MOVE OVER Tiger, there’s a new swinger in town

NOEL O’REILLY - Planet Golf

I caught a monster, and it was this big

Forget Rory McIlroy, the hottest ticket in world golf is assuredly 67-year-old North Korean leader-dictator-tyrant (delete to taste) Kim Jong-il. If Kim, “Dear Leader” to his friends and adoring subjects, decides to spend less energy on nuclear testing and more time focusing on his game, global dominance beckons.

Depending on whom you listen to, Kim carded between five and 11 holes-in-one (hey, who’s counting?) the first time he played the game, and has gone around the country’s only 18-hole course in a none too shabby 34. That’s an impressive 38-under-par on the mammoth 7,700-yard layout. Eat your heart out Tiger.

Kim, who lists composing operas, piloting jet fighters and directing globally acclaimed films among his other hobbies, is far too modest a man to crow about his freakish prowess. Fortunately, state media and officials have been on hand to let the world know exactly how good the little fella is.