SOUTHPORT, ENGLAND | Tom Kim’s victory at last week’s Genesis Scottish Open at the Renaissance Club has set off a stream of conversation as to whether a Korean could win this week’s Open Championship at Royal Birkdale.
Back in May, Scottie Scheffler said of Kim, his Korean friend – they both live in Dallas – that he had what it takes to bounce back from the struggles he had known since late 2023. (Though he had won three times between August 2022 and October 2023, he hadn’t won since.) “Tom,” he added, “is a great guy with a bundle of talent.”
Now he has won again – and that in a week when Scheffler missed the cut. But it’s not just because of his Scottish success that Kim is looking so promising. It was partly down to how much he had been making the most of himself in the weeks leading up to it. It seems that his name has been on everyone’s lips since he finished third in the U.S. Open behind Wyndham Clark and Sam Burns. He said then that he had “the feeling in my fingertips” that he was in a position to win, and that he told himself he wouldn’t lose that feeling.
By last Sunday, he was 100 percent positive.
“To have won four times on the PGA Tour was quite something, but to win the Genesis Scottish Open on a classical links course has meant still more,” he said. “Beating an incredible world-class field with a final round of 64, how special is that?”
His aim at the moment is to try to get better each day. “Obviously I’ve had a tough couple years,” he said. “I got to taste a lot of that humble pie, and I got to really learn about myself. I’m still trying to grow, still trying to learn. Even now, there’s a long way to go, but this one I want to dedicate to the people that were in my corner the whole time and struggled with me.”
On Thursday, Kim launched his quest for victory at Birkdale with an opening 70.
Earlier this week, Trevor Immelman – the 2008 Masters champion who works for CBS Sports and captained the International team of which Kim was a member at the 2022 Presidents Cup – had been been commenting on what was stopping the Koreans from being on a par with their women golfers, who in the last two decades have won 21 majors.
“The Korean players I’ve mentioned have all the tools to win, and they need to seize the moment when they have the chance. Normal guys have only one or two chances [to win a major], whereas Pádraig Harrington, Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy are among those who have the confidence to do it again and again.” – Trevor Immelman
First and foremost, he put it down to the women not having to do mandatory military service when the men must serve 18 to 21 months, enlisting by the time they turn 28. All too often, any number of hugely promising Korean players can find themselves missing out on what are potentially their finest golfing years.
Asked to pick out three Koreans who would be entirely capable of winning this Open, Immelman opted for Si Woo Kim, who is ranked 21st in the world and shot 2-under 68 on Thursday; Tom Kim (33rd); and Sungjae Im (86th), who opened with a 4-under 66. Of that trio, Si Woo Kim and Im were exempted from military service because they were in the Korean team which won a gold medal at the 2023 Asian Games in Hangzhou, China. The 24-year-old Tom Kim, on the other hand, is worried that he will have to do his military service starting next year, though he too could be exempted by winning a gold medal at this year’s Asian Games in Japan.
“The Korean players I’ve mentioned,” said Immelman, “have all the tools to win, and they need to seize the moment when they have the chance. Normal guys have only one or two chances [to win a major], whereas Pádraig Harrington, Scheffler and Rory McIlroy are among those who have the confidence to do it again and again.”
Immelman himself had just the one chance, and never got another because of a left-wrist injury. However, if Tom Kim were to win this week, Immelman wonders if he could come into the second category.
The South African had got to know Tom Kim, Si Woo Kim and Im well ahead of that 2022 Presidents Cup as one thing went wrong after another. Not only was the event delayed by a year because of COVID-19 but, when LIV Golf came along, a few of Immelman’s prospective players who signed with the breakaway league – Cameron Smith, Joaquin Niemann and Abraham Ancer – were ruled ineligible by the PGA Tour.
(Left to right): Si Woo Kim, Tom Kim and Sungjae Im hit their first shots Thursday at Royal Birkdale.
The Internationals didn’t win at Quail Hollow, but they suffered nothing worse than a 17½-12½ defeat after having had the better of the Americans on the Saturday, when the most startling result of the day was the one in which Si Woo Kim and Tom Kim defeated Patrick Cantlay and Scheffler.
“We showed a lot of guts to fight back,” Immelman said at the time. “At some point that afternoon, I thought there was still a chance. And when you consider that we were 8-2 down on Friday evening, this team is no joke. I’m sick and tired of it being spoken of as a joke. We love this event, and we love our team.”
This year’s Presidents Cup is to take place from 24-27 September at Medinah Country Club near Chicago. Si Woo Kim currently leads the International team standings, with Tom Kim in fourth place and Im in 15th. The top six in the standings following the Tour Championship will qualify automatically for the team.
Like many another, Immelman would like to see the PGA and DP World tours paying more attention to the Asians who compete on their tours. All too often, these players will get a brief reference on TV and in the media before the stories turn to what’s happening among the better-known names. That does nothing to help boost their confidence levels, any more than hearing that the Americans think they will always have the better of them.
Since Mark Darbon, the chief executive of the R&A, talked of how the R&A is out “to open golf to the world,” he was asked if there was anything he could do to help Tom Kim and his military service concerns.
He said that the R&A has the best of relationships with the Korea Golf Association, and that if they were to ask for the R&A’s help, the R&A would be happy to give it.