Michael Kim has been flirting with catastrophe for some time now.
He has missed 13 cuts this season, three of which have come over the previous three weeks. He has just one top-10 this season, a T-6 at The American Specific in January—his second occasion of the season.
Consequently, after final week’s Black Desert Championship, wherein he missed the weekend by two strokes, Kim dropped right down to 129th within the FedEx Cup Fall rankings. The highest 125 gamers earn PGA Tour playing cards for the 2025 season, that means Kim had fallen exterior the required threshold to retain membership.
He wanted to make a transfer at this week’s Shriners Youngsters Open, as one other missed reduce would ship him within the fallacious route. Fortunately for him, he opened his first spherical with a stable 5-under 66.
He then carded a 1-under 70 throughout a weather-plagued second spherical, which noticed 50 mph gusts delay play. Kim, due to this fact, made the weekend with ease.
One other spherical within the 60s adopted on Saturday, however nothing in comparison with what he did throughout Sunday’s last spherical. Kim posted a 9-under 62, soared up the leaderboard to 18-under par, and walked off the golf course sitting inside the top-five. Higher but, the PGA Tour has Kim projected to complete 111th within the FedEx Cup Fall rankings after this week, proof that Kim’s last spherical helped him mightily.
“It’s not an enormous monkey off my again, however a decent-sized one,” Kim stated.
“Together with this one and the following few occasions could be large for conserving my card for subsequent 12 months. To have the ability to pull off a spherical like I did at the moment is a large enhance of confidence for the upcoming tournaments.”
Kim is not going to play at subsequent week’s ZOZO Championship, opting to take a couple of weeks off to apply along with his swing coach, Sean Foley. He’ll return for the World Huge Know-how Championship in Los Cabos, Mexico, which is scheduled to start on Nov. 7. He’ll nonetheless face some stress at that occasion, which will probably be held on a Tiger Woods-designed course. But it surely is not going to be a whole combat for his PGA Tour survival.
That should really feel good, and Kim, an avid X-user, famous as such after his 62 on Sunday.
“Golf is a humorous recreation,” Kim added.
“I felt higher off the tee [on Saturday]; I simply couldn’t get the putts to go in. At this time, I used to be in a position to get some putts to go in. I had a few lucky breaks to come back in, and I am completely happy to complete the way in which I did.”
His electrical last spherical featured two large highlights. First, Kim chipped in for birdie on the 249-yard par-3 eighth, probably the most difficult gap on the course. Then, the previous California Golden Bear rattled off 5 birdies in a row after making his solely bogey of the day on the eleventh.
“I believe after I bogeyed 11—type of a sloppy bogey. However then to make a birdie on 12 proper after, after which as quickly as I hit a extremely good tee shot on 13, felt like I might get on a run and was ready to take action,” Kim stated when requested if he knew when this spherical started to really feel particular.
Kim nearly added one other par-breaker on the par-4 18th, however his nine-footer simply slid by. Setting a brand new profession low was not meant to be.
“Should have kicked slightly left coming in, however nonetheless pleased with the spherical for certain,” Kim stated of his last birdie attempt.
But, he wanted that 62, a spherical that can assist safe standing for 2025.
“Attempting to get inside that 125, it’s large,” Kim stated.
“Attempting to lock up my taking part in privileges for subsequent 12 months, The Gamers and all that. So, it’s a very good aid, however I additionally know I nonetheless must preserve taking part in effectively within the subsequent two or three occasions.”
Jack Milko is a golf employees author for SB Nation’s Taking part in By way of. Remember to take a look at @_PlayingThrough for extra golf protection. You may observe him on Twitter @jack_milko as effectively.
