Kim, Wyndham's youngest winner, gives veteran performance
Aug. 9—GREENSBORO — Joohyung Kim planned on taking a break from the PGA Tour after playing in the Wyndham Championship.
Those plans changed when the 20-year-old fired a blistering final-round 61 that included a front-nine record-tying 27, posted a final score of 20-under 260, won by 5 strokes over Sungjae Im and John Huh and became eligible for the Tour's playoffs which begin this week in Memphis.
Kim, a South Korea native who has lived in five countries and is now the PGA Tour's second-youngest winner since World War II, does have six wins internationally, but only became a Tour member under a special exemption status last month. As such, he wasn't able to count any of the points earned from any of his eight previous starts this season (several of them on sponsors exemptions) toward qualifying for the FedEx Cup playoffs until he became a full member with the win in the Wyndham, which was the last tournament of the regular season.
So, instead of making an evening flight and joining his parents in Dallas, the South Korean native heads to Memphis for the playoff opener and at No. 34 in points, is virtually assured of playing the next week in Delaware. He has to climb to at least No. 30 to make the Tour Championship tournament in Georgia.
It's a huge turn of events for someone who played in relative obscurity until he finished third in the Scottish Open four weeks ago and backed that up with a seventh in Detroit, the stop before the Wyndham.
"I wanted to go home next week, I was looking forward to that," Kim said. "I've been home two weeks this year, so I was like, you know what, I secured my PGA Tour card for next season, I can go back and relax for a week, but I guess that's not going to happen.
"I would love to play three weeks in a row again. It's going to be my eighth week in a row if I make it to the Tour Championship. It's a lot of golf, but I'm enjoying it and I'm honored to play on the PGA Tour. It's incredible."
He made a point to thank his parents for their sacrifices in supporting his career that includes two wins on the Asian tour.
"I mean just everything like the time that they have to sacrifice for me and just the things that they go through, the little things that I don't need to worry about . . . just like booking stuff for me sometimes, and when I was younger they would travel with me all the time," Kim said. "I can't say exactly one thing that they've sacrificed. They've sacrificed so much for me. I'm just really glad that I can give this back to them."
Kim, who started calling himself Thomas after the Thomas the Tank Engine animated TV character at a young age and goes by Tom, did well enough in Asia that he qualified for four majors. But he didn't attract more than passing attention in Scotland.
Winning the Wyndham looked like a long shot when he made a quadruple-bogey 8 on his first hole on Thursday. He laughed it off and played the last 71 holes in 24-under.
Kim shared the second round lead and went into the final round tied for third at 11-under 199, two strokes behind leader Im and one behind second-place Huh.
With a run of birdies on holes 2, 3 and 4, he took the lead for the first time. With an eagle on 5 and birdie on 6, he had played five holes in 6-under but still only had a 1-shot lead. Huh and Im then faltered as Kim birdied 8 and 9, the latter after a crisp iron shot within 10 feet of the hole, and went to the back 9 with a four-stroke lead.
Kim suffered his only hiccup of the round when he bogeyed 10 after a poor tee shot into the rough and his lead dropped to 3 shots. He then went on a run of pars and Im and Huh couldn't take advantage.
Kim then birdied 15 and 16, getting to 20-under and opening a four-shot lead. The only real question remaining after that was if he would finish two birdies and tie Brandt Snedeker's course record 59. Instead he made two pars, rolling in an 8-footer on the final hole and then hugging his brother Sam as he walked off the green on the way to sign his scorecard.
Despite the cushion at the end, Kim said the victory wasn't a breeze.
"Who knew professional golf could be so stressful?" Kim said.
