Tom Kim after a playoff on the Genesis Championship on Sunday.
getty photos
Within the wee hours of Sunday morning within the U.S., a fairytale end was taking part in out throughout the Pacific, in Incheon, South Korea, on the outskirts of Seoul.
The setting: the Genesis Championship at Jack Nicklaus Golf Membership Korea. The protagonists: two of Korean golf’s main lights: 22-year-old Tom Kim, who already has gained thrice on the PGA Tour and cemented his standing as Presidents Cup legend, and 33-year-old Ben An, a former U.S. Beginner winner who now’s ranked within the high 30 on this planet. With two homeland heroes slugging it out down the stretch, the match’s thrilling conclusion was the stuff of goals.
When Kim and An, who had been taking part in collectively within the ultimate group, arrived on the 18th inexperienced, Kim led the match by one, at 17 underneath. However the consequence was nonetheless very a lot within the steadiness with An at 16 underneath and each gamers staring down 8-footers for birdie. An was up first — and jarred it. Then got here Kim. His try additionally appeared good till it didn’t. When Kim’s ball reached the outlet, it caught the proper fringe of the cup and spun out. Kim flipped his putter within the air and raised his arms to his mouth in disbelief.
The title can be determined in a sudden-death playoff, and it wouldn’t take lengthy to determine.
On the primary playoff gap — the watery, risk-reward par-5 18th — each gamers hit drives that allowed them to try to attain the inexperienced in two. Kim performed his second shot first, leaving his ball good of the inexperienced however in a tough, rough-choked lie. An’s try additionally missed the inexperienced, simply lengthy and proper, however he left himself a simple chip from stage floor. For his third, Kim wanted to plant his ft in a bunker and hit a fragile chip to a short-sided pin. He forgot the fragile half, blasting his ball by means of the inexperienced and into the grandstands. When Kim couldn’t rise up and down after taking a free drop, An had a 6-footer for the win. Draino.
How a lot the win meant to An grew to become clear when he discovered his grandmother ready for him by the inexperienced. He fell into her arms and wept into her shoulder in what was probably the most endearing moments of the golf season.
An known as the victory a “candy ending for this 12 months,” including, “it’s a little bit of a disgrace that Tom had a little bit of mess there, nevertheless it’s been an incredible match for me. I’ve actually loved it.”
Kim was feeling feelings of his personal, although their expression got here away from the general public eye. After the playoff, he retreated to the locker room and started processing what needed to be an excruciating loss in entrance of his house followers. Pissed off, his threw open the door to locker quantity 571, ripping it off its hinges. That element was first reported by the Korea JoongAng Each day and a picture of the locker started making the rounds Monday morning within the U.S. The outlet additionally reported that the KPGA, which co-sanctions the Genesis Championship with the DP World Tour, is contemplating imposing “disciplinary” actions in opposition to Kim.
In a telephone interview with GOLF.com, although, Kim’s supervisor, Ben Harrison, stated that he was unaware of any discussions concerning disciplinary measures. “I’ve not heard something,” Harrison stated Monday morning. “I requested Tom. They by no means stated something to him. I don’t know the place that’s coming from. Nothing’s been talked about to us or to Tom or to Tom’s household.”
In a social-media submit, Kim added that the “hypothesis” round any type of punishment was “false reporting,” and that he had “no intent of damaging any a part of the locker.”
He stated he apologized for his habits and supplied to pay to restore the damaged door. “I spoke to the Tour instantly after the incident,” Kim wrote. “After my apology and provide to pay damages the matter was thought-about shut.”
The KPGA didn’t instantly reply to an electronic mail inquiry.
Harrison wasn’t on web site however has spoken each to Kim and considered one of Harrison’s colleagues who was within the locker room with Kim. He stated that, although his shopper was admittedly upset, he wasn’t uncontrolled.
“He’s been portrayed as somebody that smashed up a locker and mainly stormed out like a child,” Harrison stated. “That’s not what he did. He broke the locker as a result of he opened it too — he didn’t take a membership and smash it up. He actually held the deal with of the locker, opened it super-aggressively and it broke a hinge.”
When requested whether or not he’d ever seen Kim react like that after a spherical, Harrison stated, “No, not manifested like that.”
Harrison added that he believes gamers needs to be afforded privateness within the locker room — that within the moments after a spherical concludes the locker room needs to be a sanctuary of types for gamers to decompress and collect their ideas earlier than they converse with reporters.
“The locker room is the locker room,” Harrison stated. “That doesn’t imply it’s like a rage room and you may go smash it up. However you may deal with your loss, you may deal with your disappointment, and then you definitely exit and also you do your media.”
Kim, who’s ranked twenty fifth on this planet, has had a comparatively quiet season on the PGA Tour with simply two top-10 finishes, on the RBC Canadian Open and Vacationers Championship, each in June. A lot of the headlines he generated this 12 months got here from the Presidents Cup at Royal Montreal, the place he picked up the place he had left off within the 2022 version, serving because the Worldwide group’s emotional spark.
Kim didn’t win all of his matches — he completed the week 1-2-1 — however no participant on his facet introduced extra moxie (together with a touch of controversy) to the proceedings, together with in high-profile matches in opposition to the likes of Scottie Scheffler and Xander Schauffele.
“I’m very passionate,” Kim stated within the lead-up these matches. “I feel power is a giant factor, particularly as a younger man. I’ve proven a number of feelings on the market.”
Harrison will inform you that Kim is a golfer with excessive expectations of himself and who cares deeply about delivering in massive moments. The locker-room incident, the agent stated, was nothing greater than an harmless, if regrettable, byproduct of that competitiveness.
“I’ve labored on this enterprise for 25 years managing guys at each finish of the spectrum,” Harrison stated. “Whether or not it’s a man lacking a card at Q college by a shot, whether or not it’s a man lacking a playoff in a serious, a man dropping level on the Ryder Cup, I’ve been facet by facet with these guys, and so they give a s—.”
Alan Bastable
Golf.com Editor
As GOLF.com’s govt editor, Bastable is chargeable for the editorial path and voice of one of many recreation’s most revered and extremely trafficked information and repair websites. He wears many hats — enhancing, writing, ideating, growing, daydreaming of someday breaking 80 — and feels privileged to work with such an insanely proficient and hardworking group of writers, editors and producers. Earlier than grabbing the reins at GOLF.com, he was the options editor at GOLF Journal. A graduate of the College of Richmond and the Columbia Faculty of Journalism, he lives in New Jersey along with his spouse and foursome of youngsters.
