Kim Joo-hyung earns PGA Tour card with Wyndham Championship win

Golf

Published: 08 Aug. 2022, 15:57

Kim Joo-hyung earns PGA Tour card with Wyndham Championship win

Kim Joo-hyung raises the trophy after winning the Wyndham Championship at Sedgefield Country Club, Greensboro, North Carolina on Sunday. [AP/YONHAP]

Kim Joo-hyung officially joins the PGA Tour after winning his first-ever title on Sunday at the Wyndham Championship at Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Kim carded a 20-under-par 260, finishing five strokes ahead of countryman Im Sung-jae and John Huh of the United States, who tied for second place.

Despite heading into the final round two strokes behind, Kim smashed through the front nine, carding seven birdies to take the lead, then carded one bogey and two birdies in the back nine for a 9-under 61 on Sunday. He is now the third Korean ever to win the Wyndham Championship, following 2005 winner K.J. Choi and 2016 winner Kim Si-woo.

Kim Joo-hyung reacts on the 18th hole of the Wyndham Championship at Sedgefield Country Club, Greensboro, North Carolina on Sunday. [USA TODAY/YONHAP]

"I can't believe it, I am speechless right now," said Kim Joo-hyung in a post-tournament interview on Sunday. "I've worked really hard to get to this point. Just walking off that 18th green, I was thinking about all the behind-the-scenes work."

Unlike Kim's stunning form on Sunday, he had started out his first round on Thursday with a quadruple bogey on the first hole. But instead of dwelling on his four-over start, Kim was able to laugh it off and make up for that score with seven birdies on his first round scorecard.

"[After the quadruple bogey], I started to laugh it off and tried to stay in the moment," Kim said in a post-tournament interview on Sunday.

"It actually wasn't that I had a particularly bad shot or that I had lost my form, but I had just made a couple of mistakes. I knew I could make the cut with the remaining holes. But of course I didn't expect that I could win, especially after that first hole quad."

This is Kim's first PGA title. He already has two titles on the Asian Tour, three titles on the Asian Development Tour and two on the KPGA Tour.

"I have gained so much experience from playing in the Asian Tour and the KPGA Tour," said Kim. "Playing in the Asian Tour and the KPGA has given me the experience that I need in terms of experiencing different grasses and courses."

The Wyndham Championship was only Kim's 15th start on the PGA Tour. He played his first PGA event in the 2019-20 Tour, when he missed the cut at the PGA Championship. In the 2020-21 season, Kim played five events, his best finish was the Puerto Rico Open when he tied for 15th place.

"I think PGA Tour players have the best recovery skills in the world," said Kim.

"Players will always make mistakes but it's important to recover from the mistakes. Compared to the other Tours, I think PGA players have the best recoveries. Also even making the cut on the PGA Tour is very tough and you need to be able to play to an exceptional score to win. So I think that I will need to improve in all aspects and become a better golfer in general to play well on the PGA Tour."

Sunday's win earns Kim instant membership on the PGA Tour and also makes him eligible for the upcoming FedExCup Playoffs next week.

Kim was able to achieve his first win just a month after being given a special temporary membership from the PGA Tour.

That temporary membership only allowed Kim to compete for the remainder of the 2021-22 season with just three events — the 3M Open, Rocket Mortgage Classic and Wyndham Championship — and the FedEx Cup playoffs remaining at the time.

To secure his spot on the PGA Tour, Kim was looking to earn as many FedEx Cup points in the three events to qualify for the three playoffs.

But Kim did more than just that, after tying for 26th in the 3M Open and finishing in a solo seventh place at the Rocket Mortgage Classic, he finishes his regular season with a bang, winning his first-ever PGA title at the last event.

"Honestly, I didn't think that I would be playing next week [at the FedEx Cup Playoffs]," said Kim. "It's all so sudden, but I want to do well on my first-ever FedEx Cup Playoffs and maybe even reach my dreams of playing on the TOUR Championship too."

Only the top 125 golfers are given the chance to play the FedEx St. Jude Championship, the first FedEx Cup Playoff starting next week.

Kim is now No. 34 on the FedEx Cup standings and is one of the four Koreans eligible to play the playoffs, alongside No. 10 Im, No. 40 Lee Kyoung-hoon and No. 48 Kim Si-woo.

The first two FedEx Cup Playoffs will decide the top 30 players who will play the crowning event of the PGA Tour, the Tour Championship.

International Presidents Cup captain Trevor Immelman [AFP/YONHAP]

Twenty-year-old Kim may even join Im at the Presidents Cup after the three FedEx Cup tournaments, after his recent performance on the PGA Tour caught the eye of International Presidents Cup captain Trevor Immelman, who called Kim the "real deal."

"Isn't it nuts?" Immelman told the PGA Tour on Sunday. "It's crazy to even think about the fact that John Huh shoots 61 on Thursday morning and Tom starts his round with the quad. So he's 14 behind after his first hole... It just goes to show how brilliantly he's played."

Kim has recently started using the English name Tom at competitions.

While eight of the the 12 Presidents Cup International Team spots are given to the top eight players on the Presidents Cup International Team Points List, the remaining four players are picked by the captain.

The current top eight players on the Points List are Cameron Smith, Hideki Matsuyama, Im, Joaquin Niemann, Corey Conners, Adam Scott, Mito Pereira and Lee.

This year, Korean golf legend Choi has been appointed as one of four assistant captains for the Presidents Cup, joining the leadership of the International Team for the third time.

But before that, Kim will be looking to turn heads at his first-ever FedEx Cup Playoffs as the FedEx St. Jude Championship on Thursday at TPC Southwind in Memphis, Tennessee.

BY YUN SO-HYANG [yun.sohyang@joongang.co.kr]