absolutely think there are things that he does which I try and copy."

There are also things that Kim does that nobody should try and copy, like playing with a hangover or just 45 minutes sleep. He once remarked that his ambition was not only to be the No 1 in the world but the "baddest person on the planet". He does not really mean it.

His parents, Miryoung and Paul, are immigrants from South Korea. An only child, Kim moved from Studio City in California to La Quinta at the age of 16. While he attended high school they ran a herb store in Los Angeles.

Kim admits that he was "not great" at school. He dreamt of becoming a basketball player or an American footballer. "What I got from my dad," he said, "was the belief that it was not OK to lose, whether it was thumb-wrestling or anything else."

Kim's favourite video was Tiger's Triple, showing Woods' three triumphs in the US Amateur Championship which, of course, became the launch pad for the most sensational career in professional golf.

He began to hone his game at PGA West in his native California and made his breakthrough on his home course, finishing tied 13th there in the 2006 PGA Tour qualifying tournament. He turned pro in August of that year after three years at the University of Oklahoma.

Kim, who is now based in Dallas, made his Tour debut in the Valero Texas Open and finished joint second. He was merely warming up. This season he won the Wachovia Championship and the AT&T National, both of which earned him cheques in excess of $1m. "I couldn't spot a weakness," Jim Furyk said. "You don't often see young guys on tough courses beating the snot out of everyone." It is not quite how Peter Alliss would put it, but you get the picture.

After Mark O'Meara had played a round with Kim last December, he said: "I called a bunch of guys to tell them about the best young player I've ever seen since Tiger." O'Meara relayed the same message to his buddy Woods. O'Meara, who won the Open at Birkdale in 1998, has been attempting to give Kim a few tips.

"It's been a whole new experience for me," Kim said. "My ball-striking has been a little rusty but I'll sort it out." It's not only the links that have bemused him. "I'm not used to the food and I don't know what I've been eating." This is not an unheard of phenomenon at a major golf championship.

Whatever, the boy, who sports a flash belt buckle with the initials AK, is not short on confidence. "Absolutely I see myself winning a British Open," he declared. "Everyone starts at even par and it doesn't matter who you are playing with. It's you against the golf course. People don't know who I am here but, hopefully, that will change. I like to screw it around. That can help me here. A 10-footer to win? I think every little kid grows up dreaming of that moment."

After their first meeting, Kim said of the Tiger: "He was as nice a person as I have ever met, so I have a tremendous amount of respect for him, not just on the course. I want to emulate him."

Dream on, although in one regard Kim's CV has something that is missing from Tiger's. Kim played in the victorious US Walker Cup team in Chicago in 2005; 10 years earlier Tiger flopped in the same competition when the Americans were routed at Royal Porthcawl in South Wales.

Youth drive: The best under-25s teeing off today

Gary Boyd (21, Eng)

The boy from Banbury is one of the stars of the Challenge Tour, the main feeder league to the European Tour. This former amateur international came through final qualifying.

Joshua Cunliffe (23, SA)

One of 12 South Africans competing here, an Open record for the Rainbow Nation, the Johannesburg youngster came through qualifying in his home town, leading throughout.

David Horsey (23, Eng)

Turned pro after being the leading British player in last year's Walker Cup with three points out of four. He came fifth on his first Tour start.

Martin Kaymer (23, Ger)

Rivals Anthony Kim for the title of world's best young player. He has won twice on the European Tour this season and is the best player to emerge from his country since Bernhard Langer.

Andrew Tampion (23, Aus)

The latest product off the Victoria Institute of Sport production mill, Tampion came second in Jakarta in only his fourth European Tour event. First major.

Paul Waring (23, Eng)

This Liverpool DJ had a top 10 finish in his second European Tour event. Won his Tour card during an emotional week at the end of last year when his grandfather and mentor Harry Smith passed away.

Amateurs under 25: Rohan Blizard (Aus, 24), Benjamin Hebert (Fr, 20), Jamie Howarth (Eng, 24), Reinier Saxton (20, Neth), Thomas Sherreard (Eng, 20).