Tom Kim completed one spot outdoors the FedEx Cup’s high 50.
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After he putted out at No. 18 for a double-bogey 6 that ended his season, Tom Kim turned and stared again on the lake that had sealed his destiny.
“Simply this yr, man,” he stated later, requested what had been going by means of his thoughts. “This yr has been actually powerful for me personally.”
Tom Kim expects extra.
That was the big-picture lesson from the 22-year-old’s 2024 PGA Tour marketing campaign, which got here to a nightmarish conclusion on Sunday on the FedEx St. Jude Championship. Standing on the sixteenth tee at TPC Southwind he was projected to complete the week forty sixth on the factors listing, safely inside the highest 50 spot he’d have to advance to the BMW Championship and earn spots in mainly each huge match subsequent season. When he hit the sixteenth fairway he was left with simply 200 yards to the inexperienced on a par-5 and was seemingly fascinated about transferring additional up the leaderboard.
As a substitute he went the opposite means. Sloppiness ensued — two bunker photographs plus a missed five-footer — en path to bogey 6. The subsequent gap was extra catastrophe: Missed inexperienced, two chips, two putts. After Kim pulled his tee shot on 18 into the water, he completed with a 3rd consecutive 6. By day’s finish that left him at No. 51, the odd man out, lower than 17 factors behind No. 50 Keegan Bradley.
“I used to be really cruising,” he stated wistfully, pondering again to his first 15 holes, which he’d performed in 4 underneath par.
Kim had particular regrets. Leaving his first bunker shot within the bunker at No. 16. Lacking his five-footer for par. Lacking on the flawed aspect at No. 17. There are particular holes on the PGA Tour the place you have to overlook on the proper aspect; little misses can result in huge numbers.
The bogey at 16, in any case, began with a flared 5-iron that left him in a tricky spot within the bunker. The double at 17 began with a flared 5-iron into jail. “One other actually poor missed shot, simply wherever left is ok and missed it proper,” Kim lamented afterwards.
However as Kim was ruing his end, a special second was drawing the ire of golf followers on social media. At No. 12, earlier than issues had gone south, Kim had missed a brief birdie putt. As he’d walked to faucet in his par he’d slammed his putter into the inexperienced, apparently taking out his frustration on one thing that had wronged him. The printed confirmed that Kim’s putter slam left a gouge within the inexperienced, a visible that made each golfer wince.
Any participant could be anticipated to restore such a mark earlier than leaving the inexperienced; getting annoyed and doing one thing dumb is a core a part of golf however doing all of your finest to go away the course the way you discovered it’s, too. However Kim didn’t seem to repair the mark. Later, he defined he hadn’t realized what he’d executed.
On Monday evening, a day later, Kim posted a message to his Instagram tales, expressing remorse and declaring he’d been unaware of the mark.
“Hello everybody. It’s been delivered to my consideration about my frustration proven yesterday on the twelfth inexperienced,” he wrote. “I’ll by no means mislead my friends and followers as a result of I’ve to a lot respect and gratitude in direction of them, I wasn’t conscious that I had made that huge of a harm on the inexperienced trigger if I did I might’ve by no means simply left with out repairing it, however I used to be clearly flawed and can take full duty of my actions and will likely be higher going ahead. Thanks and I apologize once more and thanks to your help all through a tricky yr”.
The apology was a reminder that Kim expects extra from himself as an individual. The true-time frustration was a reminder that Kim expects extra from himself as a golfer. There it was once more — the reference to the “powerful yr.” It was telling that after the spherical, Kim appeared annoyed in a means that prolonged past the match.
“This season has simply been — it’s simply been like this,” he stated. “I’ve performed actually good golf, after which had some powerful finishes. I really feel like 2024 has actually kicked me within the butt.”
Kim wasn’t with out optimism. His summer season was sprinkled with moments of promise: T4 on the RBC Canadian Open, runner-up on the Vacationers, T15 on the Genesis Scottish Open, eighth on the Olympics. That’s how he bought shut sufficient for heartbreak.
“I’ve gotten so significantly better,” he stated. “I’ve fought actually onerous simply to get myself many this example. I used to be 90-something earlier than we went on this run, and it seems like I’m going to overlook by one. However it’s what it’s.”
It wasn’t the yr he’d dreamt of. Kim had exited 2023 on a excessive word; he received the Shriners Youngsters’s Open for the second consecutive yr and, at simply 21 years previous on the time, turned the youngest participant to win thrice on Tour since Tiger Woods. Expectations include a comparability like that. Expectations include being the star of an episode on Netflix’s Full Swing, too. Exterior and inner. Golf followers anticipate rather a lot from Kim — however he expects much more from himself. It’s exhausting, making an attempt to dwell as much as these expectations. So on the finish, Kim didn’t simply sound annoyed. He sounded relieved it was over.
“It’s been an extended highway. Mentally I simply don’t assume I used to be sharp sufficient for these previous few weeks,” he stated. “I performed 9 weeks in a row. On my eighth week of it, I performed in a closing group holding the lead on daily basis [at the Travelers], after which went in a playoff, and performed the Olympics. I’ve been by means of rather a lot.
“51, 52, 50, it’s not going to matter. I’m simply wanting ahead to getting some relaxation and preparing for subsequent yr.”
There’s cause for optimism, and never simply because Kim can take a number of weeks off. The Presidents Cup is simply across the nook, for one factor — the match the place, two years in the past, Kim introduced his arrival. However even higher is the truth that Kim is No. 18 on the planet. Regardless of how a lot time he takes off this fall, he’ll very seemingly be in all 4 majors. And even when he drops a number of spots, the highest 30 within the OWGR get into the PGA Tour’s Signature Occasions. There’s extra Tom Kim coming your means.
The excellent news? This time round he’s left himself room for enchancment.
