Joohyung Kim is the latest South Korean golfer to win on the PGA Tour
While South Korean women pros have long established themselves on the LPGA Tour starting with Se Ri Pak in the late 1990s, Korean men are only now starting to make their presence felt on the PGA Tour.
For years K.J Choi ploughed a lone furrow for Korean men on the men’s tour. He was the first Korean to earn his tour card in 1999 and the first to win in 2002. He would go on to win seven more times on tour, including the 2011 Players Championship, making him not just the most successful Korean men’s pro, but Asia’s most successful male golfer ( not counting Vijay Singh who hails from Fiji).
Choi never won a major though. The honour of being the first Asian to win a major championship went to another Korean – Y.E. Yang, who stared down Tiger Woods in the 2009 PGA Championship, the only major Tiger has not won after holding the 54-hole lead.
Earlier this month Joohyung ‘Tom’ Kim became the latest South Korean golfer to win on the PGA Tour. He joins the better known Sunjae Im and Si Woo Kim as current PGA Tour members and winners.
All three of the young brigade are under 28 and Tom at 20 years of age could well be the best of them. He has already won 10 times as a professional, including twice on the Korean Tour, twice on the Asian Tour and now on the PGA Tour. Already ranked 21st in the world (Im is ranked 20th) he appears to be a star in the making. Here are five things to know about young Tom Kim:
He prefers to go by Tom
When Joohyung Kim was a child around four or five years old, he became obsessed with the TV show Thomas the Tank Engine, which is based on the British children’s book of the same name. In an earlier interview with the PGA Tour, Kim revealed that he owned the toys and the lunchbox. He was so enamoured with Thomas that he decided that he would rather be called Thomas than his given name.
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Over time people naturally shortened Thomas to Tom and Joohyung ‘Tom’ Kim was born.
Golf is in his blood
Joohyung’s father, Kim Chang-ik, is a professional golfer who played on the Buy.com Tour (now the Korn Ferry Tour), before becoming a teaching professional. Over the years Chang-ik has taught in Australia, the Philippines and Thailand. As a result Tom Kim, who was born in Seoul, South Korea, has lived in five different countries and can speak three languages.
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His talent was apparent early. As a 16-year-old, Kim won the Philippine Amateur Open Championship and the W Express RVF Cup Amateur Championship.
Kim has won in India & Pakistan
Joohyung Kim poses with his Panasonic Open trophy at Classic Golf & CC in Oct. 2019
Kim turned pro in 2018 and joined the Asian Development Tour in 2019. He made his mark immediately with three wins that year, including a nine-shot victory at the Raya Pakistan Open in October. That win earned him automatic promotion to the Asian Tour for the rest of 2019 and in November that year Kim won the Panasonic Open played at ITC Classic GC , Gurgaon by one shot over India’s Shiv Kapur, shooting 65 in the final round. At 17 years and 149 days, Kim was the second youngest pro ever to win on the Asian Tour.
He earned his PGA Tour card in less than three months
Kim’s first result on the PGA Tour was a tie for 17th in the Byron Nelson in May 2022. He backed that up by finishing 23 rd in the U.S. Open and third in the Scottish Open. His tie for 47th at the Open Championship gave him temporary Tour membership for the remainder of the season, which allowed him to play in the Rocket Mortgage Classic, where he finished seventh, and the Wyndham Championship earlier this month, which he won to secure his place on Tour for the next two years.
In the process the still only 20-year-old set or equaled a number of tour milestones:
- He’s the first player born in the 2000s to win on tour;
- The youngest player to win the Wyndham Championship;
- First player to make quadruple bogey on the first hole and still win the tournament.
- His opening nine 27 on Sunday is tied for the second-lowest nine-hole score ever on the PGA Tour; and
- The second youngest player to win on the PGA Tour since 1932 behind Jordan Spieth.
He loves Michael Jordan and American fast food
Michael Jordan is a great inspiration to young Tom Kim
The Wyndham Championship was played in North Carolina and after he won, Kim talked about being inspired by Michael Jordan. “I watched The Last Dance [a documentary about Jordan’s final season in the NBA]probably 10 times just because there’s so many great quotes by him and there’s a reason why he was the best basketball player,” Kim says. “He’s not going to know it, but like for me, it’s a little special thing in my heart.”
Kim also has a fondness for another American institution – fast food. In an interview with the PGA Tour in 2020, Kim listed his favourite fast food franchises in the United States: In & Out, Chipotle, Chick-Fil-A, Panda Express, Taco Bell & Del Taco. “Every time I come to the United States, I get a bit fatter so that’s a problem,” he confessed.
What does the future hold for Kim ? Will he have to report for 2 years military service in South Korea, which men in his country aged between 18 and 35 must do ? Like Si Woo Kim who had to go after winning The 2017 Player’s Championship on the PGA Tour at age 21 – that could slow down his progress. The only exceptions are for those who win medals in the Olympic Games or gold medals in the Asian Games. Let’s wait and watch.
Credits:-
Photo – Eurosport / PGA Tour